Reviews

undermines Sirico’s informed critique of the modern welfare state. However, I would like to 207
see more critics of government welfare programs at least recognize the economic argument
for state aid to the poor. In a sense, Sirico has offered a compelling rebuttal to this argument,
but without first acknowledging it or giving it a hearing.
This is a minor quibble. In all, Sirico has written a superbly readable and passionate
book, easily accessible to the lay reader, presenting a coherent and well-supported case for
the free economy in an engaging and personable style. While the book’s arguments will
naturally appeal to readers already supportive of free markets, the more important audi-
ence will be those within the Christian community skeptical of market capitalism. For them,
Sirico’s reputation and intellectual journey may make him a credible apologist for a free
economy, and his book may yet succeed in acquitting the wrongly accused.

Charles E. Farhadian, ed. Introducing World Christianity. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell,

2012. 280 pp. $39.95, ISBN 9781405182485.

Reviewed by George F. Pickens, Theology and Mission, Messiah College

Even though I have been a student of World Christianity since before that term was
widely used, I confess that the idea of reviewing yet another volume which claimed to ex-
amine Christianity around the world was not initially appealing. For a myriad of reasons,
interest in Christianity as a world religion has grown in the past decade, and consequently
an enlarging and trendy corpus focusing on Christianity as a global faith has emerged. Even
so, many of these studies are disappointing, either because of their stubbornly persistent
Euro-centrism or their superficial and spotty characterizations of global Christianity. My
initial reluctance quickly dissipated, however, when I began to examine Introducing World
Christianity. A collection of seventeen chapters with an introduction and conclusion covering
all the major geographical regions of the world, this is an exceptional volume which succeeds
in reviewing Christianity on the terms of its diverse global contexts. Several features cause
this book to stand out among the current surveys of World Christianity that are in print.
Within a body of literature dominated by statistics and mere descriptions, Introduc-
ing World Christianity avoids simplistic characterizations by focusing on the much-needed
and rare qualitative interpretations of Christianity in its multiple global contexts. Indeed,
the book’s purpose is to move beyond the most common paradigms for understanding
Christianity’s place in the world—descriptive and historical—to address a simple question,
“What difference has Christianity made in the world?” (3). This purpose guides the nineteen
contributors, all established scholars representing multiple disciplines, as they analyze the
broader implications of Christian presence in five global regions. While theological and
historical details are not neglected, each chapter delves into the broader social, political,
cultural, and economic issues that allow the reader to understand each region’s Christian
experience with greater depth and complexity. This blending of theological and historical
backgrounds with emic interpretations about the nature of Christian presence around the
world is one of this volume’s most valuable contributions.
Such depth of social scientific analysis of World Christianity is much needed and
overdue, and it is a second major contribution of Farhadian’s collection of essays. It is
understandable and appropriate that the first studies of Christianity as a global faith were
primarily written by theologians, missiologists, and scholars of religion.8 However, because
 Christian Scholar’s Review

208 “Christianity is movement—a flow, a traveling religion” (2) that serves as a channel for the
sharing of ideas, technologies, money, institutions, and other cultural features, multiple
methods must be utilized to gain a more complete understanding of Christian experiences
in any particular time and place. The contributors to Introducing World Christianity employ
the perspectives of theology, religious studies, history, sociology, and anthropology, and this
multi-disciplinary approach enlarges our understanding of World Christianity as more than
a set of quantifiable religious beliefs and practices. For example, the effects of centuries of
persecution on local Christian communities are explored along with accompanying explana-
tions as to why Christianity has historically survived in North Africa and the Middle East,
yet also why the Faith has very recently declined (Chapter 1). An analysis of the relationship
between prosperity theology and possible future mass disillusionment with Christianity
in East Africa is included (Chapter 2), as is a fascinating interpretation of how Christianity
transformed the “warrior spirit” (244) of Melanesia (Chapter 17). Such rich insights into
the local complexities of Christianity around the world are offered in each chapter, and this
exegesis of the holistic nature of global Christian faith could only be accessed through the
use of multiple disciplinary analyses.
This qualitative analysis is possible because the contributors minimize their imposition
of outside paradigms for interpreting Christianity in its varied global contexts, and this is
another feature which sets this volume apart from many such studies. Rather than importing
concepts, categories, or even terms that have historically been used to understand Christian
experiences in the West, each chapter in Introducing World Christianity examines Christianity
in a specific region on its own, local terms. The intention is to understand the distinctive
features of Christian experience as they have been formed by multiple contexts, rather than
even implying that the standard for all Christian faith is still of the West. For example, when
students of World Christianity persist in interpreting non-western expressions of Christian
faith (which are now the majority) by using terms and categories formed in the West such
as “Christendom” or even “Catholic,” “Protestant,” “Orthodox,” or “Pentecostal,” they
significantly limit their ability to understand the unique features of World Christianity. Such
etic categories not only allow one to find what one is looking for even if it does not exist,
but they also result in distortions which are inadequate to acknowledge the new and fresh
variations of Christianity that are emerging all over the world. In order for global Christian-
ity to be understood and appreciated, it must be studied on its own, local and distinctive
terms; appropriate paradigms must be created or utilized. The contributors to Introducing
World Christianity are to be applauded for this rare accomplishment.
Another contribution of Farhadian’s book is that it is one of the few studies of World
Christianity that is truly global in its scope. While some surveys neglect or treat superficially
certain geographical areas, Introducing World Christianity covers all five major regions of the
world: Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific. The inclusion of Western Europe
and North America is especially valuable, yet these regions are often neglected in studies of
World Christianity. Many treatments of global Christianity are more accurately examinations
of the Faith in the global South, and while Western Europe and North America are becoming
more marginalized as minority Christian lands, still the West remains incredibly significant
for Christianity in the world. Thus, the study of Christian presence in these post-Christian
regions is a necessary component of the contemporary global story of Christianity. Addition-

