The World's Christians

Douglas Jacobsen has written a remarkably thoughtful, insightful, lively and near-comprehensive account of the sprawling, vivid, internally plural and wildly complex phenomenon of world Christianity. For students of politics, culture, development and conflict-for anyone interested in the evolution and prospects of the hundreds of Christian-influenced or inflected societies around the world-The World's Christians is indispensable. -R. Scott Appleby, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame This text is a lively rendering of what Christianity is, how it has developed, and what roles it plays in the world today. The scope of it is amazing, and the fully-orbed competency of it, in accurately describing and analyzing the faith's career in so many times and places, is flat-out astonishing. -Joel Carpenter, Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin University Christianity is the world's largest religion and has a truly global presence, with one third of the world's population identifying as Christian. The World's Christians, Second Edition is a guide to global Christianity in all of its historical and contemporary diversity, tracing the development of the faith over time with significant attention to culture, theology, and geography. The book offers a balanced and readable account of how Christianity has developed and spread around the world that accommodates the lived experiences of Christians in a variety of traditions and geographies. Divided into three parts, the text first describes the world's four largest Christian traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal) which together account for roughly 98 percent of all Christians worldwide. The second section focuses on Christian history, explaining the movement's developing ideas and practices, and examining Christianity's engagement with people and cultures around the world. The third and longest portion of the text details the distinctive experiences, contemporary challenges, and demographics of Christians in nine geographic regions, including the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe, South Asia, North America, East Asia, and Oceania. The second edition of this popular text has been thoroughly rewritten to take recent developments into account, and each chapter now includes two primary source readings, highlighting the diversity of voices that exist within the world Christian movement. Like the first edition, the revised volume is enhanced with easily understandable maps, charts, tables and illustrative photographs. Designed to be accessible to all readers, the second edition of The World's Christians is a valuable introduction to the multicultural Christian faith, and is an ideal textbook for university courses as well as a resource for general readers who want to understand world Christianity.