Disciplinary Tensions in World Christianity is an outstanding book. The authors featured in its pages take methodological tensions emerging from the study of world Christianity not as problems to be solved but as generative resources for new insights and knowledge. They do so by placing issues of social justice and public engagement at the center of their concerns. Honoring the legacy of Richard Fox Young, the volume is especially concerned with deepening the conversations emerging from interreligious tensions. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing what is happening along the cutting edge of world Christianity today. --Dale T. Irvin, coeditor, The Journal of World Christianity
Much has been written in the name of World Christianity that only covers the limited circles of academic specialists. The present volume, however, takes a very different approach. The reader is taken through an intellectual cascade that starts off with methodological soul-searching in terms of the relative importance of studying religion, literature, and ethnography. The following seven chapters, evenly divided into the thematic blocks of history and sociopolitical power, advance cautiously along a chronological path, in turn visiting Christian communities and churches in the Ottoman empire, India, Korea, South Africa, West Africa, South Asia, and China. An epilogue by Raimundo Barreto honors Richard Fox Young, to whom the entire volume is dedicated. The editors of this volume are to be congratulated for having produced this exploration of genuine World Christianity. --Lars P. Laamann, senior lecturer, SOAS University of London
Disciplinary Tensions in World Christianity is a welcome addition to recent works that address the state of the field of World Christianity. This thought-provoking volume features insightful case studies that examine the blind spots of the field, including its paradigms and how it handles justice and power. --Soojin Chung, director, Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary; author of Adopting for God: The Mission to Change America Through Transnational Adoption