8
Andrew Walls, a Scottish missiologist, is widely considered to be the father of the study of World Chris-
tianity. For examples of his earlier work, see his collection of essays, many of them first published in the
early 1980s, The Missionary Movement in Christian History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996).
Reviews
ally, each geographical region is covered in several chapters, so that Christian presence is 209
analyzed in more specific sub-regions or nations. For example, a chapter is included on the
often-neglected region of North Africa and the Middle East (Chapter 1), the dynamic story
of contemporary Christianity in Eastern Europe is reviewed (Chapter 6), and a penetrat-
ing chapter on the globally significant church in South Korea is also included (Chapter 9).
Another often-neglected region, The Pacific, is covered in four chapters, one focusing on
Australia and New Zealand, and three chapters focusing on the three Pacific island regions:
Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Such global coverage is commendable and necessary
for an accurate, balanced, and complete understanding of World Christianity.
Finally, the volume’s Introduction and Conclusion offer valuable contributions to our
understanding of Christian processes in the contemporary world. The Introduction briefly
summarizes the primary paradigms that have been used to describe World Christianity, but
more importantly Farhadian details his own multi-disciplinary paradigm. His understand-
ing of Christianity as a flow or movement is fresh and insightful.9 Likewise and in spite
of its somewhat ambitious title, the Conclusion is substantial enough to stand on its own
as a separate essay.10 Robert Woodberry’s analyses of the social consequences of Christian
presence, coupled with his review of the nature of Christianity as it has globally interacted
with other religions, are a fitting conclusion to an excellent study.
Perhaps it is the responsibility of a reviewer to find fault, but any flaws in this volume
are topics for quibble rather than argument. For example, I would have preferred more
detailed coverage of the incredible significance of Chinese Christianity. The very brief and
superficial treatment (barely one page) of Christianity in China, arguably now the world’s
largest Christian country, is surprising and regrettable. Even so, this volume is a must-read
for anyone interested in understanding global Christian presence on its own terms. It is
suitable for both undergraduate and graduate audiences, and the editor and contributors
are to be commended for their efforts to produce a study that combines fresh insights with
qualitative methodologies and a truly global scope.

Amanda Rose. Showdown in the Sonoran Desert: Religion, Law, and the Immigration Controversy.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. x + 208 pp. $29.99, ISBN 9780199890934.

Reviewed by Carl A. Ruby, Student Life, Cedarville University

In the final chapter of Amanda Rose’s narrative account of the consequences of our
nation’s current approach to immigration policy she observes, “The U.S.– Mexican border
is a place of extreme behavior, a place where social and economic ills are played out with
terrifying and tragic outcomes” (152). This geographic backdrop, or specifically, a 262-mile
stretch of it in the Sonoran desert, provides the context for a series of narratives told by
Rose to highlight many of the challenges the United States faces in the area of immigration
policy, a system that she and many others acknowledge as broken.11

9
For Christianity as a flow, movement, or traveling religion, Farhadian draws upon the work of Thomas
A. Tweed in Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).
10
Robert D. Woodberry, “Conclusion: World Christianity: Its History, Spread, and Social Influence” in
Introducing World Christianity (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 259-271.
11
Matthew Soerens and Jenny Hwang, Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion, and Truth in the Im-
migration Debate (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009); Lisa Sharon Harper and D. C. Innes, Left,
Right, and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Boise, ID: Russell Media, 2011); Richard Land, “God and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.