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>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

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>> Good afternoon, everyone.

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I am Carolyn Brown, Director of the Office of Scholarly Programs

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in the John W. Kluge Center here at the Library of Congress.

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And it gives me great pleasure to welcome you here this afternoon

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for today's lecture by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson,

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entitled "The Pilgrimage of World Christianity: A Post-Christian West

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and the Non-Western Church."

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But before we begin, let me ask you to please

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if you have any cell phones or other electronic equipment that is apt

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to go off and interfere with the program,

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would you please turn it off or at least turn it to mute

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so it will not be disturbing.

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Today's event is presented by the John W. Kluge Center here

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at the Library of Congress.

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The center was established through a really generous endowment grant

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by John W. Kluge to create a scholarly venue on Capitol Hill

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where the finest, maturest scholars

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and thinkers might have opportunities to meet

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with the nation's leaders, the thinkers and doers as we

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like to say, a space where those two groups have the opportunity

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to come together in a way that they can share ideas

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and thinking in informal venues.

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The center also supports the rising generation of fine young scholars.

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And as part of our programs, our senior scholars

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and our postdoctoral fellows all give public presentations

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such as this one.

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We also will sometimes do small conferences and symposia.

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I invite you to sign up in the back of the room, if you would,

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for further information about the programs

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and opportunities at the Kluge Center.

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There's also a brochure back there as well.

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Today's speaker,

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Wesley Granberg-Michaelson is the former general Secretary

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of the Reformed Church of America, a position that he held for 17 years;

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however, he is no stranger to Capitol Hill.

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He served eight years as a legislative aide

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to U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield before he --

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not Mark Hatfield but Granberg-Michaelson --

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went on to the ministry as his career.

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He completed his theological education

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at Princeton Theological Seminary,

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and then Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan;

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served for six years as director of Church and Society

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for the World Council of Churches in Geneva.

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He's written several books including "Inside Out: Spirituality

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and Organizational Change"; and "Unexpected Destinations:

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An Evangelical Pilgrimage to Western Christianity."

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At the Kluge Center he's been studying the major shift

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in Christianity's presence from -- into the world of Africa, Asia,

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and Latin America, and some of the kind of challenges that that poses

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for the whole notion of global Christianity.

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We're especially privileged

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because he's both been the practitioner who's had considerable

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experience from that side of the desk, you might say,

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dealing with this issue, and then here that Kluge Center in a role

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as scholar reading and researcher the issue.

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So it's a great opportunity to have someone with that kind

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of experience talking about this kind of question,

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which is such a pragmatic as well as interesting intellectual subject.

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So without further ado,

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please welcome our distinguished visiting scholar,

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Wesley Granberg-Michaelson.

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[ Applause ]

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>> Thank you very much Carolyn.

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First of all, I want to think the Library of Congress

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for the extraordinary opportunity that I've been able to have.

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As Carolyn said, I worked for some time on Capitol Hill,

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and during that time, I knew the Library of Congress as a resource.

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I've come to discover the Library of Congress

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as an incredible national treasure.

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And I have such profound respect for the colleagues who work here

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and for what this institution represents.

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My gratitude goes to, first, the librarian, Dr. James Billington,

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and for the leadership that he has given in the intellectual life

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of this nation and the leadership he's given to this institution.

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And then to Carolyn Brown, the director of the Kluge Center.

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The John W. Kluge Center is just a real jewel.

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It's an amazing place that does some very helpful things

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as she explained, and it's been just a thrill of my life to be a part

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of the John W. Kluge Center and what it has allowed.

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And the staff there who have been so helpful at every step of the way,

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Travis Hensley, Jason Steinhauer, Mary Lou Reker, Tracy Dobson,

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Sally Aaronson, Denise Robinson, Jemiah Mosley;

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each one of them have gone out of their way to make me welcomed

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and comfortable and supported so I thank them all.

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As you entered the Jefferson Building of the Library

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of Congress today, hopefully, you passed through the great hall.

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Pass the commemorative arch, two of the most valuable treasures

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of the library are on display.

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On the right is the Giant Bible of Mainz.

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It's a magnificent example of the text of the Bible copied into pages

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and bound together in a process that would take 15 months to complete.

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On the left is the Gutenberg Bible.

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This, of course, was the first book in Europe printed with movable type.

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Both of these Bibles were produced in Mainz, Germany in the mid-1950 --

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1450s, but the technological difference

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between the two is a hinge point in history,

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dramatically altering the pilgrimage of world Christianity.

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Bibles produced like the Giant Bible of Mainz, laboriously copied

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by hands, were kept -- kept the text of scripture in the hands

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of well-educated clergy as well as princes and nobles

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with enough money to pay for one.

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Before the advent of the printing press,

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the literacy rate amongst males in Europe was

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about five to ten percent.

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But following Gutenberg's innovation,

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literacy rates rose to about 50 percent.

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The century which followed marked a decisive turn

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in the journey of Christianity.

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The democratization of the Bible dramatically altered patterns

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of authority, power, and governance in the life of the church.

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By the beginning of the sixteenth century,

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printing presses had expanded so rapidly that throughout Europe,

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volumes of printed materials

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and books appeared estimating towards 20 million.

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And all of this was foundational to the spread

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of the protestant reformation.

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Today, the full Bible is translated into at least for 450 languages,

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and parts of scripture into more than 2500 tons.

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Hundreds of millions of people read and study their own Bibles.

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With continuing technological change, those words are now held

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in smart phones and iPads.

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Christians take for granted this personalized electronically

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ubiquitous access to scripture; yet for the first 1500 years

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of Christianity, the direct and personal availability of the Bible

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to believers was virtually unknown.

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This change marked a whole new trajectory

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in the pilgrimage of Christianity.

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Now today, five centuries later, Christianity is in the midst

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of another dramatic pilgrimage.

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It's most obvious expression is geographical.

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The center of world Christianity in terms of sheer numbers of Christians

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and the growth of their churches has moved decisively

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to the southern hemisphere or the global south.

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Over the past century this astonishing shift in the presence

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of the globe's Christian population is the most dramatic geographical

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change of this sort that has happened in 2000 years of history.

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And the consequences of this change are just barely being imagined.

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But the shift is not simply about geography.

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It's also a shift in the culture and mindset shaping expressions

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of Christian faith, changes far more difficult to map,

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but in the end, more decisive.

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So Christianity is not only moving from settled lands to new frontiers.

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It's also evolving from established forms and structures

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to fresh manifestations of its life, and from dogmatic systems

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to spirit-filled discoveries.

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For today the world is witnessing a post-Western awakening

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of Christianity.

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The majority of Christians now are living in societies

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that have freed themselves from the colonial power of the west.

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They are fashioning expressions of faith

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that can appropriately be called non-Western.

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So in many ways we are witnessing the pilgrimage

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of Christianity moving out of the dominance of modern Western culture

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and beyond the framework of the modern enlightenment.

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Of course, it's important to note immediately

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that several historic expressions of Christianity have never functioned

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in the framework of Western culture, most notably the orthodox churches

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with their ancient presence in the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere.

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But overall, we see a gravitational shift in the dominant places

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of Christianity's global presence.

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The pilgrimage geographically of Christianity took centuries

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to move to the global north.

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You can see from this map that it's possible

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to trace the statistical center of gravity for world Christianity.

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Meaning, to identify the point on the globe where an equal number

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of Christians are found to the north, south, east,

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and west at any given time.

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For almost the first millennium of Christianity,

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its center of gravity was in west Asia and a majority

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of Christians were in the global south.

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Around the year 600, Christianity began its gradual

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but clear pilgrimage towards the north and the west,

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and you see how that line begins to go.

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But it wasn't until sometime in the tenth century,

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almost a thousand years after Jesus was on earth, when a majority

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of Christians found themselves living in those regions.

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By the year 1000, Christianity's statistical center had moved near

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one of its great spiritual centers, Constantinople.

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Five centuries later, by 1500,

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92 percent of Christians were northern Europeans.

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But at that point, world Christianity began a slow

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but steady path back towards the south.

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After four centuries, by 1900, its center of gravity had moved

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from Budapest, Hungary, which was its northern-most important

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that you see in the center, to Madrid, Spain,

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but still remained in the north.

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It was in the following twentieth century

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that Christianity's geographic pilgrimage took the most pronounced,

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dramatic, and decisive change in direction in all of its history .

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Rapidly accelerating its turn to the south and then to the east,

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by 1980 there were more Christians in the global south than the north

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for the first time in 1000 years, and the center

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of gravity was in Africa.

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Some key facts summarize these changes: In 1910,

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66 percent of all Christians in the world lived in Europe;

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by 2010, only 26 lived there.

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In 1910, only two percent of Christians lived in Africa; today,

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nearly one out of four Christians in the world is an African.

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Europe and North America, or the global north contained,

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80 percent of all Christians in 1910; 40 percent a century later.

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And Christianity's center of gravity by 2000 --

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by 2010 had moved to a point near Timbuktu in Mali.

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At the beginning of the last century only a few million Christians were

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in Africa, less than 10 percent of its population.

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That has grown to about 494 million adherence to Christianity,

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or almost 50 percent of the continent's population

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and over 70 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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By the year 2025, the overall Christian population

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of Africa is projected to swell to 633 million people.

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The trajectory of Christianity's pilgrimage seen

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through its statistical center of gravity moved not only dramatically

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to the south in the past century, but beginning in 1970,

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it also began returning east.

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This was caused by the rising number of Christians in Asia.

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Christianity grew at twice the overall population growth

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in Asia over the past century.

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China alone is estimated to have 115 million Christians today,

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and on any given Sunday it is thought

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that there are more Christians attending worship services in China

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than in the United States.

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Surprises continue.

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More recently, countries like Nepal

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and Cambodia have witnessed rapid church growth.

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And after being nearly exterminated by Pol Pot,

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Christianity in Cambodia has grown by 7.2 percent in the last decade.

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Mongolia, once virtually closed to Christianity,

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now has blossoming and going churches.

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In South Korea, Christianity has grown faster over the past century

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at 6.1 percent than anywhere else in Asia.

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From only about 500,000 Christians in 1910, the Korean church has grown

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to more than 20 million or about 41 percent of the population.

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While 50 percent of the population in Asia was Buddhist in 1910,

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by 2010, that had dropped to 22 percent.

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The Muslim community has grown the fastest in that continent

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over the last century with about one billion adherence,

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or about one out of every four Asians.

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Yet in the last decade, Christianity has grown at a rate

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of 2.4 percent faster than the growth of Muslims at 1.7 percent.

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So the overall Christian population

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in the Asian continent totals 350 million and is projected to grow

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to 460 million by the year 2025.

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Now for Latin America.

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In 1910, 95 percent of the Latin American population was Christian

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primarily through the presence of the Catholic church

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that had accompanied Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule.

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Only one percent of the Christian population was non-Catholic.

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The last 50 years, however, has seen the rapid

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and often astonishing growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America.

