The Unexpected Christian Century

"It would be hard to overestimate the valuable contribution Scott Sunquist has made to our understanding of the global Christian movement. This short volume illustrates the point. I found his approach full of surprises. In one chapter, for example, he tells the story of fifty Christian leaders of the twentieth century, many of whom, as non-Westerners, are far from household names. Sunquist's point, of course, is that they should be household names because of the significant role they have played in the global church. In another chapter he explores the impact of immigration on the growth of the church around the world. His knowledge is encyclopedic, his perspective fresh. This volume serves as an excellent introduction to what appeared at the beginning to be the century of Western dominance but ended up being so very different. That Korea has more Presbyterians than the United States, and Nigeria more Anglicans than England, gives advance warning of what a reader will learn. As Sunquist intimates, we are witnessing the most dramatic century of change since the early Christian period."

"This book provides a learned overview of major themes in twentieth-century world Christianity. Distinguished scholar Scott Sunquist, writing from an insider Christian perspective, shows how such factors as migration, persecution, the decline of Western Christianity, and Pentecostalism have created a religion far different from that of a century ago. He balances depth and breadth in a readable format and, in so doing, provides a valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship on world Christianity."

"This volume places us in Sunquist's debt for extending the Christian story beyond the familiar clichés, luminaries, and events of conventional Western church histories to a trajectory that includes and accounts for the fecund world of Christianity in the global South. Full of surprises, this is an astounding, fast-moving story, whose latest chapter was not and could not have been predicted by earlier generations of church historians."

"The transformation of Christianity into a predominantly non-Western faith is one of the great facts of our time. In this compelling assessment, historian Scott Sunquist analyzes the complex roots and historical significance of this epochal development. The treatment is fully attentive to the interaction between worldwide trends and local peculiarities, and the global perspective brings pressing missiological issues of the day into sharp focus. Written in accessible language but with penetrating insight, The Unexpected Christian Century sheds considerable light on Christianity's prospects in this century by reviewing the last. A valuable addition to a vital discourse."

"This volume could be Sunquist's best offering yet. He remarkably bridges the self-aggrandizing, imperialistic Christian world of a century ago, which he represents as an English-literate, hypereducated, resource-wielding, Caucasian, middle-aged male, and today's unencumbered, multilingual, migrating, dispossessed, suffering, and multitudinous throng of Jesus's Spirit-led followers, in which he enthusiastically participates. Sunquist's insightful interpretations of world Christianity's transformations over the last one hundred years provide empowering gateways through which those who hear this book's message can stride forward with renewed vision, hope, and courage."

"The great merit of Scott Sunquist's book is to narrate the recent history of Christianity as a genuinely and thoroughly world history. It is no longer fresh news that over the course of the last century the Christian faith has expanded into world regions where it was previously unknown, and that it has also receded significantly from areas that it once dominated. . . . Accessible histories that feature the broad general developments of the recent past, and yet that remain connected to particular stories of particular places, remain rare. The Unexpected Christian Century is a notable addition to such efforts. . . . Readers who pay attention to what [Professor Sunquist] has written will . . . find the book a godsend for opening up a vitally important history and pointing the way toward responsible Christian life in the future."