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The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith
2010 Christianity Today Book Award winner! With characteristic rigor and insight, in this book Mark Noll revisits the history of the American church in the context of world events. He makes the compelling case that how Americans have come to practice the Christian faith is just as globally important as what the American church has done in the world. He backs up this substantial claim with the scholarly attentiveness we've come to expect from him, lucidly explaining the relationship between the development of Christianity in North America and the development of Christianity in the rest of the world, with attention to recent transfigurations in world Christianity. Here is a book that will challenge your assumptions about the nature of the relationship between the American church and the global church in the past and predict what world Christianity may look like.
212 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2009
25 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
Mark A. Noll
124 books215 followersMark A. Noll (born 1946), Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, is a progressive evangelical Christian scholar. In 2005, Noll was named by Time Magazine as one of the twenty-five most influential evangelicals in America. Noll is a prolific author and many of his books have earned considerable acclaim within the academic community.
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
, a book about the anti-intellectual tendencies within the American evangelical movement, was featured in a cover story in the popular American literary and cultural magazine, Atlantic Monthly. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal in the Oval Office by President George W. Bush in 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 14, 2021
Stimulating, but also rather unsatisfying.
Noll raises many questions about how American evangelicalism is influencing/impacting worldwide Christianity. Noll argues that the parallels between evangelicalism in the world now and in America a century have more to do with socio-economic commonalities rather than an undue influence. His data demonstrates that a conclusion that American evangelicals have a inordinate influence is incorrect, and fails to recognize the validity and self-awareness of indigenous leaders. In some ways, persuasive, but the book is too brief to carry the certainty of his conclusion.
The book is also hindered by Noll’s posture as an unbiased academic. That prevents him from making the kind of theological judgments necessary to determine whether the parallels are biblical norms or cultural ones. So instead he’s left only with social norms and economics shifts to explain why “conversionist, voluntaristic” Christianity which is so pervasive in America is not cultural imperialism.
Useful in provoking some thoughts on the topic, but won’t really give you tools with which to ask questions of cultural imperialism or syncretism about cross-cultural Christian enterprises.
Noll raises many questions about how American evangelicalism is influencing/impacting worldwide Christianity. Noll argues that the parallels between evangelicalism in the world now and in America a century have more to do with socio-economic commonalities rather than an undue influence. His data demonstrates that a conclusion that American evangelicals have a inordinate influence is incorrect, and fails to recognize the validity and self-awareness of indigenous leaders. In some ways, persuasive, but the book is too brief to carry the certainty of his conclusion.
The book is also hindered by Noll’s posture as an unbiased academic. That prevents him from making the kind of theological judgments necessary to determine whether the parallels are biblical norms or cultural ones. So instead he’s left only with social norms and economics shifts to explain why “conversionist, voluntaristic” Christianity which is so pervasive in America is not cultural imperialism.
Useful in provoking some thoughts on the topic, but won’t really give you tools with which to ask questions of cultural imperialism or syncretism about cross-cultural Christian enterprises.
March 5, 2023
I really appreciated the author’s approach to understanding the influence of American Christianity on the development of other Christian movements elsewhere in the world. All too often scholars, pastors, and believers alike see America as the “hub” of the Christian belief, and all other Christ-followers globally follow in the footsteps of the American church. Noll recognizes this and defines other regions in the world that have developed in the faith similarly to the U.S., and the particular culture there had specific adaptations to the faith. The author recognizes that Christian missionaries ultimately have bias resulting from their nationality (specifically in the US) that makes it impossible for the mission field to be apolitical or acultural. Though this is the case, he uses multiple case studies to see how the gospel embeds itself uniquely in different people groups despite the culture of the missionaries who delivered the Gospel to these areas. The Gospel is seen addressing different aspects of life and calling those regions to different understandings and realizations within the faith. Ultimately, the book serves a great resource to recant the theological approach that put America front and center at all evangelical movement.
November 1, 2011
This book focuses mostly on contemporary Christian history/experience, and explains how conditions similar to those prevailing in America (ie religious freedom, competition among faiths) are beginning to appear worldwide. The author's thesis is that Christian faith throughout the world is beginning to reflect that which prevails in the United States.
