From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church

by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2013

Overview

In the last century, world Christianity’s center of gravity has effectively moved from Europe to a point near Timbuktu in Africa. Never in the history of Christianity has there been such a rapid and dramatic shift in where Christians are located in the world.

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson explores the consequences of this shift for congregations in North America, specifically for the efforts to build Christian unity in the face of new and challenging divisions. Centers of religious power, money, and theological capital remain entrenched in the global, secularized North while the Christian majority thrives and rapidly grows in the global South. Granberg-Michaelson argues that world Christianity’s most decisive twenty-first-century challenge is to build meaningful bridges between faithful churches in the global North and the spiritually exuberant churches of the global South.

In the Logos edition, From Times Square to Timbuktu is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Powerful searches help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

• Offers a brief history of how the worshiping center of global Christianity has moved
• Discusses the increase of the Christian population of middle Africa since 1910

Contents

• The Pilgrimage of Christianity
• How the World Is Changing Christianity
• What Divides World Christianity
• God’s Heart for Unity
• Roads Well Traveled
• New Pathways
• Signposts along the Way
• Christians on the Move
• Word Becoming Flesh, Congregationally
• Under the Ecclesiological Radar
• “In Each Place . . . and in All Places”
• The Spirit and the World in the Twenty-first Century

Praise for the Print Edition

This is a splendid book. Of itself, the growth of Christian numbers to the Global South is no longer surprising, nor is the tension with an increasingly secularized post-Christian West. What makes this book so valuable is the author’s ability to stand back and offer an astute and wide-ranging analysis of these trends, rooted in his wide experience and his passionate ecumenical commitment. He presents a confident, well-judged survey of the emerging face of Christianity that ranges, well, from Times Square to Timbuktu. Strongly recommended.

—Philip Jenkins, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of the Humanities, Pennsylvania State University, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University

This is the most important book anyone can read about the future of the church. . . . Global Christianity is being transformed, from the bottom up, from South to North, and Wes Granberg-Michaelson understands how that will and should change the Western churches that will no longer be the dominant forces in the body of Christ. . . . From Times Square to Timbuktu shows all of us how we might overcome the church’s cultural conformity by letting the Gospel transform our hearts, our minds, and even our societies. This book is a must-read for all who love the church, or are even interested in it.

—Jim Wallis, president and founder, Sojourners

For people seeking to get a feel for global Christianity, banks of statistics are easy to find. What’s harder to find is someone who can wisely integrate data with experience gained on street level and in relationships with Christians around the world. Wes Granberg-Michaelson is the best tour guide I can imagine to give us all a guided tour of Christianity—not as a Western religion exported globally, but as a religion with many vibrant centers and a circumference as big as the planet.

—Brian D. McLaren, author, A Generous Orthodoxy

This book is a timely reminder of the pastoral and theological significance of the wave of the worldwide Christian surge that is breaking on the shores of North America. Granberg-Michaelson offers a helpful frame for action and reflection in a style that is free of jargon and technical language. I commend him for putting the focus where it belongs—the responsibility of American churches for the welcome irruption of faith on our doorstep.

—Lamin Sanneh, D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity, Yale Divinity School

Over the past decade, we have seen many books that announce the rise of Christianity from the global South and East, but this new book by Wes Granberg-Michaelson is different. Yes, world Christianity is here, he says—but now what? . . . Offering wise and winsome advice for intercultural fellowship and partnership, this book is both eye-opening and deeply practical. I hope it provokes fresh Christian thinking and engagement, far and wide.

—Joel Carpenter, director, Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin College

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson’s From Times Square to Timbuktu is a timely and discerning interpretation of current developments in world Christianity. His observation that the shift in Christian presence from the global North to the South and East ‘is not simply about geography, with new maps revealing the changing global presence of the Christian community’ but ‘also a shift in the culture and mindset shaping the expressions of Christian faith’ is an important one. Knowing that a process is under way and coming to terms with it are two different things. . . . This volume interprets not just what God may be doing with the Christianity of the global South and East but also how Granberg-Michaelson expects interest groups like the WCC to respond. It will definitely be listed as mandatory reading for my students of non-Western Christianity.

—J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, professor of contemporary African Christianity and Pentecostal-Charismatic studies, Trinity Theological Seminary

Granberg-Michaelson describes with great skill how the demographic shift of Christianity to the global South over the past 100 years has transformed the faith. In the process, he asks penetrating questions about its seemingly intractable divisions and unrelenting fragmentation. His proposal for unity in the midst of this chaos comes from a deeply personal and compelling vision for Christians to share their common pilgrimage. Only then, he notes, will the global church be truly effective in offering hope and reconciliation to our divided world.

—Todd M. Johnson, associate professor of global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church
• Author: Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2013
• Pages: 189

About Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson served as general secretary of the Reformed Church in America from 1994 to 2011. He was one of the first managing editors of Sojourners magazine and has also worked with the World Council of Churches, the Global Christian Forum, and Call to Renewal. He is the author of Unexpected Destinations: An Evangelical Pilgrimage to World Christianity.