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By 2010, Latin America was home to 550 million Christians

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and 20 percent were

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from non-Catholic expressions of the Christian faith.

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These were growing at three times the rate of Catholic growth.

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It has been reported, for instance,

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that 40 new Pentecostal congregations are begun each week

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in Rio de Janeiro.

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By the year 2025, the Christian population

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in Latin America will grow to 640 million

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or roughly the same as Africa.

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The current pathways of Christianity's pilgrimage,

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while never possible to chart with total certainty,

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nevertheless remain relatively clear: As Christianity continues

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to grow in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, by the end of this century,

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in 2100, Christians living in the global south

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and east will number 2.8 billion and be

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about three times more the 775 million Christians projected

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to be found in the global north.

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In many ways we're witnessing a return of Christianity

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to the non-Western cultures of Asia

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and Africa reflecting more the environments

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which first gave rise to the church.

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But now Christianity is embedded in hundreds of cultures and languages,

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demonstrating an incredible diversity of peoples and places

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that have welcomes its incarnational presence.

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This map in 1910 shows by color nations

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that have a majority Christian population.

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That's in blue; Muslim is in red; and then Adamist and Hindu

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and Buddhist are in brown and pink and darker pink.

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That's the picture in 1910.

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This is the picture in 2010.

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You can see from that the directions of this shift.

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The last 500 years of Christianity have also witnessed not only a

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steady pilgrimage towards the south and then east,

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but a staggering proliferation of divided institutional churches

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that never could have been imagined

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in the first 1500 years of Christian history.

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Protestants call separately organized groups of churches

19:20.940 --> 19:25.900 align:start
"denominations" -- excuse me --

19:25.900 --> 19:28.910 align:start
meaning, specific associations of congregations

19:28.910 --> 19:32.110 align:start
with distinct belief and governance.

19:32.110 --> 19:35.610 align:start
This term makes no sense ecclesiologically to Orthodox

19:35.610 --> 19:38.620 align:start
and Catholic traditions which conceive of the church

19:38.620 --> 19:44.490 align:start
as one entity unified in doctrine in a structure of authority.

19:44.490 --> 19:46.480 align:start
Yet from the reformation on Christians

19:46.480 --> 19:48.530 align:start
in Europe began organizing themselves

19:48.530 --> 19:51.280 align:start
into separate and distinct groups.

19:51.280 --> 19:55.450 align:start
In the democratic cultural and religious soil of the United States,

19:55.450 --> 19:58.420 align:start
such segmentation flourished and then was exported

19:58.420 --> 20:01.030 align:start
by the modern missionary movement.

20:01.030 --> 20:04.440 align:start
Thus Christianity began a process of rapid proliferation

20:04.440 --> 20:07.250 align:start
into groups denominated from one another,

20:07.250 --> 20:12.200 align:start
and that process has continued endlessly to the present day.

20:12.200 --> 20:14.600 align:start
Trying to provide an objective description

20:14.600 --> 20:20.800 align:start
of our present situation challenges one's ecclesiological imagination.

20:20.800 --> 20:23.070 align:start
The Center for the Study of Global Christianity

20:23.070 --> 20:25.990 align:start
at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary with help

20:25.990 --> 20:30.480 align:start
from the Pew Foundation reported on obtaining information

20:30.480 --> 20:35.610 align:start
on 41,000 denominations worldwide.

20:35.610 --> 20:39.230 align:start
A separate website regularly updates these numbers

20:39.230 --> 20:45.000 align:start
with a present estimate of 43,800 denominations in the world,

20:45.000 --> 20:48.200 align:start
and its followed by a note which says

20:48.200 --> 20:50.510 align:start
"Please pray for Christian unity."

20:50.510 --> 20:53.430 align:start
[ Laughter ]

20:53.430 --> 20:57.370 align:start
Thus the pilgrimage of Christianity measured since the time

20:57.370 --> 21:01.240 align:start
when the Gutenberg Bible was printed has witnessed continuous

21:01.240 --> 21:04.730 align:start
and endless fracturing of its organizational life,

21:04.730 --> 21:06.500 align:start
and this has spread around the world.

21:06.500 --> 21:11.430 align:start
The dramatic shift in world Christianity also has intensified

21:11.430 --> 21:14.050 align:start
the division' intentions in the global church

21:14.050 --> 21:17.210 align:start
and its ecumenical institutions.

21:17.210 --> 21:19.730 align:start
While the massive growth in the Christian family has come

21:19.730 --> 21:22.950 align:start
in the global south, financial resources

21:22.950 --> 21:26.860 align:start
and material power remains concentrated in the global north

21:26.860 --> 21:32.710 align:start
and west as seen in this graph.

21:32.710 --> 21:37.230 align:start
This is a simple graph showing, on the one hand, income --

21:37.230 --> 21:41.740 align:start
on the right side, income, and on the left side, population,

21:41.740 --> 21:45.230 align:start
and the disparity is obvious.

21:45.230 --> 21:49.500 align:start
Geographical divisions are creating serious threats to the sense

21:49.500 --> 21:54.720 align:start
of unity and mutual belonging seen especially around issues of money,

21:54.720 --> 21:57.650 align:start
power, international decision-making,

21:57.650 --> 22:00.090 align:start
and intellectual theological capital.

22:00.090 --> 22:06.750 align:start
During the last 100 years the dramatic geographical pilgrimage

22:06.750 --> 22:08.660 align:start
of world Christianity was accompanied

22:08.660 --> 22:12.860 align:start
by the unpredicted advent and eventual eruption

22:12.860 --> 22:14.510 align:start
of the Pentecostal movement

22:14.510 --> 22:18.210 align:start
as a powerful force drastically altering the landscape

22:18.210 --> 22:21.680 align:start
of the global Christian community.

22:21.680 --> 22:25.770 align:start
Barely existing a century ago, today,

22:25.770 --> 22:30.390 align:start
one out of every four Christians in the world is Pentecostal

22:30.390 --> 22:36.120 align:start
or Charismatic according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

22:36.120 --> 22:39.090 align:start
Along with the story of the growth of the church in Africa,

22:39.090 --> 22:43.160 align:start
it is hard to name a more critical and formative development

22:43.160 --> 22:46.470 align:start
in the last century of Christian history.

22:46.470 --> 22:50.300 align:start
It is estimated, for instance, that 80 percent of new conversions

22:50.300 --> 22:54.020 align:start
in Asia are Pentecostal or Charismatic.

22:54.020 --> 22:58.080 align:start
Almost one in four Pentecostals in the world lives in Asia,

22:58.080 --> 23:01.400 align:start
and nearly one and three lives in Africa.

23:01.400 --> 23:04.810 align:start
What northern liberal and Evangelical Christians often fail

23:04.810 --> 23:09.100 align:start
to recognize is that Pentecostalism comes to the global south

23:09.100 --> 23:13.000 align:start
without the history and baggage of colonialism.

23:13.000 --> 23:16.380 align:start
Churches in the Pentecostal tradition and style,

23:16.380 --> 23:20.470 align:start
with their emphasis on immediate spiritual experiences,

23:20.470 --> 23:24.420 align:start
detached Christianity from its white missionary control

23:24.420 --> 23:28.710 align:start
and empowered indigenous expressions of Christian faith

23:28.710 --> 23:31.290 align:start
within many parts of the world.

23:31.290 --> 23:33.510 align:start
The Atlas of Global Christianity,

23:33.510 --> 23:37.110 align:start
the most comprehensive resource describing the changes

23:37.110 --> 23:42.290 align:start
in world Christianity in the last 100 years, puts it this way:

23:42.290 --> 23:45.030 align:start
Pentecostalism became the main contributor

23:45.030 --> 23:49.360 align:start
to reshaping a Christianity from a predominantly Western

23:49.360 --> 23:55.430 align:start
to a predominantly non-Western phenomena in the twentieth century.

23:55.430 --> 23:59.170 align:start
The growth in Pentecostal, Charismatic, and renewal moments

23:59.170 --> 24:03.130 align:start
of Christianity has come at nearly five times the rate

24:03.130 --> 24:06.150 align:start
of overall growth of global Christianity,

24:06.150 --> 24:08.460 align:start
dramatically changing its composition

24:08.460 --> 24:11.210 align:start
and its theological diversity.

24:11.210 --> 24:15.330 align:start
Brazil today not only has the largest number of Catholics

24:15.330 --> 24:20.460 align:start
of any country, but also the largest number of Pentecostals.

24:20.460 --> 24:23.270 align:start
Meanwhile, in Asia it is estimated

24:23.270 --> 24:30.930 align:start
that there are 873,000 Chinese Charismatic congregations.

24:30.930 --> 24:35.140 align:start
These dramatically growing Pentecostal independent evangelical

24:35.140 --> 24:39.340 align:start
and indigenous churches function largely in a separate world

24:39.340 --> 24:43.660 align:start
from those comprising the organized ecumenical movement,

24:43.660 --> 24:48.240 align:start
which is mostly the Orthodox and the historic protestant churches.

24:48.240 --> 24:52.000 align:start
The theological gulf between these two worlds has widened

24:52.000 --> 24:56.420 align:start
as Christianity's center of gravity has continued its journey toward the

24:56.420 --> 24:58.330 align:start
global south.

24:58.330 --> 25:01.120 align:start
This divide involves not only doctrinal issues

25:01.120 --> 25:06.330 align:start
but also deep differences reflected in the fervent style spirituality,

25:06.330 --> 25:10.430 align:start
the less structured and more elastic forms of church polity,

25:10.430 --> 25:15.760 align:start
along with the convictional witness and focus on church growth found

25:15.760 --> 25:20.000 align:start
in these freshly emerging forms of Christianity.

25:20.000 --> 25:25.660 align:start
In my judgment, the gulf between these two worlds, between the world

25:25.660 --> 25:29.140 align:start
of established orthodox and mainline in the north

25:29.140 --> 25:32.080 align:start
and the growing churches in the south,

25:32.080 --> 25:36.180 align:start
now constitutes the most pressing challenge to the unity of the church

25:36.180 --> 25:38.620 align:start
in the twenty-first century.

25:38.620 --> 25:42.860 align:start
Here's the dilemma: The World Council of Churches has faithfully

25:42.860 --> 25:44.990 align:start
and courageously carried out the vocation

25:44.990 --> 25:49.130 align:start
of Christian unity for the past 65 years.

25:49.130 --> 25:55.540 align:start
That it is comprised of only 349 denominations or member churches

25:55.540 --> 26:00.250 align:start
in the face of over 40,000 denominations now present.

26:00.250 --> 26:03.770 align:start
Yet new approaches are emerging,

26:03.770 --> 26:07.400 align:start
the most promising is called the Global Christian Forum.

26:07.400 --> 26:11.660 align:start
Begun as a proposal arising out of the World Council's Assembly

26:11.660 --> 26:16.620 align:start
in Harare in 1998, the Global Christian Forum has become a fresh

26:16.620 --> 26:19.200 align:start
and credible movement that offers the hope

26:19.200 --> 26:21.910 align:start
of transcending these divisions.

