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Majority World Theology: Christian Doctrine in Global Context
More Christians now live in the Majority World than in Europe and North America. Yet most theological literature does not reflect the rising tide of Christian reflection coming from these regions. If we take seriously the Spirit's movement around the world, we must consider how the rich textures of Christianity in the Majority World can enliven, inform, and challenge all who are invested in the ongoing work of theology.
Majority World Theology offers an unprecedented opportunity to enter conversations on the core Christian doctrines with leading scholars from around the globe. Seeking to bring together the strongest theological resources from past and present, East and West, the volume editors have assembled a diverse team of contributors to develop insights informed by questions from particular geographic and cultural contexts. This book features
a comprehensive overview of systematic theology, with sections on the Trinity, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatologycontributors including Amos Yong, Ruth Padilla DeBorst, Victor I. Ezigbo, Wonsuk Ma, Aída Besançon Spencer, Randy S. Woodley, Munther Isaac, and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinenexplorations of how Scripture, tradition, and culture fit together to guide the church's theological reflectionscholars demonstrating how to read the Bible and think theologically in light of contextual resources and concernsinside views on what doing theology looks like in contributors' contexts and what developments they hope for in the futureWhen we learn what it means for Jesus to be Lord in diverse places and cultures, we grasp the gospel more fully and are more able to see the blind spots of our own local versions of Christianity. Majority World Theology provides an essential resource for students, theologians, and pastors who want to expand their theological horizons.
Majority World Theology offers an unprecedented opportunity to enter conversations on the core Christian doctrines with leading scholars from around the globe. Seeking to bring together the strongest theological resources from past and present, East and West, the volume editors have assembled a diverse team of contributors to develop insights informed by questions from particular geographic and cultural contexts. This book features
a comprehensive overview of systematic theology, with sections on the Trinity, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatologycontributors including Amos Yong, Ruth Padilla DeBorst, Victor I. Ezigbo, Wonsuk Ma, Aída Besançon Spencer, Randy S. Woodley, Munther Isaac, and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinenexplorations of how Scripture, tradition, and culture fit together to guide the church's theological reflectionscholars demonstrating how to read the Bible and think theologically in light of contextual resources and concernsinside views on what doing theology looks like in contributors' contexts and what developments they hope for in the futureWhen we learn what it means for Jesus to be Lord in diverse places and cultures, we grasp the gospel more fully and are more able to see the blind spots of our own local versions of Christianity. Majority World Theology provides an essential resource for students, theologians, and pastors who want to expand their theological horizons.
714 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2020
16 people are currently reading
297 people want to read
About the author
Gene L. Green
30 books3 followersGene L. Green (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. He has written commentaries on 2 Peter and Jude (Baker Exegetical series) and the Letters to the Thessalonians (Pillar series).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 14, 2021
Summary: A global collection of scholars discuss the major doctrines of the Christian faith considering the history of doctrines, the scriptures, and cultural contexts.
Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Newman, Hodge, Warfield, Kuyper, Bavinck, Berkhof, Barth, Bonhoeffer, Niebuhr, Henry, Erickson, Bloesch, Hauerwas. These were some of the formative influences in my theological thinking. All male. All White. All Europeans or Americans. Many of my generation thought, and may still think that what they produced is Christian theology.
The global Christian church has gone through a massive transformation over the last fifty years as the locus of Christianity has shifted both south and east. Equally, in the American context, Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous theologians are speaking, teaching, and writing of the bearing of Christian theology on their distinctive cultural contexts. Many women have joined their male counterparts. What those of my generation, race, and gender thought was the conversation increasingly is part of a much larger conversation. As a student, we prayed and mobilized to reach the nations with the gospel. Now, increasingly, the nations are evangelizing the West and both challenging and enriching our understanding of the faith. I’m delighted I’ve lived to see this, which is what makes me so excited to review this significant volume.
This actually represents a compilation of six books, representing six annual gatherings focusing on the major theological categories of Trinity, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. Each of the six sections is introduced with an overview of the contributions for that section. This is followed by chapters written by theological scholars from every part of the world, eight chapters per section except for the final section on eschatology which has seven. The first chapter in each section surveys the historical tradition, usually the only one written by a Euro-American. The contributors affirm a commitment to scripture, tradition, and their own cultures. Having worked through this massive volume, my general sense is that the contributors hit all three of these marks and stretched my own thinking about such things as the honoring of ancestors and the meaning of one’s land. Due to length, I cannot discuss every contribution but I thought I’d highlight some of those I most appreciated from each section.
