Christianity around the Globe
This section introduces key texts that explore the diverse expressions and developments of Christianity across different global contexts. From the early Christian kingdoms of Africa to the Confucian-Christian encounters in China, these works highlight how Christianity has been shaped by and adapted to a wide range of cultural, political, and historical settings.
- Baum, Wilhelm, and Dietmar Winkler. The Church of the East: A Concise History. Routledge, 2003.
This book traces the development of the Church of the East from its early beginnings in the Persian Empire to its global presence today. The authors highlight the Church’s theological distinctiveness, missionary activity along the Silk Road, and complex relationship with both Eastern and Western Christian traditions.
- Boylston, Tom. The Stranger at the Feast: Prohibition and Mediation in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Community. University of California Press, 2018, pp. 1–21, 156–158.
In the introduction and concluding pages, Boylston examines the role of religious prohibition, ritual, and mediation in shaping community life within an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian setting, especially in Zege. He explores how fasting, food taboos, and religious authority mediate relationships between the sacred and the social, reinforcing both communal bonds and boundaries.
- Chaillot, Christine. "Preface and Introduction." In The Assyrian Church of the East: History and Geography, Peter Lang, 2021.
In the Preface and Introduction, Christine Chaillot outlines the aims and scope of the volume, which seeks to present a comprehensive overview of the history, liturgy, and geographic spread of the Assyrian Church of the East. She emphasizes the Church’s ancient roots, its missionary reach from Mesopotamia to China, and its survival through centuries of political and theological challenges.
- Gates Jr., Henry Louis. “Introduction.” In The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, Penguin, 2021.
In the introduction, Henry Louis Gates Jr. presents the Black Church as a central institution in African American life, tracing its roots to slavery and its enduring role in the struggle for freedom, identity, and justice. He frames the Black Church not just as a religious space, but as a cultural, political, and social force that shaped the Black experience in America.
- Lartey, Emmanuel Y. “The Ancestors are Everywhere: Black Church Studies and the African Context.” In The Black Church Studies Reader, edited by A. B. Pollard III and C. B. Duncan, 207–215. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
This Article explores the deep connections between African traditional religious worldviews and the spirituality of the Black Church, emphasizing the significance of ancestors, community, and continuity with the past. He argues that understanding the African context enriches Black Church studies by revealing how African cosmologies shape theology, worship, and communal life. The article calls for a more global and culturally rooted approach to studying Black Christianity, highlighting its diasporic and decolonial dimensions.
- Sachsenmaier, Dominic. Global Entanglements of a Man Who Never Traveled: A Seventeenth-Century Chinese Christian and His Conflicted Worlds. Columbia University Press, 2018.
Sachsenmaier explores the life of Chinese Christian scholar Zhang Xingyao to examine how global religious and intellectual currents shaped local identities in 17th-century China.
- Sundkler, Bengt, and Christopher Steed. A History of the African Church. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 30–41.
In this section, Sundkler and Steed discuss the history of Christianity in medieval African societies. Particularly, Nubia and Aksum. They explore how these kingdoms adopted and adapted Christianity between the 4th and 14th centuries, emphasizing their connections to the wider Christian world.