Global Christianity: Current Trends and Developments
Ebook
Overview
Over the last few decades, Christianity’s center of gravity has moved from the global north to the global south. While church buildings in Western Europe are being closed or sold, new megachurches are filled with believers in Africa and Latin America. Charismatic movements practice the Christian religion in new ways, challenging the established churches and society at large on all continents.
This scholarly examination of contemporary World Christianity takes a fresh perspective on Christianity as a cultural, political, and social force in our time. It provides up-to-date regional surveys, gives ample attention to the fastest growing branch of Christianity, the Pentecostal movement, and focuses sharply on Catholicism, which with a wide margin is the world’s largest denomination. Furthermore, it explores how the Christian religion accommodates as well as challenges political, social, economic, and cultural developments.
This is a very impressive and accessible introduction to contemporary global Christianity which deserves a wide readership. Among the book’s many virtues, I would emphasize its consistent and careful attention to how Christianity, while clearly a global religion characterized by all kinds of connections, is always shaped by interactions with specific cultural and political realities, and how it makes its own mark on cultural-societal changes.
——Martin Lindhardt, University of Southern Denmark
This is one of the best introductions to global Christianity available today. Its Norwegian version gets consistently high ratings in student evaluations. The focus on cases and examples rather than encyclopaedic articles makes it highly readable and a good starting point for discussions and further studies.
——Kajsa Ahlstrand, Uppsala University
- Title: Global Christianity: Current Trends and Developments
- Authors: Vebjørn L. Horsfjord, Sven Thore Kloster, Gina Lende, Ole Jakob Løland
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Pages: 310
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725281134, 9781725281127, 1725281120, 9781725281110, 1725281112, 1725281139
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725281134
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2026-02-22T02:30:10Z
Vebjørn L. Horsfjord is professor of religious studies at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. Sven Thore Kloster is a guest researcher at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, and senior advisor on public theology at the Bishops’ Conference of the Church of Norway. Gina Lende is associate professor of religious studies at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society. Ole Jakob Løland is postdoctoral researcher and university librarian at the University of Oslo.