February 27, 2024
I’m really liking Noll’s work. This book makes the case that Christianity around the world looks a lot like American Christianity. But this isn’t because of simplistic pictures of American influence or imperial manipulation. It’s because in many countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, historical circumstances are very similar to the historical situation for early American Christians.
Despite the similarity between American Christianity and other forms of Christianity around the world, American Christians have much to learn from how other Christians practice. Noll focuses especially on culture. Many American Christians—I’d say mostly Anglo brothers and sisters—think that their faith has nothing to do with culture. It is unmarked by customs and traditions, detached from folklore and history. And when they see Black Christianity or Native American Christianity, they might call it syncretism.
And yet in addition to the American Black Church and Native Church, sisters and brothers around the world show what it’s like for Christ to legitimate their culture, but at the same time to purify it—not in terms of colonizing and erasing culture, but in calling human particularity forth into the transcendent unity that we share in Christ.
Despite the similarity between American Christianity and other forms of Christianity around the world, American Christians have much to learn from how other Christians practice. Noll focuses especially on culture. Many American Christians—I’d say mostly Anglo brothers and sisters—think that their faith has nothing to do with culture. It is unmarked by customs and traditions, detached from folklore and history. And when they see Black Christianity or Native American Christianity, they might call it syncretism.
And yet in addition to the American Black Church and Native Church, sisters and brothers around the world show what it’s like for Christ to legitimate their culture, but at the same time to purify it—not in terms of colonizing and erasing culture, but in calling human particularity forth into the transcendent unity that we share in Christ.
August 21, 2025
Noll, a senior church historian who specializes in American Christianity, has provided a compelling glimpse at how American Christianity and its culture exports (individualism, democracy, revivialism) have impacted global Christianity. Though some may be unsurprised by this, others will find that even some of the more cherished missionary organizations (Jesus Film Project; New Tribes; Wycliffe and SIL) are implicated in the culturalizing and not just evangelizing of non-Western nations. Worth reading for anyone interesting in the impact of unchecked culture assumptions on other cultures in a missionary context.
June 26, 2022
A case of content over quality. Noll’s research is very important and his concluding chapter is a must read, but the flow of thought and presentation is stilted and hard to follow at times. Important conclusions, less than stellar presentation.
April 27, 2015
Two stars means, "It's OK," and that's how I felt after I finished this book, which is well written and has a lot of interesting facts about the history of American Christianity's interaction with the world — but ultimately is pretty choppy (by virtue of the fact that it's basically a compilation of three or four papers) and doesn't really deliver the goods in terms of the argument Noll is trying to make.
In The New Shape of World Christianity, Noll argues that the reason Christianity in other parts of the world, particularly Africa and Asia, looks so much like that found in America is not primarily because of American influence but because of similar patterns of development within the cultures.
In other words, Noll seems to be applying a principle found in biology — that of convergent evolution, in which separate organisms not closely related nevertheless evolve similar characteristics to adapt to similar environmental needs. An example is the ability to fly, which has evolved separately among insects, non-dinosaur reptiles, dinosaurs/birds and mammals.
I don't think Noll makes this argument particularly well, and it seems he is more arguing against the conclusions of anti-imperialists than making a particularly groundbreaking claim in his own right.
Noll is right to object to Ameri-centric arguments from both the right and the left, the one claiming America has exported its religious systems in toto as a force for good and the other making the same claim and seeing it as a force for cultural imperialism. In his book, Noll provides three ways of viewing the export of American Christianity, with this as option No. 1. The second is a more nuanced influence, perhaps even strong influence, with both positive and negative effects; the third is that the similarity between American and other world Christianities is because of their shared historical experience.
Noll says he's choosing a combination of the second and third options, but he seems to spend the book focusing mainly on the third one, when in fact even the arguments he makes to support that focus keep actually supporting the first or the second.
