The Global South's influence on religion - Texas Faith Blog

A central theme in the talk about who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI is the influence that the Global South has on Christianity. From Africa to Latin America and also to Asia, Christianity continues to flourish. That isn?t the same as what you see for at least mainline denominations in the United States. And it particularly isn?t so in Europe.

There?s been much talk before the pope?s resignation about the Global South?s influence on religion in general and Christianity in particular. Part of the growth is fueled by Pentecostal and charismatic Christians. The website of U.S.C.?s Center for Religion and Civic Culture describes the situation this way:

?Pentecostal and Charismatic religion flourishes at some of the most fluid and hotly contested boundaries ? cultural, religious and economic ? in the age of globalization. Broadly categorized as renewalist movements, these religious communities are experiencing their most dramatic growth at the frontier between Christianity and Islam in Nigeria; in the vast factory towns of China?s interior; among members of the rising middle class in Kenya; in the slums that ring the rapidly modernizing urban areas of Central and South America; in Muslim-majority Indonesia and Hindu-majority India. Encompassing more than half a billion adherents and blurring many of the traditional distinctions between Protestantism and Catholicism, renewalism is widely believed to be the fastest-growing religious movement in the world.?

Looking into the future, how do you see this movement affecting religion in general? Are the patterns of the Global South going to keep making their mark on various faiths, not just Christianity? If not, what trends do you see most affecting religion over the next decade?

FATHER TIMOTHY HEINES, Pastor, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Richardson

When I hear discussion of the effect of the emerging south on the life of the Church, I am reminded of some of the surprises at the Second Vatican Council. When it began, it was dominated by the Western European curial cardinals and bishops who set the original agenda. As it progressed and began to struggle with questions regarding faith, the role of the church, evangelization, social progress and so forth, the council fathers often found themselves at an impasse.

Until, that is, they began to listen to the voices ?from the margins.? In dealing with the question of evangelization, it was the bishop of Karachi who reminded the westerners that all preaching glorifies God. It was the South Americans who brought home the reality of poverty in the church. It was the Africans who pushed for the re-establishment of the catechumenate that every Catholic now knows as ?the RCIA? ?p robably the most dynamic parish program we now have.

Asian bishops wanted to restore the diaconate in the Catholic Church. When dealing with religious freedom, it was a bishop from behind the Iron Curtain who helped the bishops with understanding that teaching, as he would with many teachings when later elected as Pope John Paul II.

In other words, history shows us that dialogue with various cultures and peoples only enriches our experience of faith, and we should welcome it.

CYNTHIA RIGBY, W.C. Brown Professor of Theology, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

As a teacher of Christian theology trained in western schools and ordained in an American ?mainline? denomination, I am very aware that times they are a?changin.
We still read, in theology classes, the words of dead white German guys. They have good things to say, and we should keep on reading them.

But other voices have been added, and continue to be added. Voices of theologians from Latin America, Asia, Africa. Women?s voices. The voices of those who ? for most of history ? were marginalized because they were too poor, or not heterosexual, or darker-skinned, or female.

It?s good to hear from these voices, too. They tell us things that the white German guys hadn?t thought of, having experienced God in the context of different struggles and contexts.

Here?s an example of one thing marginalized groups have already taught us, particularly meaningful ? I believe ? in this season of Lent: Jesus died on the cross not only to save us from OUR sins, but also to heal us from sinful acts directed AGAINST us. Wow! As the old (western, white, Baptist) hymn has always testified, Calvary DOES ?cover it all.?

The dominant culture is quickly becoming the minority culture, in Christendom. Those who have historically been marginalized are growing in numbers and in strength, and in their capacity to shape Christianity today and into the future. They are not, by and large, trying to create something new. They are trying, as best as possible, to represent the best of the Christian tradition as they have come to understand it (interestingly, in significant degree by way of the teaching of western missionaries). But they do and will have different ways of expressing what it is that Christianity is all about, and this will at times be uncomfortable for we who are used to controlling the discourse.

