Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the West

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2006 by Mbuvi, Andrew M

Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the West. By Lamin Sanneh. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003. xii 138 pp. $12.00 (paper).

Christianity has survived the Christendom guilt complex of the West and today thrives as a post-Western religion in the global South. Not only has the population of Christians in the South overtaken those in the North, this development also has had major implications for world Christianity. This is the primary argument in this short hut important book. The subtitle might be misleading, however, since the book's focus is primarily on Africa and not the whole of the global South.

A quick glance at this book and one might think that this is simply a popular version of the author's earlier, award-winning book Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture. Although Whose Religion is Christianity? appears to be a distillation of this earlier work, it turns out to be much more than that. True, Sanneh intends to reach a broader audience with this smaller and more popularly written volume; nevertheless, the book leaves no doubt as to the significance of the question it poses in its title. Even with the focus being on "brevity, clarity and dispatch" (p. 11), the urgency of the message is never in doubt.

Whose Religion is Christianity? goes beyond the questions of historical development of the reality of the predominance of Christianity in the global South (addressed in Translating the Message) to the implications of this reality in relation to Western Christianity. For a little book, it packs quite a punch in its breadth and scope of material covered providing serious food for thought for the reader. Issues ranging from the form of Christianity that is being formulated outside of the confines of Western theological ethos to the critical examination of such popular terminology as "global" are closely scrutinized.

Sanneh makes a significant distinction between what he calls "World Christianity" ("a variety of indigenous responses' to the gospel message) and "Global Christianity" ("the faithful replication of the Christian forms and patterns developed in Europe") (p. 22). While the latter grew with close conjunction to the West's political expansion, the former has grown independent of political goodwill, and even in conflict with the political establishment. Unlike "Christendom," which wielded the sword as a means of expansion, World Christianity has been primarily the product of the end of colonial rule, Bible translation into mother tongues of indigenous peoples, and Christian adoption of the indigenous names of God (pp. 41-42).

The book is divided into three major chapters with the introduction primarily revisiting, in summary form, arguments made in the authors previous works about the significance of Bible translation and the use of vernacular as stimulus for growth of Christianity in indigenous communities. The second chapter focuses on the possible objections and answers to arguments for translation as a major reason for the growth of the non-Western church, before turning to the implications of the emergence of world Christianity in relation to Western Christianity.

Sanneh chooses to present the material in a dialogue format which pits a Western (American) interviewer and the author (an African, Professor of World Missions) as a respondent. The dialogue format makes the book easily accessible. It would be useful in such diverse courses as "World Christianity," "History of the Church," "Christianity in Africa," "Globalization and Christianity," and, even, "World Religions"-note the comparison of Christian expansion vis-à-vis Islamic jihad.

The probing questions provide stimulating jumping points for excellent discussion that demand comprehensive answers. This method, which approximates well the oral mode of communication, makes the work easily accessible, even though sometimes it seems to allow for too many tangential diversions. Nonetheless, its probing questions provide rich fodder for reflection for both novice and expert alike.

ANDREW M. MBUVI

Shaw University Divinity School (High Point - CAPE)

High Point, North Carolina