The New Shape of World Christianity - by Mark a Noll (Paperback)

About the Book

Adding complexity to older missiological arguments about American global influence, Mark Noll suggests 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. Now in paperback.

Book Synopsis

• 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. Noll 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.

Review Quotes

"A valuable contribution for those who would like an excellent introduction to a growing area of historical scholarship."--Benjamin L. Hartley, PRISM, 2009

"With insightful research and poignant historical observation, Noll effectively demonstrates that American individualism, voluntarism, and anti-institutionalism have had a much greater impact on the global church than have money, resources, or power. Noll adds an innovative thesis to our understanding of the contribution of U.S. churches to the amazing growth of the non-Western church."--The 2010 Christianity Today Book Awards, Missions/Global Affairs Category Winner, February 2010

"Noll argues for a new historical perspective. With convincing interpretations of recent scholarship, he argues that the 'template' of American Christianity rather than its direct influence has been the main American contribution to world Christianity, especially in its evangelical and Pentacostal forms. Recommended."--W.B. Bedford, Choice, November 2009

"Noll remains one of the most important observers of the American evangelical scene."--Alan D. Strange, Mid-America Journal of Theology, October 2010

"This is an important and engaging book, not only for the serious question that Noll poses and explores, but also because it offers a richly textured look at global Christianity through an assortment of sources and from a variety of angles."--Kurt Selles, Calvin Theological Journal, April 2010

"This lively, readable narrative is highly recommended for students of global Christianity, indigeneity and contextualization, recent church history and missiology."--Roger E. Hedlund, Dharma Deepika, January-June 2010

"What happens when a superb scholar who studies both North American religious history and global Christianity decides to bring those fields together, to understand how each informs the other? The answer is The New Shape of World Christianity."--Phillip Jenkins, Christian Century, October 20, 2009

Listed in the article Ten Theology Books for Your Beach Bag.--Collin Hansen, Christianity Today Online (christianitytoday.com), June 15, 2009

"I heartily recommend The New Shape of World Christianity, especially to those who are not conversant with contemporary missiology. Noll opens for readers a door into an important discussion about mission practices and theology that could be of great consequence in an academic or congregational setting."--Benjamin T. Conner, Interpretation, July 2010

"Noll has offered both a remarkable picture and a challenge. He offers keen insight into the new shape of world Christianity. And he has challenged others to tell the rest of the story."--Robert Bruce Mullin, First Things, December 2009

"Noll offers a deft overview, filled with fascinating examples of world Christianity today. This book will help American readers begin to understand Christianity as a world religion and to examine the claims that it is a mere export of American evangelicalism."--Joel A. Carpenter, The Journal of American History, June 2010

"Noll's mix of interpretive insight and survey information makes this both an important book for church historians and a helpful book for Christians wanting to grow in their knowledge of the worldwide body of Christ."--Mark Rogers, Themelios, November 2009

"The author is a masterful story teller, so that while the text is well documented, the selection, brevity, and clarity of the illustrations make the volume a welcome introduction to the vast literature on the global inculturation of Christianity and the transformation of the intent and content of what missionaries presented through the linguistic and cultural translation that is characteristic of the growth of Christianity through the ages."--Jeffrey Gros, Missiology, January 2010

About the Author

Mark A. Noll (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) is Francis McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. Some of his many books include The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, Is the Reformation Over?, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys and The Old Religion in a New World.