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

Granberg-Michaelson, Wesley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802869688 ISBN 13: 9780802869685

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013

Synopsis

In the last century, amazingly, 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. World Christianity's most decisive twenty-first-century challenge, Granberg-Michaelson argues, is to build meaningful bridges between faithful churches in the global North and the spiritually exuberant churches of the global South.

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About this title

About the Author:

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson has served as General Secretaryof the Reformed Church in America since 1994. He was thefirst managing editor of Sojourners magazine andhas also worked with the World Council of Churches,Christian Churches Together in the USA, the GlobalChristian Forum, and Call to Renewal. His books includeLeadership from Inside Out: Spirituality andOrganizational Change.

Review:

Philip Jenkins
--Pennsylvania State University
Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University
"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."

Jim Wallis
-- president and founder of Sojourners
"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."

Brian D. McLaren
--author/speaker/activist (brianmclaren.net)
"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."

Lamin Sanneh
--Yale Divinity School
"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."

Joel Carpenter
--Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin College
“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.”

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
--Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra, Ghana
"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."

Todd M.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0802869688
• ISBN 13: 9780802869685
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 189