26:21.910 --> 26:23.900 align:start
It's been successfully engaging leaders

26:23.900 --> 26:28.070 align:start
of all the major Christian traditions -- Catholic, Pentecostal,

26:28.070 --> 26:31.720 align:start
Evangelical, Orthodox, and historic Protestant --

26:31.720 --> 26:34.250 align:start
in a new circle of global fellowship.

26:34.250 --> 26:39.050 align:start
Its first major gathering was held in Limuru, Kenya in 2007.

26:39.050 --> 26:44.100 align:start
Observers called it "a watershed in modern Christian history."

26:44.100 --> 26:49.620 align:start
A second such gathering took place last year in Manado, Indonesia.

26:49.620 --> 26:52.820 align:start
Now, the challenges posed by the change in patterns

26:52.820 --> 26:57.860 align:start
of world Christianity however are not only encountered globally.

26:57.860 --> 27:03.580 align:start
Increasingly, these are being experienced locally.

27:03.580 --> 27:07.270 align:start
Migration is transforming the religious life

27:07.270 --> 27:10.110 align:start
of Europe and North America.

27:10.110 --> 27:11.650 align:start
This has always been so.

27:11.650 --> 27:12.410 align:start
Of course.

27:12.410 --> 27:14.510 align:start
Religious migrants have shaped the history

27:14.510 --> 27:17.250 align:start
of Christianity in the United States.

27:17.250 --> 27:21.680 align:start
But attention needs to be focused on how that reality is continuing today

27:21.680 --> 27:26.310 align:start
in ways often not fully understood or appreciated.

27:26.310 --> 27:30.170 align:start
Commonly, we view is immigration as introducing large numbers

27:30.170 --> 27:33.960 align:start
of non-Christian religions into U.S. society.

27:33.960 --> 27:37.900 align:start
Important scholars like Harvard's Diana Eck have documented the

27:37.900 --> 27:42.460 align:start
fascinating increase in religious pluralism in the United States,

27:42.460 --> 27:47.210 align:start
particularly in her classic work "A New Religious America."

27:47.210 --> 27:51.430 align:start
Yet the popular assumptions about the impact of immigration

27:51.430 --> 27:53.380 align:start
on non-Christian religious practice

27:53.380 --> 27:58.150 align:start
in the U.S. often disregard more fundament realities.

27:58.150 --> 28:02.960 align:start
In fact, immigration to the U.S. is having its most dramatic religious

28:02.960 --> 28:06.860 align:start
effects on the Christian population of the country.

28:06.860 --> 28:10.980 align:start
That's because, first of all, an estimated 60 percent

28:10.980 --> 28:16.180 align:start
of all present immigrants arriving in the United States are Christian.

28:16.180 --> 28:19.750 align:start
Moreover, they come with practices, traditions, and expressions

28:19.750 --> 28:24.390 align:start
of their faith that have been shaped in a non-Western context.

28:24.390 --> 28:27.920 align:start
As the introduction to a new major study on religion

28:27.920 --> 28:32.040 align:start
in these new immigrant states, even though significant numbers

28:32.040 --> 28:33.640 align:start
of new immigrants are Christian,

28:33.640 --> 28:37.910 align:start
they are expressing their Christianity in languages, customs,

28:37.910 --> 28:41.560 align:start
and independent churches that are barely recognizable

28:41.560 --> 28:48.560 align:start
and often controversial for European ancestry Catholics and Protestants.

28:48.560 --> 28:51.690 align:start
But these new Christian immigrants will have a dramatic effect

28:51.690 --> 28:53.610 align:start
on America's religious --

28:53.610 --> 28:55.800 align:start
future religious life in ways

28:55.800 --> 28:58.880 align:start
that we're already beginning to experience.

28:58.880 --> 29:03.140 align:start
Consider this: According the 1990 sentence --

29:03.140 --> 29:09.850 align:start
Census, 19.7 million people in the U.S. were born in another country.

29:09.850 --> 29:14.780 align:start
By 2010, there were 43 million foreign-born residents

29:14.780 --> 29:21.060 align:start
in the United States, and of these, 74 percent were Christian,

29:21.060 --> 29:27.450 align:start
5 percent were Muslim, 4 percent Buddhist, 3 percent Hindu.

29:27.450 --> 29:30.830 align:start
While these proportions will shift somewhat in the future,

29:30.830 --> 29:33.400 align:start
the overwhelming reality is that immigration

29:33.400 --> 29:36.160 align:start
to the United States is having its major effects

29:36.160 --> 29:39.940 align:start
on the Christian population in this country.

29:39.940 --> 29:43.060 align:start
Not surprisingly, the highest number of immigrants coming

29:43.060 --> 29:48.260 align:start
to the United States are from Mexico, totaling 12.9 million;

29:48.260 --> 29:51.080 align:start
95 percent of these are Christian.

29:51.080 --> 29:55.640 align:start
The Philippines provides the second largest number totaling 1.8 million,

29:55.640 --> 29:57.830 align:start
nearly all of whom are Christian;

29:57.830 --> 30:01.190 align:start
and then out of the 1.1 million immigrants from El Salvador

30:01.190 --> 30:05.380 align:start
in the U.S., a million worship in Christian churches along

30:05.380 --> 30:09.210 align:start
with seventy-four hundred thousand from the Dominican Republic,

30:09.210 --> 30:14.840 align:start
700,000 from Guatemala, and 860,000 from Cuba.

30:14.840 --> 30:21.630 align:start
Worldwide there are an estimated 214 million people who are migrants;

30:21.630 --> 30:23.960 align:start
meaning, they are living in a country different

30:23.960 --> 30:26.170 align:start
from where they were born.

30:26.170 --> 30:32.060 align:start
Nearly half of these migrants are Christians, about 105 million,

30:32.060 --> 30:35.860 align:start
far more than the proportion of Christians in the world,

30:35.860 --> 30:38.260 align:start
which is about 33 percent.

30:38.260 --> 30:43.580 align:start
The reasons for this are complex, but yet it's a clear fact.

30:43.580 --> 30:46.240 align:start
And for these Christians who are on the move,

30:46.240 --> 30:50.250 align:start
often the United States is their chief destination.

30:50.250 --> 30:55.280 align:start
Presently, 32 million or 13 percent of the Christian community

30:55.280 --> 30:59.220 align:start
in the U.S. is comprised of migrants, those who were born

30:59.220 --> 31:04.890 align:start
in another country, and that percentage will continue to rise.

31:04.890 --> 31:06.310 align:start
Not only do these numbers --

31:06.310 --> 31:08.700 align:start
not only do the numbers of these Christian migrants

31:08.700 --> 31:13.130 align:start
to the United States tell this story, it's also the intensity

31:13.130 --> 31:16.750 align:start
of their belief and religious practice.

31:16.750 --> 31:21.110 align:start
Jehu Hanciles, a native of Sierra Leone, who now is chair

31:21.110 --> 31:25.400 align:start
of World Christianity at the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta,

31:25.400 --> 31:29.510 align:start
has done pioneering studies of non-Western Christianity.

31:29.510 --> 31:35.110 align:start
He observes this, "Certainly, the vigorous growth immigrant churches

31:35.110 --> 31:38.620 align:start
and congregations in metropolitan centers throughout the country

31:38.620 --> 31:41.760 align:start
over the last three to four decades suggests

31:41.760 --> 31:45.900 align:start
that they represent the most dynamic and thriving centers

31:45.900 --> 31:49.450 align:start
of Christian faith in America."

31:49.450 --> 31:51.640 align:start
Hanciles observes that, quote,

31:51.640 --> 31:54.930 align:start
every Christian migrant is a potential missionary, unquote.

31:54.930 --> 32:00.520 align:start
And indeed, many African Christian, drawn to the U.S. for a variety

32:00.520 --> 32:04.650 align:start
of reasons, come with a missionary mindset reflective

32:04.650 --> 32:08.240 align:start
of the congregations that have nurtured their faith.

32:08.240 --> 32:12.260 align:start
While immigrants from Africa to the U.S. comprise a modest share

32:12.260 --> 32:17.310 align:start
of the country's foreign-born population, only about 3.9 percent,

32:17.310 --> 32:20.990 align:start
the growth of this community is striking.

32:20.990 --> 32:27.310 align:start
In 1960, 35,355 African-born residents were living

32:27.310 --> 32:29.250 align:start
in the United States.

32:29.250 --> 32:35.900 align:start
50 years later that number has increased forty-fold to 1.5 million,

32:35.900 --> 32:39.680 align:start
and many bring non-Western expressions of Christianity

32:39.680 --> 32:43.350 align:start
which has been nurtured in the soil of Africa.

32:43.350 --> 32:48.320 align:start
A decade ago I struck up a conversation with Rufus Ositelu

32:48.320 --> 32:53.440 align:start
who is primate of the Church of -- the Church of the Lord Aladura.

32:53.440 --> 32:57.560 align:start
This was during a meeting of the WCC Central committee.

32:57.560 --> 33:00.760 align:start
I knew almost nothing about his church.

33:00.760 --> 33:03.830 align:start
He shared with me that he had been working as a computer expert

33:03.830 --> 33:06.820 align:start
in Germany but had been called to the position of primate

33:06.820 --> 33:10.620 align:start
of his church which was headquartered Nigeria.

33:10.620 --> 33:13.980 align:start
As we talked together on a pleasant day in Geneva at the beginning

33:13.980 --> 33:17.490 align:start
of September, Rufus told me he had just recently come

33:17.490 --> 33:21.790 align:start
from a special time of retreat with prayer and fasting held each year.

33:21.790 --> 33:24.710 align:start
The primate explained that the leadership

33:24.710 --> 33:28.170 align:start
of the church gathers together and no major decisions are made

33:28.170 --> 33:30.940 align:start
without this special period of prayer and fasting.

33:30.940 --> 33:35.450 align:start
Further, he said that at the end of that period, the wider members

33:35.450 --> 33:38.250 align:start
of the church are invited to come and share

33:38.250 --> 33:41.570 align:start
in this experience of retreat and prayer.

33:41.570 --> 33:45.170 align:start
Anxious to learn more, I asked Primate Ositelu how many people

33:45.170 --> 33:49.340 align:start
from the church at large joined at the conclusion of this retreat.

33:49.340 --> 33:53.810 align:start
He replayed, "About one million."

33:53.810 --> 33:56.810 align:start
Suddenly, I realized I was talking with the leader

33:56.810 --> 34:01.630 align:start
of a church whose scope and ministry was beyond anything I had imagined.

34:01.630 --> 34:06.540 align:start
Founded in 1930 by 28-year-old Joshua Ositelu

34:06.540 --> 34:10.600 align:start
who had severed his ties from colonial Anglicanism,

34:10.600 --> 34:13.660 align:start
the church has grown to 3.6 million members,

34:13.660 --> 34:16.900 align:start
congregations flourish not only throughout Nigeria

34:16.900 --> 34:21.140 align:start
but in other neighboring African countries such as Liberia as well

34:21.140 --> 34:25.570 align:start
as Great Britain, Germany, and the United States.

34:25.570 --> 34:30.440 align:start
The Church of the Lord Aladura is just one example of thousands

34:30.440 --> 34:33.340 align:start
of such churches belonging to the Organization

34:33.340 --> 34:36.390 align:start
of African Instituted Churches.

34:36.390 --> 34:40.270 align:start
This organization represents about 60 million Christians

34:40.270 --> 34:44.780 align:start
in denominations and congregations throughout the continent

34:44.780 --> 34:47.380 align:start
and in the African diaspora.

34:47.380 --> 34:51.800 align:start
Totally independent from the church structures of Western mission,

34:51.800 --> 34:55.560 align:start
the African Instituted Churches forged indigenous expressions

34:55.560 --> 34:59.080 align:start
of Christian faith often in opposition to the harsh

34:59.080 --> 35:02.700 align:start
and controlling forces of colonial rule.

35:02.700 --> 35:06.210 align:start
Increasingly, African instituted churches are finding homes

35:06.210 --> 35:12.260 align:start
within the United States through the migration of Christians from Africa.

35:12.260 --> 35:17.600 align:start
Now, in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson stood at the Statue

35:17.600 --> 35:21.570 align:start
of Liberty and signed the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

35:21.570 --> 35:24.450 align:start
It was called Hart-Cellar Act,

35:24.450 --> 35:27.060 align:start
a major reform in U.S. immigration law.

35:27.060 --> 35:30.810 align:start
At the signing ceremony, however, he said,

35:30.810 --> 35:34.530 align:start
"This bill that we sign today is not a revolutionary bill.

35:34.530 --> 35:38.760 align:start
It does not affect the lives of millions."

35:38.760 --> 35:42.810 align:start
The President could not have been more mistaken.

35:42.810 --> 35:46.410 align:start
The new law eliminated race and national origin as a basis

35:46.410 --> 35:50.010 align:start
for immigration, and partly this happened because it was right

35:50.010 --> 35:53.920 align:start
in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, and it intended

35:53.920 --> 35:56.760 align:start
to put all nations on an equal footing.

35:56.760 --> 36:00.640 align:start
It also placed a priority on the reuniting of families as well

36:00.640 --> 36:03.970 align:start
as admitting those with needed skills.

36:03.970 --> 36:08.380 align:start
But no one, it's fair to say, envisioned the consequences.

36:08.380 --> 36:12.260 align:start
For instance, Robert Kennedy, testifying as Attorney General

36:12.260 --> 36:15.230 align:start
to a House subcommittee, gave this assurance

36:15.230 --> 36:19.770 align:start
about the possible immigration from Asia under the proposed law,

36:19.770 --> 36:24.240 align:start
"I would say for the Asian Pacific triangle,

36:24.240 --> 36:28.450 align:start
immigration would be approximately 5,000, Mr. Chairman,

36:28.450 --> 36:32.870 align:start
after which immigration from that source would virtually disappear.

36:32.870 --> 36:34.840 align:start
5,000 immigrants would come the first year,

36:34.840 --> 36:38.260 align:start
but we do not expect there would be any great influx after that."

36:38.260 --> 36:45.420 align:start
In fact, the 1965 act was a watershed in Asian immigration,

36:45.420 --> 36:48.430 align:start
as well as opening up the flow of non-white immigrants

36:48.430 --> 36:52.460 align:start
from Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

36:52.460 --> 36:55.940 align:start
The provision for uniting families had a particularly strong effect

36:55.940 --> 36:58.040 align:start
on Asian immigration.

36:58.040 --> 37:02.450 align:start
In 1965, the Asian-American population in the U.S. was

37:02.450 --> 37:05.660 align:start
about one half of one percent.

37:05.660 --> 37:12.410 align:start
By 2002, 7.3 million Asians had arrived in the U.S.,

37:12.410 --> 37:17.090 align:start
significantly exceeding Robert Kennedy's estimate.

37:17.090 --> 37:20.620 align:start
According to the 2010 Census,

37:20.620 --> 37:25.550 align:start
now 7.3 million Asian-Americans are residents of the United States,

37:25.550 --> 37:29.410 align:start
and in the last decade the Asian-American population grew

37:29.410 --> 37:35.320 align:start
by 46 percent faster than any other racial group.

37:35.320 --> 37:37.980 align:start
The Census Bureau estimates that this group will grow

37:37.980 --> 37:42.350 align:start
to 40 million by the year 2050.

37:42.350 --> 37:43.800 align:start
The Christian community

37:43.800 --> 37:46.560 align:start
in the United States has been notably effected

37:46.560 --> 37:49.850 align:start
by this influx of Asian immigrants.

37:49.850 --> 37:53.110 align:start
Sociologists estimate that about four percent

37:53.110 --> 37:55.890 align:start
of all Asian-Americans are Christian.

37:55.890 --> 37:59.810 align:start
And the interesting thing is that this is higher percentage

37:59.810 --> 38:02.170 align:start
than that represented in their home countries.

38:02.170 --> 38:07.560 align:start
For instance, the Korean-American community totaling some 1.7 million

38:07.560 --> 38:11.810 align:start
is about 80 percent Christian compared to about 30 to 40 percent

38:11.810 --> 38:14.080 align:start
of the population of Korea.

38:14.080 --> 38:17.210 align:start
Further, at least 13 percent of those studying

38:17.210 --> 38:20.800 align:start
for the Catholic priesthood in the U.S. are Asian,

38:20.800 --> 38:22.870 align:start
many of them are Vietnamese.

38:22.870 --> 38:30.300 align:start
An impact is also seen from students abroad studying in the U.S. In 2011,

38:30.300 --> 38:35.870 align:start
723,000 international students were studying here,

38:35.870 --> 38:39.040 align:start
60 percent of which were from Asia.

38:39.040 --> 38:44.960 align:start
Among that group, 155,000 were from China.

38:44.960 --> 38:47.730 align:start
Frequently, these visiting students are welcomed

38:47.730 --> 38:50.650 align:start
by Chinese-American churches and Chinese

38:50.650 --> 38:54.110 align:start
and Asian Christian fellowship groups on campuses.

38:54.110 --> 38:57.080 align:start
Such hospitality often leads to conversion

38:57.080 --> 39:00.390 align:start
as one joins this community of faith gathering

39:00.390 --> 39:03.900 align:start
with fellow sojourners in a new land.

39:03.900 --> 39:08.880 align:start
So Asian-American Christians with their high levels of education

39:08.880 --> 39:12.870 align:start
and deeply-rooted spirituality, will have a growing impact

39:12.870 --> 39:18.630 align:start
on Christianity in the U.S. Hispanics, either foreign born

39:18.630 --> 39:22.350 align:start
or by ancestry, now total 50 million people

39:22.350 --> 39:27.180 align:start
in the U.S. Almost 33 million are from Mexico.

39:27.180 --> 39:30.230 align:start
The influx of Mexican immigrants to the United States

39:30.230 --> 39:34.740 align:start
over the past four decades has been unprecedented in our history

39:34.740 --> 39:38.930 align:start
for a movement of people from any single country.

39:38.930 --> 39:43.180 align:start
While present practices and economic circumstances now have virtually

39:43.180 --> 39:47.470 align:start
halted net immigration from Mexico, and that's important to note

39:47.470 --> 39:50.570 align:start
if you aren't already aware, the birth rate

39:50.570 --> 39:54.530 align:start
of the overall Latino population in the U.S. will result

39:54.530 --> 40:00.050 align:start
in substantial growth from this present 50 million residents.

40:00.050 --> 40:05.350 align:start
About 70 percent of Hispanic population in the U.S. is Catholic.

40:05.350 --> 40:12.650 align:start
This means that about 35 percent of all U.S. Catholics are now Hispanic,

40:12.650 --> 40:16.550 align:start
and they have accounted for 71 percent of the growth

40:16.550 --> 40:19.560 align:start
of U.S. Catholics since 1960.

40:19.560 --> 40:22.090 align:start
That figure will continue to rise.

40:22.090 --> 40:23.720 align:start
In Los Angeles, for example,

40:23.720 --> 40:28.120 align:start
70 percent of Catholics are estimated to be Hispanic.

40:28.120 --> 40:30.080 align:start
It's critical to realize

40:30.080 --> 40:33.800 align:start
that Hispanic Catholics bring their own contextualized practices

40:33.800 --> 40:35.460 align:start
of their faith.

40:35.460 --> 40:38.130 align:start
Not only is that reflected in the images of the Virgin

40:38.130 --> 40:42.210 align:start
of Guadeloupe throughout Mexican neighborhoods in U.S. cities,

40:42.210 --> 40:45.520 align:start
their forums of Catholic piety reflect the enculturation

40:45.520 --> 40:48.420 align:start
of Christianity in Latin-America.

40:48.420 --> 40:52.350 align:start
Moreover, it is estimated that 54 percent

40:52.350 --> 40:56.690 align:start
of the Latino Catholics identify themselves as Charismatic,

40:56.690 --> 41:01.210 align:start
and thus incorporate practices of spiritual healing,

41:01.210 --> 41:05.350 align:start
speaking in tongues, and gifts of the Holy Spirit common

41:05.350 --> 41:09.440 align:start
in non-Catholic Pentecostal settings.

41:09.440 --> 41:13.640 align:start
About 23 percent of Latinos, however, are Protestant,

41:13.640 --> 41:19.760 align:start
accounting for a sizable 9.5 million Christians in the U.S. In fact,

41:19.760 --> 41:22.870 align:start
there are more Latino Protestants in the U.S.

41:22.870 --> 41:25.700 align:start
than there are Episcopalians.

41:25.700 --> 41:28.290 align:start
The great majority of these are Pentecostal

41:28.290 --> 41:31.620 align:start
or Evangelical, about 85 percent.

41:31.620 --> 41:35.820 align:start
Many can be found in the thousands of storefront churches and chapels

41:35.820 --> 41:39.940 align:start
that dot Hispanic neighborhoods in large urban areas.

41:39.940 --> 41:43.770 align:start
So the Protestant world as well is experiencing the rising influence

41:43.770 --> 41:49.350 align:start
of Latinos with their frequent combination of Evangelical theology,

41:49.350 --> 41:54.740 align:start
Pentecostal al style, and social justice commitments.

41:54.740 --> 41:59.440 align:start
As the Hispanic community, Catholic and Protestant, is projected to grow

41:59.440 --> 42:05.010 align:start
to 106 million by the year 2050, their presence will become one

42:05.010 --> 42:10.280 align:start
of the defining features of American Christianity.