Noll’s big example from early in his book is the massive Jesus Film campaign from 2000, where Campus Crusade for Christ sent out hundreds of thousands of copies for a mass viewing all over the world; he points out that although the medium and message are quite American, the campaign itself was carried out by a variety of people, many of them local to the cultures in which the film was shown. Fair enough. But the film was still an American film, with American emphases, such as the removal of social-justice messages about the abasement of the powerful. Local cultures were not given the option to choose between a film more in line with their own assumptions about the world and its interaction with the gospel. They were given an American message in an American medium and adapted it the best they could. Noll, again, is correct to push back against the notion that this is the result of some evil imperial capitalist plot to subjugate world cultures to American hegemony, and he is further correct in reclaiming agency for the actors in local cultures around the world. But in reacting against the anti-imperialist stereotype that he has created and/or propagated, Noll goes too far, providing local cultures a sense of agency they simply were not equipped to have.
There are other examples where Noll seems to draw the wrong conclusions from the evidence he offers — particularly in chapter-long case studies from Korea and East Africa, where the common thread seems to be the introduction of American Christianity into a setting that also has similarities to the 19th century American frontier. Noll then focuses on the similar settings while downplaying the far more simple and direct fact of the introduction of American/Western Protestantism. On p. 158, Noll notes that Christianity is more popular among Korean Americans than among native Koreans, yet somehow turns this into an argument in favor of convergent evolution rather than strong American influence. On p. 185, Noll notes that traditional Kukuyu practices of private confession led naturally to accepting Protestant norms of public confession in East Africa, which would be fine if there were not a significant religious tradition, Catholicism that featured private confession. Why would the Kukuyu tradition move from private to public if not for the influence of American Protestantism leading them to evolve in a direction away from their cultural norms? Yes, they had the agency to choose Protestantism, but did they have a full menu of choices, including the elements of Catholicism that would have been a more natural fit for their already-existing practices? It seems unlikely because the dominant influence shaping their choices was American Protestant Christianity.
All that to say, for whatever reason Noll seems too eager to dismiss the simple argument in favor of the convoluted one. One should not stretch for convergent evolution if one can point to a common ancestor.
In The New Shape of World Christianity, Noll argues that the reason Christianity in other parts of the world, particularly Africa and Asia, looks so much like that found in America is not primarily because of American influence but because of similar patterns of development within the cultures.
In other words, Noll seems to be applying a principle found in biology — that of convergent evolution, in which separate organisms not closely related nevertheless evolve similar characteristics to adapt to similar environmental needs. An example is the ability to fly, which has evolved separately among insects, non-dinosaur reptiles, dinosaurs/birds and mammals.
I don't think Noll makes this argument particularly well, and it seems he is more arguing against the conclusions of anti-imperialists than making a particularly groundbreaking claim in his own right.
Noll is right to object to Ameri-centric arguments from both the right and the left, the one claiming America has exported its religious systems in toto as a force for good and the other making the same claim and seeing it as a force for cultural imperialism. In his book, Noll provides three ways of viewing the export of American Christianity, with this as option No. 1. The second is a more nuanced influence, perhaps even strong influence, with both positive and negative effects; the third is that the similarity between American and other world Christianities is because of their shared historical experience.
Noll says he's choosing a combination of the second and third options, but he seems to spend the book focusing mainly on the third one, when in fact even the arguments he makes to support that focus keep actually supporting the first or the second.
Noll’s big example from early in his book is the massive Jesus Film campaign from 2000, where Campus Crusade for Christ sent out hundreds of thousands of copies for a mass viewing all over the world; he points out that although the medium and message are quite American, the campaign itself was carried out by a variety of people, many of them local to the cultures in which the film was shown. Fair enough. But the film was still an American film, with American emphases, such as the removal of social-justice messages about the abasement of the powerful. Local cultures were not given the option to choose between a film more in line with their own assumptions about the world and its interaction with the gospel. They were given an American message in an American medium and adapted it the best they could. Noll, again, is correct to push back against the notion that this is the result of some evil imperial capitalist plot to subjugate world cultures to American hegemony, and he is further correct in reclaiming agency for the actors in local cultures around the world. But in reacting against the anti-imperialist stereotype that he has created and/or propagated, Noll goes too far, providing local cultures a sense of agency they simply were not equipped to have.