Part One: The Trinity Among the Nations: The Doctrine of God in the Majority World
Gerald Bray’s chapter on the Trinity is a masterly summary of outstanding clarity. It was delightful to read Randy Woodley offering an Indigenous American perspective, considering Indigenous ideas of deity and offering a framing of the Trinity as a “community of the Creator, existing eternally in shalom relationality.” I appreciated the care of Natee Tanchanpongs in evaluating various Asian Reformulations of the Trinity, holding orthodoxy and cultural formulations in a creative tension.
Part Two: Jesus Without Borders: Christology in the Majority World
Several of the chapters evaluated various Christologies from each continent. I appreciated Stephen Ezigbo’s discussion of African christologies by the categories of neo-missionary christologies, ancestor christologies, and revealer christologies. The second half of this section is more topical. Aida Besancon Spencer offers a sensitive discussion of the veneration of Mary vis a vis Christology. I also appreciated Yohanna Katanacho’s chapter on reading John through Palestinian eyes and the themes of holy space, holy time, holy experience, holy people, and holy land.
Part Three: The Spirit over the Earth: Pneumatology in the Majority World
I especially valued the articles that bookended this section by Amos Young and C. Rene Padilla (who recently passed). Then Wei Hua offers a thoughtful discussion of how ancestor commemoration may be integrated into Christian faith through the transforming work of the Spirit.
Part Four: So Great a Salvation: Soteriology in the Majority World
Milton Acosta offers a thoughtful discussion of salvation in the Latin American context where material and spiritual concerns often clash in “From What Do We Need to Be Saved? Reflections on God’s Justice and Material Salvation.” Elaine W. F. Goh’s “Qohelet’s Gospel in Ecclesiastes: Ecclesiastes 3:1-15; 7:15-22; and 11:1-6” draws together solid exegesis, tradition and Asian cultural insights in a credible argument for reading the gospel out of Ecclesiastes.
Part Five: The Church from Every Tribe and Tongue: Ecclesiology in the Majority World
Peter Neyende offers a thought-provoking reading of Hebrews centering on the church as the assembled on Mount Zion, which he believes a far more compelling model for the church than the family. Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking essays of the whole volume was Munther Isaac’s “Ecclesiology and the Theology of the Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective.” speaks powerfully of what it means to be a church in an occupied land and a vision of living on a land “where people of all ethnicities and social backgrounds are treated equally.”
Part Six: All Things New: Eschatology in the Majority World
James Henry Owino Kombo’s “The Past, the Present, and the Future of African Christianity: An Eschatological Vision for African Christianity” considers how eschatology addresses concerns of ancestors, life, death, the intermediate state and Christian hope. Finally, Shirley S. Ho, in the concluding chapter discusses the affinity for Judeophilia of the Taiwanese, and how this misses the focus on the victory and reign of Christ.
This book might serve as a good text or supplementary text for a Christian doctrine or systematic theology sequence. It is also a helpful introduction for many of us educated on a diet of white, male, Euro-American theologians. It introduces us to scholars who are in vibrant conversations, whether we are listening or not. A strength of this work is its engagement with rather than wholesale rejection of the theological traditions of the church. It also explores cultural issues that are becoming increasingly relevant in the multi-cultural West. It models cross-cultural conversations about theology that evidence both our common faith and rich diversity. And it is a one-volume introduction to the global theological voices with whom we may want to become better acquainted.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Newman, Hodge, Warfield, Kuyper, Bavinck, Berkhof, Barth, Bonhoeffer, Niebuhr, Henry, Erickson, Bloesch, Hauerwas. These were some of the formative influences in my theological thinking. All male. All White. All Europeans or Americans. Many of my generation thought, and may still think that what they produced is Christian theology.
