A GLOBAL STORY: THE DIVERSE, CROSS-CULTURAL SHAPE OF WORLD CHRISTIANITY McMaster Divinity College Don Springer springdw@mcmaster.ca Course Description In recent years global Christianity has become an area of great interest. This interest is fueled in part by the growing awareness in the West of the remarkable expansion of the faith throughout the rest of the world. This course introduces the student to the fact that Christianity has been an incredibly diverse, near-global faith from the beginning. The purpose of the course is not only to highlight the global history, but to identify the reasons diversity has so frequently been overlooked. Students will interact with expressions of faith foreign to their own, and consider the implications on their lives and ministries. Specializations: Christian Thought and History, Pastoral Studies, Christian Worldview, Church and Culture Course Objectives Knowing ➢ To gain an appreciation for the diverse, international, inter-cultural nature of historic Christianity ➢ To understand the scope, texture, and identity of global Christianity today as a polycentric, increasingly non-Western movement Being ➢ To develop a theological and spiritual lens for evaluating the contemporary world ➢ To allow classic Christian writings to shape our own spirituality Doing ➢ To develop skills of critical thinking and analysis of theological texts ➢ To consider one’s own context and allow other traditions to challenge us Required Texts Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Third ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Kim, Sebastian and Kirsteen Kim, Christianity as a World Religion. Continuum, 2008. Rah, Soong-Chan. The Next Evangelicalism Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity. Westmont: IVP, 2009.