42:10.280 --> 42:12.790 align:start
Global trends will ensure that migration,

42:12.790 --> 42:16.300 align:start
particularly from the south to the north as well as from the east

42:16.300 --> 42:20.090 align:start
to the west, will be a growing part of the world's future.

42:20.090 --> 42:22.160 align:start
Further, the majority of those

42:22.160 --> 42:25.820 align:start
on the move will continue to be Christian.

42:25.820 --> 42:29.910 align:start
And if, in fact, every Christian migrant is a potential missionary,

42:29.910 --> 42:33.850 align:start
we are witnessing a major non-Western missionary movement

42:33.850 --> 42:35.300 align:start
in the world.

42:35.300 --> 42:40.820 align:start
Think of it this way: As the West becomes post-Christian non-Western

42:40.820 --> 42:44.820 align:start
Christianity is coming to the West.

42:44.820 --> 42:48.660 align:start
This reality is particularly present in certain cities

42:48.660 --> 42:52.810 align:start
in metropolitan areas -- states in metropolitan areas.

42:52.810 --> 42:57.890 align:start
Three-quarters of all immigrants are in these six states: California,

42:57.890 --> 43:03.050 align:start
Texas, New York, Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois.

43:03.050 --> 43:08.250 align:start
Further, major cities become magnets for immigrants, in fact, Los Angeles

43:08.250 --> 43:12.470 align:start
and New York together are home to a full one-third all

43:12.470 --> 43:16.540 align:start
of foreign-born residents in the United States.

43:16.540 --> 43:18.810 align:start
Immigrants find their new homes both

43:18.810 --> 43:22.250 align:start
within major cities but also in suburbs.

43:22.250 --> 43:27.400 align:start
Chicago, for instance, where I grew up, has 590,000 immigrants

43:27.400 --> 43:32.990 align:start
in its city limits but 984,000 foreign-born residents live

43:32.990 --> 43:35.810 align:start
in Chicago's suburbs.

43:35.810 --> 43:39.400 align:start
The last decade has also witnessed the rapid growth of immigrants

43:39.400 --> 43:43.450 align:start
in several other cities through the middle of the country; for instance,

43:43.450 --> 43:47.760 align:start
Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville, and Indianapolis all had more

43:47.760 --> 43:53.040 align:start
than 100,000 foreign-born residents by 2010, and cities with some

43:53.040 --> 43:55.210 align:start
of the fastest growth rates of immigrants

43:55.210 --> 43:58.250 align:start
in the past decade include Baltimore,

43:58.250 --> 44:01.380 align:start
Orlando, Las Vegas, and Atlanta.

44:01.380 --> 44:07.490 align:start
And recall, that about two-thirds of these immigrants are Christians,

44:07.490 --> 44:10.980 align:start
and thus establishing mono-ethnic congregations

44:10.980 --> 44:15.930 align:start
or joining multiracial churches finding ways to nurture

44:15.930 --> 44:19.480 align:start
and deepen their faith in a new land.

44:19.480 --> 44:21.360 align:start
Congregation of these immigrants --

44:21.360 --> 44:24.120 align:start
congregations of these immigrants are generally not

44:24.120 --> 44:26.480 align:start
on our ecclesiological radar.

44:26.480 --> 44:29.240 align:start
Yet such congregations are growing.

44:29.240 --> 44:32.450 align:start
Mark Gornik in his book "Word Made Global," estimates

44:32.450 --> 44:34.190 align:start
that New York City is host

44:34.190 --> 44:39.100 align:start
to at least 150 various African-immigrant congregations,

44:39.100 --> 44:42.240 align:start
and hundreds more of immigrant congregations thrive

44:42.240 --> 44:45.510 align:start
within the radius of that world city.

44:45.510 --> 44:49.080 align:start
[ Pause ]

44:49.080 --> 44:51.970 align:start
Got behind a little bit.

44:51.970 --> 44:53.490 align:start
But the picture continues.

44:53.490 --> 44:57.540 align:start
Minneapolis, St. Paul, for instance, long known for its Scandinavian

44:57.540 --> 45:00.880 align:start
and German heritage, has seen an influx of immigrants

45:00.880 --> 45:03.920 align:start
from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

45:03.920 --> 45:08.520 align:start
A decade ago, Frieder Ludwig, then a faculty member at Luther Seminary,

45:08.520 --> 45:12.810 align:start
discovered 67 congregations of Asian immigrants and 73

45:12.810 --> 45:15.640 align:start
of African immigrants within the Twin Cities,

45:15.640 --> 45:18.550 align:start
and that was ten years ago.

45:18.550 --> 45:21.280 align:start
Moreover, the faith of Christian immigrants,

45:21.280 --> 45:25.020 align:start
and that of other religious immigrants as well,

45:25.020 --> 45:28.240 align:start
usually become stronger and more intense

45:28.240 --> 45:31.430 align:start
through their experience of immigration.

45:31.430 --> 45:34.360 align:start
Steven Warner, a discerning sociologists

45:34.360 --> 45:38.510 align:start
who has probed deeply the religious significance of immigrants

45:38.510 --> 45:41.840 align:start
and their congregations, puts it this way,

45:41.840 --> 45:43.760 align:start
"Immigrants do not merely cling

45:43.760 --> 45:47.060 align:start
to what they had before they left their home countries.

45:47.060 --> 45:50.380 align:start
As religion becomes less taken for granted under the pluralistic

45:50.380 --> 45:53.990 align:start
and more secular conditions prevailing in the United States,

45:53.990 --> 45:57.010 align:start
adherents become more conscious of their tradition

45:57.010 --> 46:01.060 align:start
and often more determined about its transmission.

46:01.060 --> 46:04.870 align:start
Religion identities nominally assigned

46:04.870 --> 46:09.120 align:start
at birth become objects of active passion."

46:09.120 --> 46:12.750 align:start
Now that Christianity is centered in the global south

46:12.750 --> 46:16.420 align:start
and non-Western expressions of faith accompany faithful Christian

46:16.420 --> 46:18.610 align:start
immigrants to the global north,

46:18.610 --> 46:24.100 align:start
a fresh theological encounter becomes possible and is crucial.

46:24.100 --> 46:28.080 align:start
What we are experiencing locally, if we are attentive

46:28.080 --> 46:30.540 align:start
to newly arrived Christian immigrants,

46:30.540 --> 46:35.590 align:start
reflects how the realities of world Christianity are reformulating

46:35.590 --> 46:39.420 align:start
theological assumptions and understandings.

46:39.420 --> 46:42.900 align:start
Andrew Walls, a pioneer in portraying the dynamics

46:42.900 --> 46:47.610 align:start
of world Christianity, puts it this way, "The most striking feature

46:47.610 --> 46:51.070 align:start
of Christianity at the beginning of the third millennium is

46:51.070 --> 46:55.070 align:start
that it is predominantly a non-Western religion.

46:55.070 --> 46:59.400 align:start
What we have -- what we have long been used to is a Christian theology

46:59.400 --> 47:02.120 align:start
that was shaped by the interaction of Christian faith

47:02.120 --> 47:05.020 align:start
with Greek philosophy and Roman law.

47:05.020 --> 47:08.300 align:start
These forums have become so familiar and established that we have come

47:08.300 --> 47:09.980 align:start
to think of them as the normal

47:09.980 --> 47:13.140 align:start
and characteristic forms of Christianity.

47:13.140 --> 47:17.180 align:start
In the coming century, we can expect an accelerated process

47:17.180 --> 47:20.350 align:start
of new development arising from Christian interaction

47:20.350 --> 47:24.890 align:start
with the ancient cultures of Africa and Asia, an interaction now

47:24.890 --> 47:29.470 align:start
in progress but with much further to go."

47:29.470 --> 47:32.890 align:start
The heart of this theological encounter, in my view,

47:32.890 --> 47:35.960 align:start
centers in the clash of world views shaped by Western

47:35.960 --> 47:39.160 align:start
and non-Western cultures which then influences the way

47:39.160 --> 47:43.210 align:start
in which the Bible is read and faith is understood.

47:43.210 --> 47:44.360 align:start
Consider, for example,

47:44.360 --> 47:48.460 align:start
how an African world view shapes one's understanding.

47:48.460 --> 47:52.610 align:start
The noted African author John Mbiti, author of "African Religions

47:52.610 --> 47:56.820 align:start
and Philosophy," explains that "In the traditional African perspective,

47:56.820 --> 47:59.170 align:start
the distinction between the spiritual world

47:59.170 --> 48:01.780 align:start
and the material world which we assume

48:01.780 --> 48:05.450 align:start
in the west simply doesn't apply."

48:05.450 --> 48:09.240 align:start
Harvey Kwiyani explains further, "The religious world

48:09.240 --> 48:12.070 align:start
of the African is spiritually vibrant.

48:12.070 --> 48:15.400 align:start
As such, for the African the spiritual realm is real,

48:15.400 --> 48:19.470 align:start
so real that life is not imaginable without it.

48:19.470 --> 48:22.600 align:start
Africans usually say that the spiritual realm is just as real

48:22.600 --> 48:26.890 align:start
as the physical realm, it is only invisible, and even though the two

48:26.890 --> 48:29.710 align:start
of them are distinguished, they cannot be separated.

48:29.710 --> 48:33.900 align:start
They are interconnected and they work together."

48:33.900 --> 48:35.730 align:start
Such a world view embedded

48:35.730 --> 48:38.200 align:start
in various non-Western cultures collides

48:38.200 --> 48:41.540 align:start
with the world views entrenched in Western culture.

48:41.540 --> 48:44.190 align:start
Shaped by the enlightenment and the modern era,

48:44.190 --> 48:47.750 align:start
what we commonly call a secular framework for shaping culture

48:47.750 --> 48:50.750 align:start
and society is taken for granted.

48:50.750 --> 48:55.480 align:start
Simply put, such a view seeks to understand and structure social,

48:55.480 --> 48:59.200 align:start
political, economic, and cultural life without reference

48:59.200 --> 49:02.070 align:start
to religious or spiritual realities.

49:02.070 --> 49:05.850 align:start
Religion is then confined to the private personal sphere.

49:05.850 --> 49:09.610 align:start
Optional space for religious practice is certainly guaranteed,

49:09.610 --> 49:14.580 align:start
but also circumscribed both intellectually and practically.

49:14.580 --> 49:17.400 align:start
Now, of course, a thousand qualifications are in order.

49:17.400 --> 49:21.740 align:start
But the operating world view which frames contemporary societies

49:21.740 --> 49:24.730 align:start
in the West is shaped by secular assumptions

49:24.730 --> 49:27.520 align:start
that reinforce a practical materialism

49:27.520 --> 49:30.070 align:start
and a functional individualism.

49:30.070 --> 49:34.060 align:start
By contrast, non-Western Christianity brings a world view

49:34.060 --> 49:37.730 align:start
in understanding of life which challenges various assumptions

49:37.730 --> 49:40.710 align:start
of modern life in the West and collides with many

49:40.710 --> 49:44.210 align:start
of these theological views and practices.

49:44.210 --> 49:48.620 align:start
Noted author and theologian [inaudible] describes the

49:48.620 --> 49:53.270 align:start
development of non-Western Christianity in this way,

49:53.270 --> 49:54.920 align:start
"Christianity has blossomed

49:54.920 --> 49:58.080 align:start
in societies outside the Western Hemisphere

49:58.080 --> 50:02.090 align:start
and has become more powerful and nuance in the process.

50:02.090 --> 50:05.730 align:start
The anti-structural character of the non-Western phase

50:05.730 --> 50:09.790 align:start
of world Christianity plays itself out in characteristics

50:09.790 --> 50:13.520 align:start
such as Charismatic renewal, grassroots revival,

50:13.520 --> 50:17.710 align:start
massive exorcism, vibrant house churches, robust indigenation --

50:17.710 --> 50:22.710 align:start
indigenization efforts and Effective lay leaderships.

50:22.710 --> 50:26.220 align:start
Churches from the Third World are vigorously defining Christianity

50:26.220 --> 50:27.920 align:start
on their own terms.

50:27.920 --> 50:31.080 align:start
The new day that dawns will permanently alter the place

50:31.080 --> 50:36.090 align:start
and nature of Christianity in a twenty-first century.

50:36.090 --> 50:40.580 align:start
Let me leave you with a picture of what these emerging streams

50:40.580 --> 50:44.560 align:start
in world Christianity look like in Ghana,

50:44.560 --> 50:47.630 align:start
where I visited just two weeks ago.

50:47.630 --> 50:53.460 align:start
A new highway Accra to Akropong stretches out toward the mountains;

50:53.460 --> 50:56.970 align:start
at a tollbooth, a huge billboard is suspended over the highway

50:56.970 --> 51:01.710 align:start
with the picture of Nana Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate

51:01.710 --> 51:06.580 align:start
of the main opposition party in an election a week away.

51:06.580 --> 51:10.030 align:start
These words are featured prominently next to his picture.

51:10.030 --> 51:12.900 align:start
Quote, The battle is the Lord's.

51:12.900 --> 51:16.830 align:start
I Samuel 17:47."

51:16.830 --> 51:18.450 align:start
The election was last week.

51:18.450 --> 51:23.190 align:start
He received 47.7 percent of the vote in Ghana, narrowly being beaten

51:23.190 --> 51:25.690 align:start
by the incumbent president.

51:25.690 --> 51:27.290 align:start
Enterprise is everywhere.

51:27.290 --> 51:31.930 align:start
Small shops, many almost like shacks, sell goods and services,

51:31.930 --> 51:35.540 align:start
and major intersections often host a marketplace.

51:35.540 --> 51:38.620 align:start
Among the many shops and advertisements some stand out,

51:38.620 --> 51:43.520 align:start
like the Jesus is Lord Business Center and Internet Cafe.

51:43.520 --> 51:47.820 align:start
We passed the Give Thanks to God Tailoring Shop and the Sow

51:47.820 --> 51:53.010 align:start
and Tears, Reap and Joy Welding and Pipefitting Establishment.

51:53.010 --> 51:56.110 align:start
One of the small stands offering bottled water, soft drinks,

51:56.110 --> 51:59.710 align:start
and fruit was By His Grace Refreshments.

51:59.710 --> 52:04.020 align:start
A sign reads "Shower of Blessings Painter" with a phone number.

52:04.020 --> 52:09.020 align:start
Automotive needs can be met at God is King Motors and Car Dealers.

52:09.020 --> 52:13.200 align:start
Winding our way up the hill toward Akropong we passed the Let There Be

52:13.200 --> 52:18.070 align:start
Light Electric Shop, and the Riches of Glory Guest House,

52:18.070 --> 52:21.730 align:start
as well as the Jesus is Lord fabric Shop.

52:21.730 --> 52:27.580 align:start
And then here in Akropong is the Princess Choice Beauty Palace

52:27.580 --> 52:31.010 align:start
with the words over the door, "I'm not alone.

52:31.010 --> 52:33.370 align:start
Jesus is with me."

52:33.370 --> 52:37.020 align:start
The lines between the secular and sacred and the material

52:37.020 --> 52:40.040 align:start
and spiritual are drawn very differently here

52:40.040 --> 52:41.000 align:start
than in our culture.

52:41.000 --> 52:45.250 align:start
And it's the same throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa

52:45.250 --> 52:48.030 align:start
which is now 70 percent Christian.

52:48.030 --> 52:51.310 align:start
The signs of a non-Christian world view reveal themselves

52:51.310 --> 52:54.020 align:start
in simple but illuminating ways.

52:54.020 --> 52:58.230 align:start
At the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology,

52:58.230 --> 53:02.350 align:start
I asked Professor Andrew Walls, who's now 80, about the conflict

53:02.350 --> 53:04.510 align:start
in world views between Christians in the West

53:04.510 --> 53:06.850 align:start
and non-Western Christianity.

53:06.850 --> 53:10.350 align:start
"The enlightenment had a firm boundary between the empirical

53:10.350 --> 53:13.180 align:start
and the spiritual world," Wall said.

53:13.180 --> 53:17.010 align:start
"Western Christianity even tried to police that boundary.

53:17.010 --> 53:19.120 align:start
But non-Western Christianity doesn't see

53:19.120 --> 53:21.650 align:start
that boundary in the say same way."

53:21.650 --> 53:25.860 align:start
So Walls believes that this is a time of theological renaissance

53:25.860 --> 53:30.610 align:start
in order to figure all this out and to do so together.

53:30.610 --> 53:32.310 align:start
Some of those who I think will be part

53:32.310 --> 53:36.400 align:start
of this theological renaissance were the 47 African students

53:36.400 --> 53:38.840 align:start
who received postgraduate degrees

53:38.840 --> 53:41.270 align:start
from the Akrofi-Christaller Institute

53:41.270 --> 53:43.680 align:start
at its commencement ceremony.

53:43.680 --> 53:49.200 align:start
And while there, Dr. Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, now 93 and one

53:49.200 --> 53:52.110 align:start
of Ghana's most noted educational leaders,

53:52.110 --> 53:55.680 align:start
received an honorary degree, and in response he said --

53:55.680 --> 53:59.020 align:start
he spoke of, quote, the need to break the myth

53:59.020 --> 54:03.640 align:start
that Christianity was a European religion imported into Ghana.

54:03.640 --> 54:09.600 align:start
At the front of the sanctuary of the Akropong Presbyterian Church

54:09.600 --> 54:11.390 align:start
where the ceremony was held,

54:11.390 --> 54:16.420 align:start
a sign hangs on the left-hand wall listing the ten achievable goals

54:16.420 --> 54:20.070 align:start
of this congregation in the next five years.

54:20.070 --> 54:24.540 align:start
Those goals include: To equip every member to win souls for Christ

54:24.540 --> 54:29.100 align:start
and to disciple them effectively; to snatch as many

54:29.100 --> 54:32.690 align:start
as the devil has bound; to equip members

54:32.690 --> 54:35.860 align:start
to live victorious Christian lives.

54:35.860 --> 54:40.000 align:start
It's not quite the language of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

54:40.000 --> 54:43.430 align:start
But then these following goals are included in the list:

54:43.430 --> 54:47.820 align:start
To empower children, youth, and women to fight for their rights;

54:47.820 --> 54:51.960 align:start
to care for the needy and the poor; to collaborate with government

54:51.960 --> 54:53.610 align:start
and donor agencies in the fight

54:53.610 --> 54:57.250 align:start
against poverty, ignorance, and disease.

54:57.250 --> 55:01.100 align:start
This combination of language with highly spiritualized terms sounding

55:01.100 --> 55:04.430 align:start
like spiritual warfare and then clear injunction

55:04.430 --> 55:05.950 align:start
as to seek social justice

55:05.950 --> 55:10.200 align:start
and empower the marginalize sounds dissonant and even jarring

55:10.200 --> 55:12.590 align:start
to the ears of many in the West.

55:12.590 --> 55:14.440 align:start
But in countless African countries,

55:14.440 --> 55:17.530 align:start
this seems to flow together naturally.

55:17.530 --> 55:19.680 align:start
A week ago Saturday I was part

55:19.680 --> 55:24.110 align:start
of a small delegation visiting the Word Miracle Church International

55:24.110 --> 55:26.110 align:start
in Accra.

55:26.110 --> 55:28.280 align:start
This is a representative of a new group

55:28.280 --> 55:31.420 align:start
of mega churches in Africa and beyond.

55:31.420 --> 55:36.570 align:start
In 1994, its founder Bishop Agyinasare moved to Accra

55:36.570 --> 55:39.840 align:start
to center his ministry there in the nation's capital.

55:39.840 --> 55:43.240 align:start
About 70 people were in worship.

55:43.240 --> 55:47.990 align:start
Eighteen years later, 7000 worship at the main center in Accra.

55:47.990 --> 55:50.780 align:start
Two services each Sunday are in English and one in Twi,

55:50.780 --> 55:54.540 align:start
a local language; two more are in French; and a youth church

55:54.540 --> 55:57.010 align:start
and a teen church worship separately.

55:57.010 --> 55:59.740 align:start
The large worshipping groups meet in the Perez Dome,

55:59.740 --> 56:02.250 align:start
still under construction, but it's regarded

56:02.250 --> 56:05.130 align:start
as the largest auditorium in Ghana.

56:05.130 --> 56:08.340 align:start
The church's ministry extends through many branches,

56:08.340 --> 56:13.200 align:start
more than 150 throughout Ghana, so we asked what accounted

56:13.200 --> 56:16.130 align:start
for this remarkable growth and outreach.

56:16.130 --> 56:20.280 align:start
The response, "Tangible miracles."

56:20.280 --> 56:25.270 align:start
The Word is preached and healings with signs and wonders take place.

56:25.270 --> 56:28.260 align:start
Bishop Asare has a worldwide ministry having preached

56:28.260 --> 56:29.990 align:start
in 52 countries.

56:29.990 --> 56:33.490 align:start
He was holding services in the Philippines when we visited.

56:33.490 --> 56:36.470 align:start
He's written 25 books and you can follow him on Twitter,

56:36.470 --> 56:39.040 align:start
join his Facebook page, read his blog,

56:39.040 --> 56:41.790 align:start
and see the church's ministry on YouTube.

56:41.790 --> 56:44.640 align:start
His television broadcasts reach throughout Africa and also

56:44.640 --> 56:47.180 align:start
to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

56:47.180 --> 56:50.140 align:start
Most likely, he's one of the more interesting personalities

56:50.140 --> 56:54.100 align:start
in today's global church that you've never heard of.

56:54.100 --> 56:58.010 align:start
The Word Miracle International Church is entirely self-sustaining,

56:58.010 --> 57:00.560 align:start
not relying on outside funding.

57:00.560 --> 57:03.430 align:start
The church's branches have moved beyond Ghana

57:03.430 --> 57:07.330 align:start
into other African countries, and they've also extended to Germany

57:07.330 --> 57:11.930 align:start
and Italy as its members include migrants on the move.

57:11.930 --> 57:15.370 align:start
Moreover we were told about a member converted to the ministry

57:15.370 --> 57:19.320 align:start
of the church who led its youth ministry for several years.

57:19.320 --> 57:26.260 align:start
Then, more recently, he was sent as a missionary to Maryland.

57:26.260 --> 57:28.160 align:start
We are beyond any doubt at one

57:28.160 --> 57:30.850 align:start
of those hinge points in Christian history.

57:30.850 --> 57:32.730 align:start
When the Gutenberg Bible was printed,

57:32.730 --> 57:36.170 align:start
its eventual consequences were unimaginable.

57:36.170 --> 57:40.470 align:start
Now an equally profound movement is occurring as the rising centers

57:40.470 --> 57:44.080 align:start
of Christian vitality have become detached geographically

57:44.080 --> 57:47.670 align:start
and culturally from the places in the north and the west,

57:47.670 --> 57:50.620 align:start
which for so long have been Christianity's dominant

57:50.620 --> 57:52.780 align:start
comfortable home.

57:52.780 --> 57:56.230 align:start
We can project the demographic features of this future.

57:56.230 --> 57:58.580 align:start
Those alone are stunning.

57:58.580 --> 58:02.910 align:start
But it's far more difficult but more decisive to ascertain the spiritual,

58:02.910 --> 58:07.810 align:start
theological, and Ecclesiological features of this future.

58:07.810 --> 58:11.460 align:start
That discernment can only happen by walking together

58:11.460 --> 58:15.120 align:start
on a common pilgrimage, and so the pilgrimage

58:15.120 --> 58:17.420 align:start
of world Christianity will proceed

58:17.420 --> 58:22.570 align:start
as a post-Christian West encounters a non-Western church.

58:22.570 --> 58:23.510 align:start
Thank you.

58:23.510 --> 58:35.990 align:start
[ Applause ]

58:35.990 --> 58:37.020 align:start
Thank you, very much.

58:37.020 --> 58:40.190 align:start
We have some time for questions, which I'd be delighted

58:40.190 --> 58:43.860 align:start
to answer, to have our dialogue.

58:43.860 --> 58:46.060 align:start
Carolyn will kind of call the time,

58:46.060 --> 58:48.910 align:start
but maybe for about 10/15 minutes I'd love to hear,

58:48.910 --> 58:50.670 align:start
and Jason has the microphone.

58:50.670 --> 58:56.050 align:start
So please.

58:56.050 --> 58:59.780 align:start
>> Wes, that was such a rich lecture and exquisitely signed.

58:59.780 --> 59:00.820 align:start
Three quick questions.

59:00.820 --> 59:02.950 align:start
You can attend to any of them that are interesting to you.

59:02.950 --> 59:05.090 align:start
To what extent is Christianity

59:05.090 --> 59:09.030 align:start
across the globe an aspirational religion that you found?

59:09.030 --> 59:11.160 align:start
Converts trading up, as it were,

59:11.160 --> 59:15.240 align:start
which is often the skepticism of the individual.

59:15.240 --> 59:18.730 align:start
Second is, how does one define a Christian given cultural

59:18.730 --> 59:19.510 align:start
versus [inaudible]?

59:19.510 --> 59:22.000 align:start
So is a Christian one who's born into a culture,

59:22.000 --> 59:24.570 align:start
holds a personal belief, or just self defines?

59:24.570 --> 59:28.130 align:start
And then the third is, is the theological immediacy

59:28.130 --> 59:33.310 align:start
of Pentecostalism mimicking or fed by animistic religion historically,

59:33.310 --> 59:34.260 align:start
thus has not, you know,

59:34.260 --> 59:38.130 align:start
animism evangelized Christianity perhaps ironically?

59:38.130 --> 59:42.590 align:start
>> Yeah. Those are excellent and also complex questions.

59:42.590 --> 59:47.870 align:start
The -- on the first one, are we seeing basically aspirational,

59:47.870 --> 59:50.990 align:start
and you're thinking of the prosperity gospel and so forth.

59:50.990 --> 59:54.690 align:start
You see several things, but the most important study was one done

59:54.690 --> 59:58.670 align:start
by Donald Miller and Theodore Yamamori at the University

59:58.670 --> 01:00:03.020 align:start
of Southern California who wanted to look at congregations in the world,

01:00:03.020 --> 01:00:05.400 align:start
especially the Third World, the global south,

01:00:05.400 --> 01:00:08.960 align:start
that were having a positive social impact.

01:00:08.960 --> 01:00:12.650 align:start
And by a survey, they found 400 of them.

01:00:12.650 --> 01:00:17.540 align:start
They proceeded then to visit 200 over a period of three to four years

01:00:17.540 --> 01:00:20.870 align:start
and conducted scores of interviews.

01:00:20.870 --> 01:00:22.560 align:start
They discovered that 85 percent

01:00:22.560 --> 01:00:27.000 align:start
of these congregations were Pentecostal, and they were engaged

01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:30.030 align:start
in what they called a "progressive Pentecostal" --

01:00:30.030 --> 01:00:33.000 align:start
"progressive Pentecostalism," because they were

01:00:33.000 --> 01:00:35.600 align:start
in solidarity with the marginalized.

01:00:35.600 --> 01:00:39.530 align:start
Many of you have heard it said that liberation theology was a theology

01:00:39.530 --> 01:00:42.330 align:start
of the poor -- I mean, about the poor,

01:00:42.330 --> 01:00:46.060 align:start
but Pentecostalism has become the church of the poor.

01:00:46.060 --> 01:00:51.390 align:start
And that kind of engagement leads to social outreach.

01:00:51.390 --> 01:00:54.890 align:start
Now, for some, it's aspirational because they're very, very poor.

01:00:54.890 --> 01:00:57.380 align:start
But I think you've got a variety of things happening

01:00:57.380 --> 01:01:02.670 align:start
with Pentecostalism, and to simply say it's all otherworldly,

01:01:02.670 --> 01:01:06.490 align:start
doesn't affect reality, is really a misjudgment, and it's --

01:01:06.490 --> 01:01:08.970 align:start
it's their book, "Global Pentecostalism,"

01:01:08.970 --> 01:01:12.010 align:start
which is the best single study on the subject.

01:01:12.010 --> 01:01:14.050 align:start
The second about defining,

01:01:14.050 --> 01:01:17.310 align:start
most sociologists I've discovered while being here at the Kluge Center

01:01:17.310 --> 01:01:19.250 align:start
and reading a bunch of this stuff, they really go

01:01:19.250 --> 01:01:21.110 align:start
by self-definition, you know.

01:01:21.110 --> 01:01:23.300 align:start
I mean, who's a Christian?

01:01:23.300 --> 01:01:24.510 align:start
That's a huge question.

01:01:24.510 --> 01:01:26.130 align:start
And the big question behind the question is,

01:01:26.130 --> 01:01:28.230 align:start
who determines who's a Christian?

01:01:28.230 --> 01:01:32.190 align:start
And so -- so the answer is, those who self-define themselves

01:01:32.190 --> 01:01:33.960 align:start
as Christian are regarded as Christians.

01:01:33.960 --> 01:01:37.460 align:start
So all the statistics I've read when I've said Christian, it means those

01:01:37.460 --> 01:01:39.130 align:start
who call themselves that way.

01:01:39.130 --> 01:01:42.660 align:start
The third one, immediacy of Pentecostalism and animism;

01:01:42.660 --> 01:01:47.150 align:start
as one who's really just beginning to learn about a lot of this,

01:01:47.150 --> 01:01:51.110 align:start
especially in the African culture which is what intrigues me the most,

01:01:51.110 --> 01:01:54.040 align:start
there are several intersections.

01:01:54.040 --> 01:01:56.440 align:start
The basic understanding of spirituality,

01:01:56.440 --> 01:02:01.550 align:start
which is beneath any religious conviction I already referred to,

01:02:01.550 --> 01:02:08.090 align:start
and it permeates life; likewise, the whole understanding of community.

01:02:08.090 --> 01:02:11.490 align:start
Now, there are certainly some animistic practices

01:02:11.490 --> 01:02:16.800 align:start
that have a resonance with forms of Pentecostal expression,

01:02:16.800 --> 01:02:21.250 align:start
and that's part of what African theologians now are trying

01:02:21.250 --> 01:02:25.060 align:start
to figure out, because -- because always we're in this dance

01:02:25.060 --> 01:02:27.630 align:start
between what is the faith and what is culture,

01:02:27.630 --> 01:02:32.060 align:start
and so much of the faith exported to Africa was exported

01:02:32.060 --> 01:02:34.900 align:start
with Western garments that have to be torn off

01:02:34.900 --> 01:02:37.240 align:start
and then rediscovered within its context.

01:02:37.240 --> 01:02:48.600 align:start
So those would be answers to those questions.

01:02:48.600 --> 01:02:54.120 align:start
>> Thank you very future for a fascinating, fascinating lecture.

01:02:54.120 --> 01:02:58.820 align:start
I always think a good lecture is one that raises questions in our mind.

01:02:58.820 --> 01:03:01.970 align:start
I wanted to ask you also, the relationship between --

01:03:01.970 --> 01:03:07.920 align:start
you began with the Gutenberg Bible and the spread of literacy.

01:03:07.920 --> 01:03:10.810 align:start
Are we seeing the same thing with the Pentecostals?

01:03:10.810 --> 01:03:15.630 align:start
In other words, is the relationship to literacy or illiteracy?

01:03:15.630 --> 01:03:20.660 align:start
In other words, is it easier to be --

01:03:20.660 --> 01:03:23.810 align:start
to worship with or without the book?

01:03:23.810 --> 01:03:29.880 align:start
Is there a book that guides that guides -- that guides the believers,

01:03:29.880 --> 01:03:37.710 align:start
or is it more an expressions of Christianity rather

01:03:37.710 --> 01:03:40.510 align:start
than the thinking out of Christianity

01:03:40.510 --> 01:03:44.010 align:start
through literacy the way it was done at the beginning

01:03:44.010 --> 01:03:47.780 align:start
with the Gutenberg Bible and the spread of literacy?

01:03:47.780 --> 01:03:48.180 align:start
>> Yeah. Yeah.

01:03:48.180 --> 01:03:53.220 align:start
Again, there -- there are people who could answer that so much better

01:03:53.220 --> 01:03:57.330 align:start
than me including like [inaudible] who is one of the experts

01:03:57.330 --> 01:04:00.730 align:start
and who was here at the -- also as a fellow at the Kluge Center

01:04:00.730 --> 01:04:05.920 align:start
and whom I've spent very fruitful times learning from.