The global Christian church has gone through a massive transformation over the last fifty years as the locus of Christianity has shifted both south and east. Equally, in the American context, Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous theologians are speaking, teaching, and writing of the bearing of Christian theology on their distinctive cultural contexts. Many women have joined their male counterparts. What those of my generation, race, and gender thought was the conversation increasingly is part of a much larger conversation. As a student, we prayed and mobilized to reach the nations with the gospel. Now, increasingly, the nations are evangelizing the West and both challenging and enriching our understanding of the faith. I’m delighted I’ve lived to see this, which is what makes me so excited to review this significant volume.
This actually represents a compilation of six books, representing six annual gatherings focusing on the major theological categories of Trinity, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. Each of the six sections is introduced with an overview of the contributions for that section. This is followed by chapters written by theological scholars from every part of the world, eight chapters per section except for the final section on eschatology which has seven. The first chapter in each section surveys the historical tradition, usually the only one written by a Euro-American. The contributors affirm a commitment to scripture, tradition, and their own cultures. Having worked through this massive volume, my general sense is that the contributors hit all three of these marks and stretched my own thinking about such things as the honoring of ancestors and the meaning of one’s land. Due to length, I cannot discuss every contribution but I thought I’d highlight some of those I most appreciated from each section.
Part One: The Trinity Among the Nations: The Doctrine of God in the Majority World
Gerald Bray’s chapter on the Trinity is a masterly summary of outstanding clarity. It was delightful to read Randy Woodley offering an Indigenous American perspective, considering Indigenous ideas of deity and offering a framing of the Trinity as a “community of the Creator, existing eternally in shalom relationality.” I appreciated the care of Natee Tanchanpongs in evaluating various Asian Reformulations of the Trinity, holding orthodoxy and cultural formulations in a creative tension.
Part Two: Jesus Without Borders: Christology in the Majority World
Several of the chapters evaluated various Christologies from each continent. I appreciated Stephen Ezigbo’s discussion of African christologies by the categories of neo-missionary christologies, ancestor christologies, and revealer christologies. The second half of this section is more topical. Aida Besancon Spencer offers a sensitive discussion of the veneration of Mary vis a vis Christology. I also appreciated Yohanna Katanacho’s chapter on reading John through Palestinian eyes and the themes of holy space, holy time, holy experience, holy people, and holy land.
Part Three: The Spirit over the Earth: Pneumatology in the Majority World
I especially valued the articles that bookended this section by Amos Young and C. Rene Padilla (who recently passed). Then Wei Hua offers a thoughtful discussion of how ancestor commemoration may be integrated into Christian faith through the transforming work of the Spirit.
Part Four: So Great a Salvation: Soteriology in the Majority World
Milton Acosta offers a thoughtful discussion of salvation in the Latin American context where material and spiritual concerns often clash in “From What Do We Need to Be Saved? Reflections on God’s Justice and Material Salvation.” Elaine W. F. Goh’s “Qohelet’s Gospel in Ecclesiastes: Ecclesiastes 3:1-15; 7:15-22; and 11:1-6” draws together solid exegesis, tradition and Asian cultural insights in a credible argument for reading the gospel out of Ecclesiastes.
Part Five: The Church from Every Tribe and Tongue: Ecclesiology in the Majority World
Peter Neyende offers a thought-provoking reading of Hebrews centering on the church as the assembled on Mount Zion, which he believes a far more compelling model for the church than the family. Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking essays of the whole volume was Munther Isaac’s “Ecclesiology and the Theology of the Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective.” speaks powerfully of what it means to be a church in an occupied land and a vision of living on a land “where people of all ethnicities and social backgrounds are treated equally.”
Part Six: All Things New: Eschatology in the Majority World
James Henry Owino Kombo’s “The Past, the Present, and the Future of African Christianity: An Eschatological Vision for African Christianity” considers how eschatology addresses concerns of ancestors, life, death, the intermediate state and Christian hope. Finally, Shirley S. Ho, in the concluding chapter discusses the affinity for Judeophilia of the Taiwanese, and how this misses the focus on the victory and reign of Christ.
This book might serve as a good text or supplementary text for a Christian doctrine or systematic theology sequence. It is also a helpful introduction for many of us educated on a diet of white, male, Euro-American theologians. It introduces us to scholars who are in vibrant conversations, whether we are listening or not. A strength of this work is its engagement with rather than wholesale rejection of the theological traditions of the church. It also explores cultural issues that are becoming increasingly relevant in the multi-cultural West. It models cross-cultural conversations about theology that evidence both our common faith and rich diversity. And it is a one-volume introduction to the global theological voices with whom we may want to become better acquainted.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
December 30, 2021
Every Bible/theology student needs to read this. It’s very difficult readings but needed!