And so . . . there are opportunities just ahead for we westerners to endure some discomfort and in the end be transformed. For there is no question but that the living Word of God, powered by the Spirit, is moving not only THROUGH us and FROM us but also TOWARD us, streaming upward from the Global South.

DANIEL KANTER, Senior Minister, First Unitarian Church of Dallas

What will lead religious life into the next decade and beyond are creative responses to the desire for vitality, spirituality, and community. What this means is that any religion, church, mosque, temple, gathering that proves itself to make vital and meaningful impacts in the lives of the people who live in its proximity will thrive. Any entity that responds to the spiritual and existential needs of people who are trying to make sense of their lives in real and sustaining ways will succeed. And any entity that creates a sense of belonging to something greater than oneself will gather people up.

Many religious institutions have failed at responding to these three needs and will fade away while attempting to preserve traditions or dogmas above and beyond the lived realities of their people. Those entities that can change and reshape themselves to meet people where they are will thrive. My crystal ball says that a lot of traditional religious associations as we know them will disappear in the next decade or they will limp along while vital spiritual communities are formed around them by people these institutions never imagined.

KERI DAY, Assistant Professor of Theological and Social Ethics and Director of Black Church Studies, Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University

The Global South is seeing the explosion of various religions and faiths, particularly Christian expressions (although Islam is not far behind). In discussing this religious pattern in the Global South in contrast to the Global North (which is becoming increasingly secularized), I think it is critical to ask why such patterns exist within the Global South.

For certain, the historical and contemporary efforts of missionary societies, particularly in relation to Christianity, have contributed to the adoption of this faith in the South. In addition, histories of colonization have secured certain religious expressions in parts of the world (a number of African countries remain Islamic due to their colonial pasts).

However, it is worth noting that the explosion of faiths in the Global South, particularly Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, have been able to take root because of the deteriorating economic and material conditions that have been present in these countries.

Many people in the Global South are trying to make meaning and fashion contexts of hope and transcendence in response to the despairing economic impoverishment they often experience and endure. What does it mean for people in the Global South to use their spirituality to find peace and hope within a global political economy where many of them live off one dollar a day at most?

What is often lost in discussions surrounding religious movements in the Global South is that these faith movements are often directly responding to their material conditions, conditions that often make them feel helpless and powerless to change their economic position.

Growing up Pentecostal myself (Church of God in Christ or COGIC), I am aware of what Pentecostal spirituality often offers: an opportunity to use one?s spirituality in cultivating an identity not rooted in material possessions or riches but rooted in the call to find one?s worth in ?intangible realities? such as the Spirit?s call to communion, tenderness, friendship, love, and more. One can clearly see why such spirituality becomes appealing against the backdrop of not being able to define oneself by material things.

Moreover, such spirituality introduces real hope into a world that is characterized by so many people who experience despair on an everyday basis where trying to survive becomes a full time job. No wonder North American Pentecostalism was started on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California in the early 1900s, a movement led by lower class people who were not recognized as economically important but fashioned a cultural identity that enabled them to fashion hope and spiritual meaning in the midst of their own poverty and economic misfortunes.

While my insights here offer no normative claim on the quality of such faith movements, I do think it is important to acknowledge why religious movements have emerged in the Global South (especially Christianity): because of global economic issues, which moves discussions on religion in the Global South past colonialism and missionary efforts (although these are important).

It seems to me that trends of global political economy will continue to affect how religions and faiths in the Global South evolve. And this will have a direct impact on the idea of the ?religious? in the Global North like the United States.

In fact, this is already happening as liberationist and post-colonial religious discourses are finding their way into black churches and other churches ?of color? that focus on how one?s faith can respond to desperate realities both cultural and economic in scope.

Religion in the Global South is already making its mark. The real question is how they will continue to evolve and impact the Global North in light of global economic issues.

RIC DEXTER, Nichiren Buddhist area leader, Soka Gakkai-USA

Nobel Laureate Wanagari Maathai of Kenya spoke of Africa as the cradle of the human species. ?We may learn?, she offered, ?that the fate of our species is intimately linked to the fate of its birthplace.?

The major continents of the Global South share a common history. The slave trade, colonialism, neocolonialism, and proxy wars between East and West have constantly challenged their people. Indigenous religions and cultures have been forcibly repressed.

In spite of, or possibly strengthened by, those challenges, throughout Africa and South America you find cultures that understand the true meaning of community spirit.

In his 1960 address to the United Nations, Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda said that the twenty-first century would prove to be a ?Century of Africa.? In his 2008 peace proposal he said that future of Africa is critical in building a global society that upholds human dignity.

Here?s how he put it:

?The wisdom sought by a world confronting spiritual desolation will be found in Africa. It is my unchanging belief that an African Renaissance will herald a renaissance of the world and of humanity.

?By ?the Century of Africa? I meant the century in which those who have suffered the most will be the happiest, the century in which those who have suffered the greatest humiliation and indignity will walk proud and tall, with their heads held high. There will be new leading actors in the drama of human history. Those whom the world has oppressed the most will become those who carry the world into the future.?

Over the next decade, even over the next century, the practice of all faith traditions will find that through a resurgence of human dignity faith will be empowered.

WILLIAM NOAKES, Attorney, Adjunct Professor, Cox School of Business, and M.Div. Student, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

Much is being made of the rapid rise of Christianity ? especially Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity ? in the Global South. It leads some to ask a rather puerile question: Who wins?

It may seem childish to view Christianity?s rise in such terms, but it raises a potentially more troubling question: Who loses?

In 2010, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be 2.18 billion, or about 32% of the world population of 6.9 billion people. By 2010, more than 60% of Christians were from the Global South ? those less developed countries, primarily located in Africa, Central and Latin America, and most of Asia. It was estimated that roughly one-fourth of those were Pentecostal or Charismatic Christians ? part of what has come
to be called the Renewalist Movement.

What makes these Christians so different from their brethren in the Global North?

These Christians tend to be much more conservative, fundamentalist ? indeed literalist in their take on the Bible. Surrounded by poverty, violence, drugs, hunger, disease, and political instability, Pentecostals and Charismatics in the Global South see the Bible as a living text ? one being lived out all around them. For them, its text comes alive in the context of their lives.

In the Global North on the other hand, a world only a small corner of which is beset by the problems of poverty, hunger, and violence, Christians have the luxury of viewing the Bible as a collection of moral tales that may or may not be true. Feminist theologian Musimbi Kenyone of Kenya may have been referring to this when she said: ?Those cultures which are far removed from biblical culture risk reading the Bible as fiction.?

So, who wins? Insofar as Christianity is alive and well, adherents to the Christian faith win. As in Jesus? day, miracles bring converts to the faith. The ardor of Charismatics finds its way into mainline Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church, awakening them from their torpor. Pentecostal and Charismatic proselytizing contributes to Christianity?s expansion around the globe.

So, who loses? Potentially, the world loses. Why? Christianity may be the world?s largest religion but it is not the only global religion. Islam, with some 1.6 billion adherents around the globe, is also global. Also a proselytizing religion, it is expected to grow at twice the rate of non-Muslim religions over the next two decades.

DEAL HUDSON, President, Pennsylvania Catholics Network

The revivalist patterns described under the rubric ?Global South? can only be understood in the context of the failed experiments in Marxist socialism-turned-into-totalitarianism that has dominated those parts of the world since the 1970s.

As another generation who has experienced ?the god that failed? these inhabitants of the Third World are responding to a message of human dignity, personal responsibility, and God?s empowering love. That their Christian faith takes a form of celebration and thanksgiving reflecting the indigenous cultures is no surprise and no argument against more traditional forms of the faith that inspire it.

As the French writer Chateaubriand put it, ?The Genius of Christianity is its endless capacity for cultural variation without sacrificing its Credo.?

