WORLD CHRISTIANITY IN WESTERN EUROPE PB

Christianity is a world religion with about 2.3 billion practitioners. While World Christianity's attention to the explosive growth of Christianity in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific, and Oceania is definitely significant, it is also important to consider World Christianity as it is developing in Europe.

This book investigates this phenomenon in Western Europe through the prisms of diasporic identity, migrant narratives, and migrants' mission theology. It considers the complex Christian identity of people migrating to Europe, their stories, and mission praxis. The contributors to this book include scholars and practitioners, Europeans as well as migrants from the Majority World (Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, and Latin America). Employing an interdisciplinary approach, their work encompasses the fields of Diaspora Missiology, Practical Theology, World Christianity, Contextual Theology, and Pentecostal Studies.

Stephen's review:

'This book may appear to be a ‘specialist publication’, but given the current significance of reverse mission, I would suggest it should have a rather wider readership. The book presents us with a series of snapshots of the experiences and contexts of Christians from around the world who have migrated to Western Europe. Safe to say that the impact of Christians coming here has been significant and will be even more so in the years to come. The contributors sometimes share personal experiences and sometimes simply give the facts, but the book as a whole helps us understand something of what is going on.

Two things were particularly helpful for me. Firstly, some of the contributors talked about how hard it was for Christians from the majority world to fit into churches in Western Europe, in part because they were not always welcomed or integrated. Secondly, it was helpful to understand something of the background and theological leanings of these migrant Christians and especially to see what a huge impact African Pentecostalism has made. This book is not likely to offer any epiphanic moments to the reader, but the background information is both interesting and useful.'

Publisher: Fortress Press (1 Mar. 2020)
Language: English
Paperback: 200 pages