Dr. Elijah J. F. Kim is Founder and President of Grain of Wheat College and Graduate School in the Philippines. He is also the President of Pathos Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. The purpose of this foundation is to work for revival and awakening in America and the rest of the world. He is the overseer of A Grain of Wheat Christian Ministries in the Philippines. Dr. Kim served as the director of the Vitality Project of Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston and is a former member of the Steering Committee of City Impact Roundtable, USA. He is the author of many books in English and other languages.

The Rise of the Global South is a very substantial volume, both in length and in content, it contains a wealth of information. In addition to the author’s writing the text contains graphs, tables, maps, and statistics that the author has drawn from a number of different sources. The research that was utilized in the writing of this book is quite extensive (the bibliography is a little over 28 pages long). In view of the scope of this book, this review will focus on some of the “big picture” themes that are found in it

The reader will find a significant amount of church history in this book, both European history and American history. Many well-known ministers are mentioned, people like John Wesley, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and D. L. Moody. In addition many renewal movements are mentioned, among them are, the Waldensians, the Methodists, and the Quakers. It should be noted that Europe and American did not both follow the exact same religious course, Dr. Kim notes the differences. The reader will also find information about specific denominations in the text. This data reveals that a number of mainline denominations have suffered significant losses in membership over the years.

The decline of the church at certain times has not always been due solely to weaknesses from within. Dr. Kim calls attention to various developments in the larger culture that have had negative effects on the church. He looks at the impact of urbanization, industrialization, and modernization. Though these things are not in and of themselves spiritual, or evil, they have at times had a negative impact on the faith of significant numbers of people.

A brief review essay from Christian historian William De Arteaga on the tremendous changes taking place in the worldwide Anglican Church.

Roger E. Olson, “Something Interesting Is Happening in the Worldwide Anglican Communion (And Why It Matters to Non-Anglicans)” (June 28, 2018).

Canterbury Cathedral
Image: Peter K. Burian / Wikimedia Commons

The article by professor Roger Olson if both informative and insightful. As an Anglican priest I especially appreciate how Olson, a Baptist, has grasped the essence of what has transpired in the now splintered Anglican churches. I would go further than Olson’s analysis and say that the Anglican churches are now divided into two irreconcilable denominations. The Western or Northern Anglican churches, versus the Anglican churches of the Global South. The latter group were planted by English missionaries who truly believed the Bible and were orthodox in doctrine. The more liberal clergy stayed at home to ruin their churches with unbelief.  My denomination, the Anglican Church of North America, has cast its lot with the churches of the Global South.

As an Episcopal lay person thirty years ago I saw the rampant apostasy in many Episcopal churches, and most of its clergy. Many of us put up a “good fight” for orthodoxy, but left to form orthodox (and often charismatic) congregations when it was obvious that the fight was lost.

Reviewed by William De Arteaga

Related Articles from William De Arteaga:

“An Appreciation of Martin Luther: On Why Many Denominations Do Not Destroy the Unity of the Church” (October 31, 2017).

“Wolves or Tares?” (November 14, 2006).

In this review essay, Father William De Arteaga responds to Episcopal Bishop Edward Little’s article “Living with Tares: Why I stay in a Church that has seriously strayed from biblical teaching” that appeared in the March 2006 issue of Christianity Today.

“Real Christianity is Growing in the USA” (April 16, 2018).

“The Ancient Poisons: Discernment Heresies of the New Testament” (January 18, 2018).

“An Apostate Church?” (August 22, 2017).

See also London Vicar Rachel Marszalek’s reports on the 2017 Anglican renewal convention, New Wine: “New Wine 2017: The Irony of Experience” and “New Wine 2017: Elephants Explored.”

Michael Bergunder, The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century, Studies in the History of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008), 392 pages, ISBN 9780802827340.

There will be several groups who will thank Michael Bergunder, professor of history of religions and mission studies at Heidelberg, for writing this book. First, historians of the Pentecostal/charismatic movements will find this work a treasure trove of the major persons and places of South Indian Pentecostalism. The introductory chapter lays out the global/non-Western perspective that marks so much of contemporary historiography of Pentecostal/charismatic history. The first section of the book in six chapters covers the origins and development of Pentecostal churches in South India. It covers both western missionary efforts (such as the Assemblies of God and Church of God) as well as indigenous churches (such as the Indian Pentecostal Church and the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission).

Second, Bergunder’s book will be important to Pentecostal/charismatic pastors, evangelists, and missionaries. In his section, “Beliefs and Practices,” he draws on an extensive reservoir of personal interviews to portray a vibrant if often complex Indian Pentecostal spirituality and ecclesiology. Though there is a definite Asian sub-continent flavor to how Pentecostalism adapted to India, there is a core of theological and practical measures that will resonate with any Pentecostal/charismatic minister and believer anywhere in the world. In the twenty-first century, western Pentecostal/charismatics will need to turn to global Pentecostal/charismatic movements in order to define of who they are.

Third, students of Pentecostal/charismatic movements will find this book a model of careful research, clear presuppositions, and honest assessments. The book has three appendices: (1) Seventy-nine brief biographical sketches of both foreign missionaries and national leaders; (2) lists of the leaderships of the Indian Pentecostal Church, Ceylon Pentecostal Mission, Church of God, and Assemblies of God; and (3) six pages of church statistics from 1930 to 2000. There are fourteen photos inserted between the two main sections of the book. Before a thorough index, there is a ten-page list of people that Bergunder interviewed and a valuable thirty-five page bibliography.

As we progress through a second century of the Pentecostal/charismatic movements, the need for an accurate and unbiased history calls for many others to follow Bergunder’s lead.

Reviewed by Malcolm R. Brubaker

Preview The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_South_Indian_Pentecostal_Movement_in.html?id=XGiv3riaunQC

Publisher’s page: http://www.eerdmans.com/Products/2734/the-south-indian-pentecostal-movement-in-the-twentieth-century.aspx

Philip Jenkins, God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). ix + 340 pages, ISBN 0195313956.

The two books under review are part of what Jenkins calls “The Future of Christianity Trilogy,” which was begun with his The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2002, with second expanded edition published in 2007). (For more on Jenkins’ overall project, see also the periodical review of his “Companions of Life: A Supple Faith” by Tony Richie in The Pneuma Review 10:3 [Summer 2007].) Between them, Jenkins extends the analysis of his initial volume, first by focusing on Bible-reading trends in especially Asia and Africa (although Latin America is not entirely absent), and then by exploring emerging trajectories of Christian-Muslim relations in the European continent. Together, these latter two books provide a kind of template for anticipating future global developments, although our author is much too nuanced and sophisticated in his prognostications for alarmists on any side, even as he is too riveting in his narration for those who might be otherwise complacent about the present and future of Christianity in its global contexts.

For example, Pneuma Review readers might almost be able to read New Faces of Christianity as an updated response to the questions posed in 1994 by Harvey Cox in his book Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century (Addison-Wesley). There, Cox wondered if world pentecostalism would continue wedded to fundamentalism or if it might expand in other (especially more socially progressive) directions. Jenkins’ New Faces also begins with the question (the title of chapter 1), “Shall the fundamentalists win?” The rest of the volume provides a spectrum of responses to this query by discussing how southern Christians read and use the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, amidst existentially experienced realities like poverty, sickness, persecution and martyrdom, witchcraft practices, gender roles developments, economic crises, political turbulence, and other issues. And the verdict remains out: southern Christians are both more fundamentalist and less fundamentalist than anticipated, although in different (and perhaps surprising) respects.