ABSTRACT
The profile of a ‘typical Christian’ is undergoing rapid change. Many scholars point with great alacrity (and in some cases, with great alarm) to the staggering numerical growth of the faith outside the West. Scholars such as Phillip Jenkins (2002, 2006), Lamin Sanneh (2008) and Alister McGrath (2002a) are among the many who suggest that the global character and direction of Christianity is undergoing a rapid ‘southward’ upheaval. In each of these works, a distinctive analytical framework can be observed: that is, that a ‘New Face of Christianity’ can be recognized by contrasting declining participation rates in Europe and North America with the explosive growth of the faith among Africans, Latinos and Asians. What this suggests is that statistically speaking, a chance encounter with a Christian is likely to mean coming face-to-face with someone who is, more often than not, a poor yet devout person of colour. It is important to understand that this new face of Christianity evokes a
sense of urgency not because of population growth per se, but because this growth has the capacity to destabilize, undermine and decentralize Christianity’s traditionally Western visage. In this respect, the idea of the southern expansion of Christianity is not just a demographic reality. Rather, it is a discourse which has as its main essence a strong sense that the population statistics will greatly influence the doctrinal and theological directions of various Christian denominations around the world. If we think about the debates raging within the Anglican Communion for example, where Bishops from the global south are vociferous and influential over issues such as sexuality in the clergy, population statistics that indicate a lopsided ethnic composition may evoke a heightened sense of alarm and even crisis. But is this discourse of southern expansion applicable to the Asian context,
where Christianity has always been, in most parts, a minority faith? In this chapter, I argue that, while the demographic growth of the faith outside a European and North American milieu is a significant issue for Christianity as a whole, we must not assume that the impact of population growth is homogenous in all countries of the global south. What I seek to do is to point out that while Asians have been associated with the staggering march of Christianity to the global south, there are some specificities about the Asian
experience of secularism, nationalism, ethnicity and statehood that we should take into consideration. At issue here is the homogeneity of the global south as a cultural and religious category. While the global south is most prominently associated with the Anglican Communion in Africa, Asians have had various experiences with the relationship between religion and politics that encourage us to interpret the population statistics in significantly different ways. To state the issue more bluntly: can we really say that that the impact of the burgeoning growth of Christianity in Africa and Latin America is the same one that we find in Asia? Can we say that the global south, as a category that denotes a kind of crisis of authority and leadership in Christian churches, is applicable to all other Christians in Asia? The chapters in this volume demonstrate that the Asian case provides us
with some reasons for being less excitable and alarmist about Christianity’s southward expansion. It is not my intention to refute outright the occurrence of a southern shift, or to suggest that Asia be excluded from the projections of the growth of Christendom as a world religion. What we will find, rather, is that Christianity in Asia is defined not by an overwhelming, frenetic and vociferous avalanche of demographic resurgence, but by continuing struggles brought on by economic and political marginalities. It might be difficult to imagine this if one were viewing things from the perspective of avid Christian populations in South Korea, East Timor or the Philippines – indeed, proponents of the New Face of Christianity frequently draw upon these examples. But for the majority of Asia, the fact is that Christians have to face overwhelming challenges brought about by regimes that are reticent, if not repressive or hostile, towards Christian churches. As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, the insights we gain from Asia come from interrogating the ways in which Christians deal with their embattled status vis-à-vis other more dominant and more populous religious groups on the one hand, and with regard to the nation state as arbiters of inter-religious interaction on the other. The topic of this chapter, therefore, is the more specific context within which we can understand the patterns of complicity and conflict among Asian Christians and the political and cultural structures in which they are embedded. In considering this topic, we may find that the alarmist projections about the rise of the global south may well be applicable in some contexts, but somewhat displaced in others.