JOE CLIFFORD, Head of Staff and Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church of Dallas

The Pentecostal movement has experienced explosive growth through the 20th century. In 1970, there were an estimated 74 million Pentecostals, roughly 6% of the world?s Christian population; by 1997, that figure had grown to just under 500 million ? 27% of the world?s Christian population.

Christian statistician David Barrett projects that given present trends, this figure is likely to rise to over 1 billion by 2025, or 44% of the world?s Christians. The vast majority of this growth is happening in the Global South, particularly in Central and South America, Asia and Africa.

Sociologist Margaret Poloma writes, ?The rise of Pentecostalism is more analogous to the rise of Protestantism in Christianity than the birth of a new denomination.? This will continue to have a tremendous impact on Christianity.

In the United States, Pentecostalism?s emphasis on the experience of faith over the doctrines of faith speaks to cultural trends indicating people care less about what Christians believe and more about how we believe. For mainline Protestants, this cultural shift presents a huge challenge. I look forward to seeing how these trends will shape the part of the body of Christ that is Presbyterianism.

WILLIAM LAWRENCE, Dean and Professor of American Church History, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

Renewal movements contribute religious fervor and clearly are most fervent nowadays in places other than North America and Europe. The question is whether and how these phenomena will create some institutional presence in the regions where they are so vigorous.

How will they connect their energies to political forces that control educational systems, commercial enterprises, precious metal mining, and an extensive array of cultural infrastructures? If the renewal movements have an impact on religious life but nothing else, then they will not have a durable or transformative effect.

It is easy to say that the religious institutions in North America and Europe have been declining in patterns that measure worship attendance, for example. The fading numbers can be interpreted as clear evidence that the established organizations are weakening.

Yet that does not necessarily mean the energy provided by Pentecostal and Charismatic forces will renew the political, social, cultural systems in some region or area. Everything depends on how broadly structured they become and how deeply embedded they become.

It could be argued that the most fervent forces in the Protestant Reformation during the 1520s were those in the Peasants Rebellion. But other forces, even including the established Reformation leaders like Martin Luther, rejected the Peasants? cause.

Renewal movements have to renew something, or they fade from view.

AMY MARTIN, Executive Director, Earth Rhythms; Writer/Editor, Moonlady Media

The rise of Pentecostal and Charismatic religions in the Global South parallels the rise of the spiritually unaffiliated. Underlying it is a fundamental change in worship styles. There is a greater desire to be physically engaged in spirituality, to experience it directly, rather than be a passive recipient of spirituality as channeled through someone of authority. Areas of China and India are challenged by a plethora of languages and dialects that make detailed communication among large groups difficult, whereas a charismatic approach with an emphasis on experience helps alleviate that.

When the current reigning religions developed, humans existed in agricultural communities and toiled hard in the fields. More than 2000 years later, we live desk-bound lives lacking in physical activity and inundated with words, words, words. Now we are aware not only that there is an entire planet of people with radically different views of reality and the divine, but that there is an infinite universe that undoubtedly has other planets with intelligent life. This is the greatest challenge any religion must now face.

MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas, and Speaker on interfaith matters, diversity and pluralism

The renewalist movements can be likened to the industrial revolution of the 19th century that dissolved the traditional nationalistic boundaries to reach out to new consumers and new producers.

The product of revolution was ?improved life style? with new conveniences in transportation, communications and the day-to-day living. The product of the renewalist movement is charismatic entertainment that is crossing traditional religious boundaries to form a new enclave.

The post-denominational movement is the new face of the Protestant Church, according to Rachel Tabachnick at the Talk 2 Action organization. She says, ?Their ideology and relational networks have taken root in the block of 400 million independent charismatics, sometimes referred to as neo-charismatics or neo-Pentecostals. This is an often overlooked mega-block of Christianity that is larger than all Protestant denominations combined, according to world missions statisticians.?

The future of renewalist movement is based on entertainment; whoever can deliver the most mesmerizing sermons will gather up a larger flock. After all who wants to hear boring sermons week after week? Indeed, the trend is similar in Islam, and great oratory is making a comeback to cross the traditional boundaries.