There are other examples where Noll seems to draw the wrong conclusions from the evidence he offers — particularly in chapter-long case studies from Korea and East Africa, where the common thread seems to be the introduction of American Christianity into a setting that also has similarities to the 19th century American frontier. Noll then focuses on the similar settings while downplaying the far more simple and direct fact of the introduction of American/Western Protestantism. On p. 158, Noll notes that Christianity is more popular among Korean Americans than among native Koreans, yet somehow turns this into an argument in favor of convergent evolution rather than strong American influence. On p. 185, Noll notes that traditional Kukuyu practices of private confession led naturally to accepting Protestant norms of public confession in East Africa, which would be fine if there were not a significant religious tradition, Catholicism that featured private confession. Why would the Kukuyu tradition move from private to public if not for the influence of American Protestantism leading them to evolve in a direction away from their cultural norms? Yes, they had the agency to choose Protestantism, but did they have a full menu of choices, including the elements of Catholicism that would have been a more natural fit for their already-existing practices? It seems unlikely because the dominant influence shaping their choices was American Protestant Christianity.
All that to say, for whatever reason Noll seems too eager to dismiss the simple argument in favor of the convoluted one. One should not stretch for convergent evolution if one can point to a common ancestor.
July 17, 2020
Overall interesting, though perhaps a bit mellowdramtic with the conclusions.
May 26, 2015
This is a thoughtful analysis of how American Christianity has influenced the various expressions of Christian faith around the world. Noll writes with his usual attention to research and offers a balanced voice that recognizes the undeniable roles of American culture and missions while celebrating the autonomy of the respective churches around the world.
As a cross-cultural worker, I appreciate his frank reviews of how American social dynamics influenced missionary methods and theological assumptions. Yet again, he is not attempting to discredit the monumental achievements of God's servants during the past 200 years of missions history. There is also an appropriate respect for the local church (National Church) as the epicenter of true Christian witness.
The opening sections deal with a historical review (Noll's strong suit) of Protestant Christianity in the USA. It speaks to the cultural pragmatism that is often our main prism for critique in missions (e.g., statists as the main indicator of success), our individual models of conversion and the democratic notions that are laced in the thinking of most American missiologists. The arguments are succinct but not jaded by some desire for historical revisionism.
The last three chapters include case studies from Korea, East Africa and some closing reflections. These show how the American Evangelical experiences as a movement are not proscriptive for global Protestant churches but they are instructive because they provide a historical model built on similar assumptions and models. I really liked this approach and found it informative for my own work in Africa. I might add that each chapter ends with a summarization of key observations and this, too, was very helpful for me in applying the concepts of the books to my working context.
Lastly, there is a reverential attitude to this review. The writer displays no elements of cultural chauvinism nor the more recent scholarly tendency of cultural denigration. Therefore, I recommend this as a solid introduction to how American concepts of church and spirituality engage in the constantly evolving global mosaic of the Christian faith.
As a cross-cultural worker, I appreciate his frank reviews of how American social dynamics influenced missionary methods and theological assumptions. Yet again, he is not attempting to discredit the monumental achievements of God's servants during the past 200 years of missions history. There is also an appropriate respect for the local church (National Church) as the epicenter of true Christian witness.
The opening sections deal with a historical review (Noll's strong suit) of Protestant Christianity in the USA. It speaks to the cultural pragmatism that is often our main prism for critique in missions (e.g., statists as the main indicator of success), our individual models of conversion and the democratic notions that are laced in the thinking of most American missiologists. The arguments are succinct but not jaded by some desire for historical revisionism.
The last three chapters include case studies from Korea, East Africa and some closing reflections. These show how the American Evangelical experiences as a movement are not proscriptive for global Protestant churches but they are instructive because they provide a historical model built on similar assumptions and models. I really liked this approach and found it informative for my own work in Africa. I might add that each chapter ends with a summarization of key observations and this, too, was very helpful for me in applying the concepts of the books to my working context.
Lastly, there is a reverential attitude to this review. The writer displays no elements of cultural chauvinism nor the more recent scholarly tendency of cultural denigration. Therefore, I recommend this as a solid introduction to how American concepts of church and spirituality engage in the constantly evolving global mosaic of the Christian faith.
