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How God Saves the World: A Short History of Global Christianity
In a world awash with mission statements, the Christian mission is increasingly becoming white noise, lost in a sea of marketing language and organizational best practices.
How God Saves the World takes a look at the mission of the church in a way you might not have understood it before. Rather than exploring the history of global Christianity through a long series of countless names and events, Timothy Tennent presents this remarkable journey in the three-act model of a true epic play.
Complete with a world in turmoil, heroes and heroines of all shapes and sizes, and the ultimate Guide leading the way, this short book will remind you of the small, yet significant role we play in a much larger story that spans both time and space.
How God Saves the World takes a look at the mission of the church in a way you might not have understood it before. Rather than exploring the history of global Christianity through a long series of countless names and events, Timothy Tennent presents this remarkable journey in the three-act model of a true epic play.
Complete with a world in turmoil, heroes and heroines of all shapes and sizes, and the ultimate Guide leading the way, this short book will remind you of the small, yet significant role we play in a much larger story that spans both time and space.
138 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 29, 2017
A rapid, almost bullet - pointed introduction to the history of World Christianity. Possibly a good Sunday school text on the subject.
August 6, 2017
A quick read, this 30,000 foot view of the history of missions was well-written and insightful! I would recommend this to anyone interested in how God has moved throughout the centuries but is not wanting to devote serious time to reading academically dense literature. This book is short and sweet!
May 14, 2022
Some very encouraging and enlightening stories of God working through his peoples across the centuries.
December 2, 2025
As the title suggests, Timothy Tennent’s How God Saves the World presents the history of Christian missions through the lens of God’s Missio Dei—the divine mission in which the Church, in all its flawed and shifting forms, is simply the chosen instrument.
The book is divided into three acts. Act One traces seven turning points in missions before 1792. Tennent begins not with Paul, but even earlier: with the “unnamed disciples from Cyprus and Cyrene” who first spread the good news in Antioch (Acts 11:20). Their anonymity illustrates one of Tennent’s themes: “God often moves from the margins, not from the centre of the Christian movement.”
While postmodern critics often conflate missions with colonialism, and with a movement of cultural condescension and feeling of superiority over authentic indigenous culture, Tennent states that, surprisingly, “early forms of what is today known as Hinduism came from migrating Aryans who originated outside of India.” He also effectively establishes Christianity’s deep and diverse roots in India, beginning with the apostle Thomas in the first century, followed by Syriac Christians in the fourth, Francis Xavier’s Catholic missions in 1542, and later, Lutheran missionaries in 1706. These “distinct traditions, all of which coexist in India until the present day,” show that the gospel was never the monopoly of one culture or empire.
Act Two examines the “Great Century” of missions (1792–1902). Here Tennent identifies the many forces that shaped its vitality: the rise of missionary societies; Bible translation into the vernacular; the legacy of female missionaries such as Lottie Moon; church planting efforts; and the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910 led by John Mott, with its goal of evangelizing the world in one generation.
A striking observation is that “Christianity is the only world religion whose primary source documents are in a language other than the language of the founder of the religion.” Jesus spoke Aramaic, yet his words were recorded in Greek, which can be viewed as an early sign that the gospel was meant for all nations. Unlike Islam, where the Qur’an is viewed by Muslims as “untranslatable,” and Hinduism’s ancient mantras “lose their power when they are uttered in a vernacular language,” Christianity embraces translation. Just as God took on flesh to dwell with us, so His Word is made “vulgar” in order to communicate with us.
Act Three turns to the present, where Tennent finds Christianity “flowering” in Latin America, Africa, India, China, Korea, and even among Muslims. This global spread reflects John’s eschatological vision in Revelation: “men and women from every nation, tribe, people and language worshiping the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In such a short space, Tennent does not attempt a full history of missions, but he succeeds in showing the remarkable diversity of evangelism across the centuries. More importantly, he reminds us that mission is ultimately not our work for God, but God’s work through us. He effectively gives a global perspective across centuries that offers hope for the Church’s future as a global and vibrant outworking of God’s eternal plan.
The book is divided into three acts. Act One traces seven turning points in missions before 1792. Tennent begins not with Paul, but even earlier: with the “unnamed disciples from Cyprus and Cyrene” who first spread the good news in Antioch (Acts 11:20). Their anonymity illustrates one of Tennent’s themes: “God often moves from the margins, not from the centre of the Christian movement.”
While postmodern critics often conflate missions with colonialism, and with a movement of cultural condescension and feeling of superiority over authentic indigenous culture, Tennent states that, surprisingly, “early forms of what is today known as Hinduism came from migrating Aryans who originated outside of India.” He also effectively establishes Christianity’s deep and diverse roots in India, beginning with the apostle Thomas in the first century, followed by Syriac Christians in the fourth, Francis Xavier’s Catholic missions in 1542, and later, Lutheran missionaries in 1706. These “distinct traditions, all of which coexist in India until the present day,” show that the gospel was never the monopoly of one culture or empire.
Act Two examines the “Great Century” of missions (1792–1902). Here Tennent identifies the many forces that shaped its vitality: the rise of missionary societies; Bible translation into the vernacular; the legacy of female missionaries such as Lottie Moon; church planting efforts; and the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910 led by John Mott, with its goal of evangelizing the world in one generation.
A striking observation is that “Christianity is the only world religion whose primary source documents are in a language other than the language of the founder of the religion.” Jesus spoke Aramaic, yet his words were recorded in Greek, which can be viewed as an early sign that the gospel was meant for all nations. Unlike Islam, where the Qur’an is viewed by Muslims as “untranslatable,” and Hinduism’s ancient mantras “lose their power when they are uttered in a vernacular language,” Christianity embraces translation. Just as God took on flesh to dwell with us, so His Word is made “vulgar” in order to communicate with us.
Act Three turns to the present, where Tennent finds Christianity “flowering” in Latin America, Africa, India, China, Korea, and even among Muslims. This global spread reflects John’s eschatological vision in Revelation: “men and women from every nation, tribe, people and language worshiping the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In such a short space, Tennent does not attempt a full history of missions, but he succeeds in showing the remarkable diversity of evangelism across the centuries. More importantly, he reminds us that mission is ultimately not our work for God, but God’s work through us. He effectively gives a global perspective across centuries that offers hope for the Church’s future as a global and vibrant outworking of God’s eternal plan.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews