Christian Conversion and Mission: A Brief Cultural History

By: Andrew Walls and Mark R. Gornik

$26.00

Overview

“This book encapsulates what many regard as Andrew Walls’ central contribution to the diachronic Christian understanding of who we are and how we became that way: Christian conversion. Each of the eight chapters serves as one sparkling facet of a diamond unearthed through skillful excavation of the deepest and richest veins of the Christian story. If I were back in the classroom, this book would be required reading.”—Jonathan Bonk, Research Professor of Mission Studies, Boston University

“Andrew F. Walls ‘converted’ all of us by focusing his writings and lectures on conversion away from a phenomenon that historically had been associated with Western religious hegemony and imperialism, coercion, and demonization of cultures, to mean a process in which we literally submit to Christ all we are and all we have. These refreshing essays by Walls, ably edited by Mark Gornik, move the discourses on conversion to a new level that accommodates developments in Christianity as a non-Western religion.” —Most Rev. Prof. J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Presiding Bishop, Methodist Church Ghana

This short book aims to interpret key moments in the cultural history of Christianity as they illustrate the underlying dynamic of faith in new cultural contexts. Based on lectures originally delivered by Andrew Walls in 1996, in many ways he saw this work as a synthesis of his essential insights on Christian mission and conversion: “a serial process in which Christianity has encountered successive cultures and found expression within them, often withering in the areas of its apparently greater strength and finding new homes in quite different soil.” This justified, for Walls, “a retelling of the story in terms of Christian interaction with successive cultures, picking up a hint in the Epistle to the Ephesians, that all are necessary to the full-grown humanity which will one day be revealed in Christ.”

Andrew F. Walls (1928-2021) was a Scottish historian of mission, best known for his pioneering studies of the history of the African church and as a leader in the academic field of World Christianity. His book The Missionary Movement in Christian History was cited by Christianity Today as one of the Top 100 Books of the Century.

Mark R. Gornik, director of City Seminary of New York, is co-editor of Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls.

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Cover design: Ponie Sheehan

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Click Here For The Table Of Contents

Click Here For Chapter 1