September 14, 2013
While it did take me a rather long time to finish this one, it was not due to any dislike of the book. I must admit that I am rather biased toward this book, though, because I took a class with Dr. Noll called, "World Christianity since 1800", my senior year at Wheaton College. Essentially, this class was his proving ground before this book was published, and Noll makes several similar remarks throughout the book. Nothing in this book was really new to me as a result, but it was still an excellent confirmation of what I would consider to be essential knowledge for any Christian, and really anyone interested in the state of the world today. Oh yes, and I also got to know and started dating my now wife in the class, so that further biases me toward this book. She also got it for me as a present.
Noll argues that a great way to understand global Christianity today is to look at the example of American Christianity, both because America has had a large impact on spreading culture and modern Christianity around the world but probably more so because the conditions that provided the context for the growth of American Christianity are similar to the conditions in many developing world countries today.
Noll makes a very convincing case, even though this book is really only a survey. He depends on the best scholars out there like Andrew Walls, Lamin Sanneh, Ogbu Kalu, and others. And Noll is truly just a master at his craft at this point, so he can call it like he sees it without having to resort to a lot of artifice in making his arguments, as younger scholars who are less proven would have to.
If you have any interest in Christianity and history, this is really a must read for you.
Noll argues that a great way to understand global Christianity today is to look at the example of American Christianity, both because America has had a large impact on spreading culture and modern Christianity around the world but probably more so because the conditions that provided the context for the growth of American Christianity are similar to the conditions in many developing world countries today.
Noll makes a very convincing case, even though this book is really only a survey. He depends on the best scholars out there like Andrew Walls, Lamin Sanneh, Ogbu Kalu, and others. And Noll is truly just a master at his craft at this point, so he can call it like he sees it without having to resort to a lot of artifice in making his arguments, as younger scholars who are less proven would have to.
If you have any interest in Christianity and history, this is really a must read for you.
June 10, 2013
When you read Noll's book The New Shape of World Christianity you really need to pay attention to the subtitle, How American Experience Reflects Global Faith. It is not a survey of world christianity but an inquiry into the nature of American influence on that world Christianity. Noll's conclusion is that it is not direct American influence or control, but American forms that shape world christianity. The forms he relates are especially those that grew in 19th century America amid competition and the lack of a state church. The book provides good American history and a taste of the development of world Christianity, especially in Asia and Africa. It offers a small defense of Western missionary activity and places the largest share of the responsibility for the spread on the indigenization of the faith (a la Lamin Sanneh and Andrew Walls).
September 4, 2012
Short Review: This is an interesting and subtle argument. Noll suggests that American will influence world Christianity for quite awhile, not because of direct influence as much as because the US is facing globalization pressures that the rest of the world is or will also face. Christianity in the US is just further ahead on the curve. The US is the richest church and produces the most media and supports the most missionaries (but not according to GDP or population), so it will exert influence because of that. But it is the globalization pressures that are more important than the money or missionaries that come out of the US.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/new-shape-of-world-c...
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/new-shape-of-world-c...
February 24, 2015
Noll is an excellent historian and an able writer. His thesis is that the Christian world needs to pay attention to Christianity in America, not because America ought to lead the world church, but because so many places around the world have similar circumstances to the American experience when the church in America exploded during the 19th century. Using statistics and story, Noll makes a compelling case.
August 2, 2012
This is a singularly important book for Americans to read. We've done a very bad job at reporting to ourselves the status of the Church around the world and this is a thought-provoking way to jump right in.
May 20, 2011
Noll suggests that American influence on world Christianity is less direct than either critics or champions of America's position of global dominance might assume. Very thought provoking.
July 6, 2012
This is an important historical study with crucial insights for international missions today and into the future.
February 13, 2013
Everything by noll is great.
April 5, 2014
An American look at how the American church fits in global Christianity. Noll does an excellent job.
November 16, 2015
This is an important work that deserves serious attention by everyone trying to make sense of geopolitics today, not simply church historians.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews