H-Pentecostalism Review


Philip Jenkins.  The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible
in the Global South.  Oxford  Oxford University Press, 2006.  x + 252
pp.  $26.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-530065-9.

Reviewed by Gerald W. King (Department of Philosophy, Theology &
Religion, University of Birmingham)
Published on H-Pentecostalism (September, 2009)
Commissioned by Gene Mills

Reading the Bible with New Eyes

A follow-up to his groundbreaking work in _The Next Christendom_
(2002), Philip Jenkins's _The New Faces of Christianity_ is in some
ways like ploughing old ground with new tools, which is not intended
as a backhanded compliment.  In his new work, Jenkins contrasts
between the different lenses through which the Bible is read in
established churches of the North and the emerging churches of the
South, exploring further themes already exposed in chapter 6 ("Coming
to Terms") of _The Next Christendom_.  The results are at times
startling.

Central to his thesis is that the ancient worldview of the Bible has
remarkable parallels to the current worldview of the global South.
Asserting in chapter 2 ("Power in the Book") that the South tends to
interpret the Bible conservatively, Jenkins divides his next five
chapters into cultural themes (literacy, wealth, gender, politics,
etc.) and contrasts how related biblical texts are read differently
between Northern (or Western) theologians and their Southern (and
Eastern) counterparts.  Grinding poverty, pestilence, chronic war and
famine, forced migration, oppressive governments, and sporadic
persecution; in short, what amounts to an apocalyptic vision to
Northern Christians (e.g., the _Left Behind_ series) are all too
common realities for Southern believers.  Precisely because the Bible
was originally written to peoples for whom these too were a daily
reality, the global South, so Jenkins argues, may in fact be in a
better position to understand its message than those in the
relatively posh and conflict-free North.  (Jenkins reminds readers
here that the West is not so far removed from such calamities either
historically [e.g., the influenza epidemic following World War I] or
physically [e.g., Hurricane Katrina or 9/11]).  Because the biblical
situation is nearer to the Southern situation, the Bible becomes a
superlatively relevant book for their present.

Furthermore, biblical accounts of miracles and a worldview infused
with demonic spirits, nearly unfathomable to the post-Enlightened
West, has far more currency in these more "primitive" societies.
Jenkins is quick to point out that the two styles of reading the
Bible are not necessarily exclusive.  There are after all feminist
voices in Africa and fundamentalist ones in America.  The trend,
however, is for the South to read the Bible more conservatively than
Northern liberals would like.  Jenkins's approach throughout the five
thematic chapters is to present a passage from scripture and contrast
how it is understood between Northern and Southern perspectives.  The
exercise is often eye-opening.  Numerous texts from both testaments
are cited and interpreted by adherents from a variety of backgrounds,
providing the work with a rich texture of views.  Though Jenkins
switches between texts and their interpretations in a manner that is
not always clear and does not consistently provide a perspective from
the North, this is only a minor nuisance to a presentation that is
both engaging in style and illuminating in content.

In the end, Jenkins asks us crucially what an "authentic" reading of
scripture should be (p. 191).  As belief in the supernatural has been
exorcised from the consciousness of the West, has the global South
retrieved a worldview much closer to the Bible?  Is African
Christianity now an authentic reflection of the biblical text as
written to first-century believers, the way all Christians should
read the Bible?  Quoting from C. S. Lewis, Jenkins wants a
Christianity that accommodates both a "thick" (experiential) and
"clear" (philosophical) reading of scripture (p. 2).  Drawing at the
outset from Harry Emerson Fosdick's 1921 sermon, Jenkins asks, "Shall
the Fundamentalists Win?" (p. 2).  His inclusive answer at the end is
reminiscent of Fosdick's plea for a tolerant church that can embrace
both liberal and conservative voices.  It is doubtful, however, that
the global church will be as accommodating, at least not in the
immediate future.  Whether this bodes ill or well for the future of
the church is not Jenkins's objective.  What fascinates him and the
reader is the surprising ways in which familiar biblical stories are
understood in Majority World contexts, challenging Northerners to see
sacred writ through "new eyes."  Jenkins applies his observations
more critically in the final chapter, where he makes final contrasts
between "North and South," providing a satisfying conclusion to the
whole.

However, the individual chapters do suffer from too much blurring of
the cultures.  Jenkins relies on a wide sampling from various
countries without much consideration as to how the reading impacts
the local context.  Quite divergent cultures, such as Korea and
Malawi, are analyzed in the same context, which has the deceptive
effect of leading the reader to conclude that these cultures share
much more similarity than they actually do.  One would wish to see
how the Bible is read in a particular culture.  The question as to
whether or not the reading of the text changes culture is never
adequately explored.  The field that Jenkins ploughs (the world) is
too broad to unearth much by way of in-depth analysis.  Also, one
questions the utility of the term "global South" when so many of the
examples come from Asia and the East; which is all the more ironic
since Jenkins is aware of this problem in _The Next Christendom_ (p.
72).  Perhaps "Majority World" (which Jenkins also applies) should be
used more consistently.  Despite these shortcomings, _The New Faces
of Christianity_ is a worthy companion to his earlier work in that it
illustrates how dramatically global Christianity is changing and the
far-reaching implications this has on hermeneutics and practical
faith.  By sheer size, the new faces may very well become the norm of
Christian expression, if they are not so already.

Citation: Gerald W. King. Review of Jenkins, Philip, _The New Faces
of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South_.
H-Pentecostalism, H-Net Reviews. September, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25237

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
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