The United States sets the new tone for cultural, religious, entertainment and social trends around the globe, and the underlying theme is renewed inclusion; i.e., acceptance of diversity of humankind in the workplace, church, weddings and schools.

As a pluralist, my concern is the growth of pastors like John Hagee, Robert Jeffress and their likes who sell exclusion in the name of Christ. They act like they want to give birth to the Christ of their making and ruthlessly clear the path for his speedy arrival by compromising on the centrality of his message: love and forgiveness.

If a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or any place of worship delivers a sense of home ? a feeling that permeates in one?s heart and soul when you walk out of the place of worship with ?malice towards none,? then it earns the larger congregation. Those places of worship that pound ill-will towards others will fade.

I am optimistic about the future. The renewalist movements would be sensitive to the needs of the diverse congregations and build upon positive things about their own movement as opposed to focusing on what others don?t have. The anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-idolatry or anti-Islam rants will drive the congregants out.

LARRY BETHUNE, Senior Minister, University Baptist Church, Austin

Historically, religious renewal movements return to a more personal and direct experience of the Divine presence without the inhibiting structures of institutional religion which, while more theologically developed and sophisticated, too often lose touch with the power of personal experience. Emergent Christianity replacing the old mythologies of the Roman Empire, the Protestant revolution correcting the corruption of Renaissance Catholicism, and the evangelical explosion displacing mainstream denominationalism are but a few Christian examples. The church in the United States is experiencing this shift now with the ?spiritual but not religious? movement among young people.

This renewal of direct spiritual experience has many positive qualities, but one of the dangers is the abandonment of the deeper, subtler lines of theology and practice in established religion, which is more likely to be tolerant and peaceful after achieving a balance of coexistence with culture and other faith traditions. The danger of the renewal movement in both Christianity and Islam (and other religions, too) is whether it will carry the emphases on peace, grace, and humility before the Divine at the heart these traditions or turn towards a militant and violent competition with each other for cultural and political control.

What starts as a profound personal experience can too often turn towards violent conflict in the name of the Divine, which creates immense, suffering and betrays the core values of its own faith. Religious ideas too easily get mixed with cultural and political goals when there is insufficient separation of church and state, and war is perversely waged in the name of God.

It remains to be seen whether these renewal movements will lead to a worldwide renewal of the great religions or another series of violent conflicts. The best hope may lie in the historical reality that every renewal movement itself develops over time into an institution that has developed a means of living at peace with its neighbors.

JIM DENISON, Theologian-in-Residence, Texas Baptist Convention and President, Denison Forum on Truth and Culture

David Barrett?s World Christian Encyclopedia is the foremost compendium of statistics and trends in the Christian world. Barrett documents 82,000 conversions a day, the largest number in history. God Is Back, written by two Oxford scholars (one an atheist, the other a Catholic) sets the number even higher, at more than a million a week.

The vast majority of these new believers are coming to faith within renewalist Christianity. The Catholic charismatic movement is strong, especially in Central and
South America. Prayer and healing services have become common in mainline Christian churches. Worship has become more passionate and popular, largely as a result of charismatic influence.

More Muslims are coming to Christ than ever before, many after seeing visions and dreams of Jesus. Millions are turning to Jesus from other religious traditions as well.

The ?signs and wonders? that renewalist Christianity embraces are advancing the Kingdom of God around the world, especially in the Global South.

I?ve been privileged to witness this movement first hand in Australia, Cuba, China, the Middle East and Latin America, and am grateful for its transforming power in the cultures where it is found. I consider this spiritual awakening to be the most significant trend in religion today.

Martin Marty believes that the future of Christianity belongs to the Pentecostals. Harvey Cox was one of the first American theologians to tell the story of this remarkable movement. He quotes a Pentecostal believer who said, ?When a man with an experience argues with a man who has an argument, the man with the experience wins.?

Source: http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2013/03/texas-faith-the-global-souths-influence-on-religion.html/

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