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After Church History? Writing the History of Christianity from a Global Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2013

Paul V. Kollman
Paul V. Kollman
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
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Abstract

Recent efforts to write the global history of Christianity respond to demographic changes in Christianity and use “global” in three ways. First, “global” suggests efforts at more comprehensive historical retrieval, especially to place the beginnings of Christian communities not within mission history but within the church history in those areas. Second, “global” can refer to the broader comparative perspectives on Christianity's history, especially the history of religions. Finally, “global” can indicate attempts to retell the entire Christian story from a self-consciously worldwide perspective. Recent works also raise new theological and pragmatic challenges to the discipline of church history.

Type
Articles
Information
Horizons , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Fall 2004 , pp. 322 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 2004

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References

1 I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article for Horizons, whose insightful comments helped clarify the final text.

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50 Ibid., 403.

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52 Shenk, “Toward a Global Church History.”

53 Irvin and Sunquist, 1: xi.

54 Latourette, The History of the Expansion of Christianity.

55 Walls, , Cross-Cultural Process, 5Google Scholar (italics in original).

56 Ibid.

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59 Ibid., 9, 16f.

60 Ibid., 83.

61 Ibid.

62 González, , Changing Shape, 145–54Google Scholar, at 145 and 154.

63 Ibid., 12.

64 Walls, , “Eusebius Tries Again,” 18.Google Scholar

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