Global Awakening

Mark Shaw, Global Awakening: How 20th-Century Revivals Triggered a Christian Revolution (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2010), 221 pages, ISBN 9780830838776.

This book by Mark Shaw is a welcome contribution to the study of world Christianity. His innovative thesis is that global revivals are the primary delivery system of religious change in the modern world. Several forces contribute to the new face of world Christianity, including globalization, the modern missions movement, translation of the Scriptures, and the empowerment of indigenous peoples. Through theoretical analysis and case studies, Shaw maintains that these forces are not the product of American folk ritual or the Western religious right, but belong to worldwide “charismatic people movements that transform their world by translating Christian truth and transferring power” (p 16).

Shaw claims that the rise of new world Christianity is the product of indigenous movements working “from below” (p 29). These movements emerge from a combination of spiritual, cultural, historical, group, and global dynamics. Each chapter is devoted to a separate case study, examining the dynamics of global revivals in light of particular movements. Shaw begins with the Great Korean Revival of 1907. Through local leadership, the Korean revival transformed secular imports—an alien commerce, culture, and religion—into a new, indigenous expression of Christianity (chapter 2). In chapter 3, Shaw examines the Nigerian revival of 1930 in light of cultural dynamics. Inundated by the perils of influenza, war, plague, and economic depression, Nigerians transferred their trust from science and witchcraft to “new light” indigenous leadership (p 65). The Dornakal revival in India provides an example of the role of conversion in revival (chapter 4). East African revivals illustrate the spiritual dynamic of radical community, which freed historic churches in Uganda from British colonialism and brought renewal to existing Protestant groups (chapter 5). Chapter 6 examines the North American post-war evangelical revivals. Bolstered by the soaring Pentecostal movement, leaders such as Billy Graham, John Stott, and Samuel Escobar, challenged the forces of communism and religious fundamentalism. The “Lausanne Covenant” (1974) paved the way to an international evangelicalism.

Shaw points to the role of justice in global revivals through a case study of Brazil (chapter 7). Far from an “American export,” Brazilian Pentecostalism emerged from locally-led indigenous movements who translated Christian values through acts of mercy, changing their world in key ways. The Ghanaian revivals of the 80s and 90s illustrate the role of eschatological vision (chapter 8). Mensa Otabil’s positive theology of the cosmic lordship of Christ and the cross-cultural currents of neo-Pentecostalism enabled Ghana to break free from Western dependency. Lastly, the Chinese house church movement is included as an example of the role of conflict resolution (chapter 9). By appealing to the intellectual and spiritual attraction of cultural elites to Western Christianity, house churches are increasing their political space and improving prospects for future growth.

Revivals result from the dialectical tension between global forces and local contexts. After facing the economic and cultural currents of Western globalization, indigenous movements are now translating and transforming these forces into their own worldviews and systems. Global revivals are not progressive, explains Shaw, but result from the interplay of a series of advances and declines. Secular forces use renewed structures to achieve worldly aims (decline), and kingdom forces redirect worldly goals in the advancement of one ultimate aim—the dissolution of power monopolies. Revivals disrupt current systems through the pluralization of power creating “communities of counter power and religious choice” (p 212). Global revivals do not indicate a return to theocracy, nor is their legacy Christendom, Shaw concludes, but the expansion of religious freedom through pluralism.

Global Awakening avoids the common pitfalls of studies of world Christianity—a deficiency of constructive theoretical assessment on the one hand, or lack of contextualized (case) studies on the other. The result is a well-balanced treatment, one that meets the historical, cultural, and theological demands of the discipline. The case studies are appropriately placed and cover a range of twentieth century revivals from a geographical and historical vantage point. The studies support through specific examples the categories of “revival dynamics” used by Shaw, encouraging an integrative and holistic approach. With the exception of the chapter on North American revivalism, the case studies focus on the global South. This is less a methodological oversight, or a contrived attempt by Shaw to promote a liberationist agenda, than an honest effort to corroborate statistical evidence suggesting the bulk of twentieth century revivals occurred among Third World nations.

From the Korean revival to the rise of Chinese house churches in the 90s, revitalization movements are emerging from a network of changing spiritual, cultural, and historical dynamics. Though threatened by change, indigenous cultures are being renewed and are now expanding beyond local and national contexts. The impact of the Brazil revival on the United Kingdom suggests these movements also include “reverse missions.” This reflects an important paradigm shift. As the Majority World sheds their dependence on the West through revivals, “sending” countries are becoming “recipients” of missionary work.

Reviewed by Paul Palma

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