01:04:05.920 --> 01:04:08.050 align:start
But in general, I'd say two things:

01:04:08.050 --> 01:04:12.550 align:start
You're right that Pentecostalism puts a greater expression

01:04:12.550 --> 01:04:17.690 align:start
on experience rather than on simply the written word.

01:04:17.690 --> 01:04:19.430 align:start
And that's one of the differences.

01:04:19.430 --> 01:04:21.900 align:start
If you -- if you talk to -- people say what's the difference

01:04:21.900 --> 01:04:23.890 align:start
between Evangelical and a Pentecostal?

01:04:23.890 --> 01:04:25.930 align:start
If you talk to an Evangelical,

01:04:25.930 --> 01:04:28.170 align:start
the Evangelical will say, "What do you believe?"

01:04:28.170 --> 01:04:30.680 align:start
If you talk to a Pentecostal, a Pentecostal will say,

01:04:30.680 --> 01:04:32.900 align:start
"What is your experience?"

01:04:32.900 --> 01:04:35.120 align:start
And there's difference.

01:04:35.120 --> 01:04:42.180 align:start
Now, at the same time, the Bible and the way it has been translated,

01:04:42.180 --> 01:04:46.180 align:start
and as you would know from others who have really studied this,

01:04:46.180 --> 01:04:50.430 align:start
that the translation of the Bible has had an incredible Effect

01:04:50.430 --> 01:04:54.050 align:start
on the literacy and development of language and culture

01:04:54.050 --> 01:04:58.320 align:start
as a side Effect that becomes one of its unintended consequences.

01:04:58.320 --> 01:05:04.750 align:start
And with Pentecostals, they still take the Bible very seriously,

01:05:04.750 --> 01:05:09.910 align:start
but they appropriate it in much more direct and experiential ways rather

01:05:09.910 --> 01:05:13.360 align:start
than in dogmatic and systematic ways.

01:05:13.360 --> 01:05:25.550 align:start
That would at least be my impression.

01:05:25.550 --> 01:05:26.310 align:start
>> Good afternoon.

01:05:26.310 --> 01:05:27.500 align:start
Can you hear me?

01:05:27.500 --> 01:05:28.480 align:start
This was an excellent lecture.

01:05:28.480 --> 01:05:30.350 align:start
Thank you very much.

01:05:30.350 --> 01:05:33.840 align:start
I have a question about indigenous African Christianity,

01:05:33.840 --> 01:05:36.570 align:start
such as that found in the Horn of Africa and [inaudible] Ethiopia

01:05:36.570 --> 01:05:40.760 align:start
where the majority -- a majority are orthodox Christians,

01:05:40.760 --> 01:05:43.730 align:start
and sort of the parallels or the differences

01:05:43.730 --> 01:05:47.430 align:start
between indigenous Christianity and that which came as a result

01:05:47.430 --> 01:05:51.570 align:start
of colonization and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa?

01:05:51.570 --> 01:05:53.880 align:start
>> Yeah. And I didn't mention --

01:05:53.880 --> 01:05:57.860 align:start
there are two great Christian traditions in Africa

01:05:57.860 --> 01:06:01.370 align:start
that I didn't touch upon because I was focusing on Sub-Saharan.

01:06:01.370 --> 01:06:07.100 align:start
But the first is the orthodox tradition in the Ethiopian church,

01:06:07.100 --> 01:06:12.250 align:start
and the second is the Coptic church in Egypt, and in both cases,

01:06:12.250 --> 01:06:15.030 align:start
they're very ancient expressions

01:06:15.030 --> 01:06:21.180 align:start
and they have a deep connection to the culture.

01:06:21.180 --> 01:06:26.330 align:start
They -- it's interesting that when the African-Instituted Churches

01:06:26.330 --> 01:06:28.640 align:start
Organization was founded, one

01:06:28.640 --> 01:06:31.630 align:start
of its first members was the Coptic orthodox church.

01:06:31.630 --> 01:06:36.150 align:start
We -- you know, we were founded indigenously and had nothing to do

01:06:36.150 --> 01:06:40.330 align:start
with imported colonialism, and they still function within that group.

01:06:40.330 --> 01:06:44.610 align:start
But there are vast differences in their style, as you would imagine.

01:06:44.610 --> 01:06:48.180 align:start
But those -- but you've drawn attention to very important parts

01:06:48.180 --> 01:06:56.030 align:start
of religious life in Africa that I didn't touch on.

01:06:56.030 --> 01:06:59.380 align:start
I think the people -- the people

01:06:59.380 --> 01:07:04.030 align:start
with the mics are calling on the people.

01:07:04.030 --> 01:07:10.070 align:start
>> Do you believe that the Episcopal Anglican church is fighting

01:07:10.070 --> 01:07:13.240 align:start
your presentation?

01:07:13.240 --> 01:07:21.760 align:start
In other words, they have a major group of Anglican people

01:07:21.760 --> 01:07:26.690 align:start
from Africa, and they are just not listening to them,

01:07:26.690 --> 01:07:30.640 align:start
and thus there's a breakup of the Episcopal church in this country

01:07:30.640 --> 01:07:32.160 align:start
and they're having a real difficulty.

01:07:32.160 --> 01:07:35.110 align:start
Is this part of what you're talking about?

01:07:35.110 --> 01:07:36.150 align:start
>> Why, yes, it is.

01:07:36.150 --> 01:07:38.870 align:start
And I didn't talk about that but in the book

01:07:38.870 --> 01:07:42.660 align:start
that I finished, I am addressing that.

01:07:42.660 --> 01:07:47.220 align:start
I'll say very briefly that the issue

01:07:47.220 --> 01:07:52.730 align:start
around same-sex relationships is not an issues that is

01:07:52.730 --> 01:07:55.800 align:start
at the priority agenda of the global south.

01:07:55.800 --> 01:07:59.180 align:start
It's an issue of the global north, and we're fighting about it

01:07:59.180 --> 01:08:02.300 align:start
in some very difficult ways.

01:08:02.300 --> 01:08:06.560 align:start
We are importing that into the global south.

01:08:06.560 --> 01:08:09.900 align:start
When you talk to those who are in churches in the global south,

01:08:09.900 --> 01:08:11.840 align:start
number one, first of all, all of them --

01:08:11.840 --> 01:08:14.940 align:start
most of them are very conservative on this issue.

01:08:14.940 --> 01:08:15.900 align:start
There's no question.

01:08:15.900 --> 01:08:18.560 align:start
You have a few exceptions like Desmond Tutu

01:08:18.560 --> 01:08:20.740 align:start
and some other prominent bishops.

01:08:20.740 --> 01:08:21.980 align:start
Most of them are very conservative.

01:08:21.980 --> 01:08:24.140 align:start
But at the same time, you sit and talk to them,

01:08:24.140 --> 01:08:26.880 align:start
they'll say, "This is not our issue."

01:08:26.880 --> 01:08:29.170 align:start
It's being injected there in the same way

01:08:29.170 --> 01:08:32.770 align:start
that we've constantly injected our agenda and our thought patterns

01:08:32.770 --> 01:08:34.250 align:start
into their religious life.

01:08:34.250 --> 01:08:36.900 align:start
And the worst example's in Uganda.

01:08:36.900 --> 01:08:40.110 align:start
What's happening in Uganda was precipitated

01:08:40.110 --> 01:08:42.480 align:start
by North American Evangelicals.

01:08:42.480 --> 01:08:46.420 align:start
So while on the one hand I'd say that there's no question

01:08:46.420 --> 01:08:49.580 align:start
that churches in the global south are very conservative

01:08:49.580 --> 01:08:53.090 align:start
on those issues, but at the same time, it's not the issue

01:08:53.090 --> 01:08:55.390 align:start
that they put at the top of their agenda.

01:08:55.390 --> 01:09:00.120 align:start
They've got many more directly pressing issues to deal with,

01:09:00.120 --> 01:09:03.410 align:start
and we make a great mistake and we try to triangulate them

01:09:03.410 --> 01:09:05.990 align:start
and get them involved in our own debates.

01:09:05.990 --> 01:09:10.500 align:start
Excuse me, but that's -- one more.

01:09:10.500 --> 01:09:12.190 align:start
Get joy here, or -- okay.

01:09:12.190 --> 01:09:14.570 align:start
>> [Inaudible] tell us about how immigrants hold

01:09:14.570 --> 01:09:16.480 align:start
onto the traditions they bring here.

01:09:16.480 --> 01:09:21.060 align:start
What do we know about the religious orientations

01:09:21.060 --> 01:09:22.500 align:start
of second and third generation?

01:09:22.500 --> 01:09:26.060 align:start
>> Yeah. That's a huge and fascinating question.

01:09:26.060 --> 01:09:30.010 align:start
I'll -- again, I'll just indicate some of what I've learned

01:09:30.010 --> 01:09:32.570 align:start
in my reading and study during the time that I've been here,

01:09:32.570 --> 01:09:35.410 align:start
and also some of my experience as general secretary of our church,

01:09:35.410 --> 01:09:44.550 align:start
because we had that same phenomenon within, say, our Asian and Latino.

01:09:44.550 --> 01:09:51.360 align:start
The -- the wrong answer is that your first generation comes

01:09:51.360 --> 01:09:54.330 align:start
and they don't assimilate well, they have kids,

01:09:54.330 --> 01:09:56.950 align:start
the kids learn the language, the kids learn the culture,

01:09:56.950 --> 01:10:01.320 align:start
and after one to two generations they become fully Americanized.

01:10:01.320 --> 01:10:03.000 align:start
That may have been the way it happened

01:10:03.000 --> 01:10:05.650 align:start
with immigration 100 years ago.

01:10:05.650 --> 01:10:07.790 align:start
It's less the way it's happening now.

01:10:07.790 --> 01:10:11.720 align:start
You find now much more attempts of those who are

01:10:11.720 --> 01:10:15.240 align:start
of the second generation to cling to those parts of their culture

01:10:15.240 --> 01:10:20.080 align:start
which they value and give them an identity, particularly religiously,

01:10:20.080 --> 01:10:23.400 align:start
while appropriating other parts of the culture

01:10:23.400 --> 01:10:25.270 align:start
which they find themselves.

01:10:25.270 --> 01:10:29.050 align:start
And I think especially for congregations

01:10:29.050 --> 01:10:33.310 align:start
that become multicultural, this becomes a really important issue,

01:10:33.310 --> 01:10:40.270 align:start
because the point is not -- is not to homogenize people into one,

01:10:40.270 --> 01:10:44.100 align:start
you know, globalized culture that's defined by Starbucks.

01:10:44.100 --> 01:10:49.750 align:start
The point is to allow the distinctiveness of cultures to grow

01:10:49.750 --> 01:10:54.070 align:start
and to relate together in ways that then create a new reality.

01:10:54.070 --> 01:11:02.130 align:start
And that's a very, very important issue for immigrant churches today.

01:11:02.130 --> 01:11:05.510 align:start
>> Please thank our speaker again and join us for a reception.

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[ Applause ]

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>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.

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