June 10, 2024
Was reading with a couple of friends. We corporately lost interest. We finished half of the book and learned a lot but it was time to move on.
October 24, 2023
Very useful resource. Big ol’ beast to get through, but happy to have it on my shelf.
October 9, 2025
I really enjoyed discussing this book with our ministry team! Shelving it for now, though there are some sections I hope to read and dig deeper into in the future. Below are reflections on two of the articles I looked at most thoroughly.
1. The Trinity in Africa – Engaging Distortions and Reclaiming Early Christianity
This reading helped me recognize common distortions of the Trinity—such as modalism or hierarchical misreadings—present in both popular spirituality and some student religious groups. Drawing from African theological critiques and early church history, I am better equipped to engage both Christian and Muslim students in conversations about the nature of God. Additionally, the book helped me deconstruct the whitewashing of early Christianity, providing historical grounding to affirm Christianity's global and multiethnic roots. This is especially helpful for witnessing among Black and international students who have questions about Christianity's origins.
2. Reading the Gospel of John through Palestinian Eyes – Centering Jesus' Ethnicity in Justice and Witness
Katanacho’s contextual reading of John challenged me to consider how Jesus' Jewish identity informs our discipleship, especially in conversations with Jewish students at UD and in shaping our understanding of ethnic identity in Christ. His Christocentric view pushes back against both antisemitism and Christian nationalism, reminding us that Jesus’ lordship challenges every ethnic or national supremacy. This deepens how I frame justice and reconciliation on campus, especially in times of global or local ethnic tension.
1. The Trinity in Africa – Engaging Distortions and Reclaiming Early Christianity
This reading helped me recognize common distortions of the Trinity—such as modalism or hierarchical misreadings—present in both popular spirituality and some student religious groups. Drawing from African theological critiques and early church history, I am better equipped to engage both Christian and Muslim students in conversations about the nature of God. Additionally, the book helped me deconstruct the whitewashing of early Christianity, providing historical grounding to affirm Christianity's global and multiethnic roots. This is especially helpful for witnessing among Black and international students who have questions about Christianity's origins.
2. Reading the Gospel of John through Palestinian Eyes – Centering Jesus' Ethnicity in Justice and Witness
Katanacho’s contextual reading of John challenged me to consider how Jesus' Jewish identity informs our discipleship, especially in conversations with Jewish students at UD and in shaping our understanding of ethnic identity in Christ. His Christocentric view pushes back against both antisemitism and Christian nationalism, reminding us that Jesus’ lordship challenges every ethnic or national supremacy. This deepens how I frame justice and reconciliation on campus, especially in times of global or local ethnic tension.
October 29, 2024
3-4 Read for a course. I appreciated the Global Context of this theology text. It is divided into 6 major topical sections in Christian theology. Each section (except the last which has 7) has 8 essays written by Biblical theologians and scholars from around the world. Generally the first essay was written from a Western (traditional) understanding of the topic followed by essays from the Majority World authors. The insights provided by these scholars in their cultural contexts was challenging and informative.
As with most books of this nature, I found some essays more interesting than others and found some easier to follow than others (given my interests and brain capacity--no fault of the scholars). I enjoyed Woodley's essay on Indigenous people and understanding the nature of God, learning more about the Chinese context in general, and hearing how African understanding of ancestors may contribute to overall understanding of eschatology.
As with most books of this nature, I found some essays more interesting than others and found some easier to follow than others (given my interests and brain capacity--no fault of the scholars). I enjoyed Woodley's essay on Indigenous people and understanding the nature of God, learning more about the Chinese context in general, and hearing how African understanding of ancestors may contribute to overall understanding of eschatology.
Read
December 5, 2022I read sections of this textbook for Gordon conwells introductory theology classes TH501 and TH502. Interesting overview of how non-western cultures interact with Christian theology and global trends in theology
March 21, 2022
I use this book to teach a theology course, and the essays are excellent, provacative, and formative.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews