Book Notice: From Times Square to Timbuktu

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

From Times Square to Timbuktu: the Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013.
Available at Amazon.com

Reviewed by Charlie Fletcher, Dean of Global Mission at Ridley Melbourne Mission & Ministry College

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson offers a fresh contribution to the growing list of works that seek to help Western Christians come to terms with the changing shape of global Christianity and its implications. The demographic shift occurring in global Christianity has already been well documented by Philip Jenkins, Lamin Sanneh and others. While there is more work to be done on that front, the distinctive contribution of From Times Square to Timbuktu is its focus on the implications of this shift.

Chapters 1-2 provide a concise statistical summary of the southward and eastward shift of global Christianity’s centre of gravity and introduce the focus of the book on two issues, unity and migration.

Chapters 3-7 tackle the vexed and vital question of Christian unity. This section focuses heavily on the role of the World Council of Churches, and reads at times as both an apologia for and critique of the WCC. Chapter 5 is a useful introduction for those unfamiliar with the modern ecumenical movement.

Granberg-Michaelson’s approach to Christian unity will not resonate with all readers. From a theological standpoint, the modern ecumenical movement has tended towards a lowest-common-denominator approach to theological unity. This approach is symbolically captured by a truncated quotation from John 17 in the WCC’s constitution, which seeks “unity in order that the world may believe,” (p. 57) but demurs when it comes to articulating the content of that belief. From a strategic viewpoint, the evident lack of the eucharistic fellowship sought by the WCC and the fact that the peak ecumenical body’s membership represents less than 1% of the world’s Christian denominations raise serious questions about the ecumenical movement’s practical capacity as an instrument to achieve visible unity in the global church, notwithstanding the recent initiatives of the Global Christian Forum. Indeed, Granberg-Michaelson’s own suggestion that “all ecclesiology is local” (p.  97) points in a different direction, namely, to the local congregation as the primary expression of the new covenant people of God.

Nevertheless, Granberg-Michaelson’s portrayal of global Christianity as “endlessly denominated, geographically separated, spiritually bifurcated, institutionally insulated, and generationally isolated” (p. 27) is confronting, and his call to visible unity is challenging. Similarly, while it is unnecessary to view denominational diversity in the uniformly negative light that Granberg-Michaelson does in this book, there is something shocking about the existence of more than 40,000 different Christian denominations.

Chapters 8-11 deal with the theme of migration, with a focus on the USA. Granberg-Michaelson rightly observes that, while religious studies of immigration patterns have tended to focus on growing pluralism, 60% of migrants to the USA are Christians, and urban immigrant congregations represent some of the most dynamic expressions of Christianity in America.

Granberg-Michaelson writes that “[h]ow existing congregations in societies shaped and molded by Western Christianity…respond to Christian immigrants now living in their midst will be decisive for the future shape of Christian witness.Even more [italics mine], this is where the major divisions of world Christianity…can find a hope of healing…” (p. 95). The multidirectional, cross-cultural missionary potential created by recent patterns of human migration is extraordinary. Granberg-Michaelson’s primary concern in this book, however, remains the unity of the church, such that his reflections on migration are really the local extension of his reflections on global unity. In this regard, he reflects on the importance of welcoming the stranger and the challenge of establishing multiracial congregations that demonstrate the reconciling power of the gospel in culturally diverse contexts. In a balanced treatment, Granberg-Michaelson also considers the significance of mono-ethnic congregations for many immigrant communities in terms of their ethnic and Christian identity.

In the concluding Chapter 12 , Granberg-Michaelson astutely observes that the changing shape of global Christianity has created a theological encounter marked by “the clash in worldviews shaped by Western and non-Western cultures, which then influences the way in which the Bible is read, and faith is understood” (p. 138). His passion for unity drives him to ask a crucial question: will the encounter between Western and non-Western Christians, between the churches of the global North and the churches of the global South, between the centres of Christian power and the centres of Christian growth, be marked by genuine mutuality?

The ecumenical focus of Granberg-Michaelson’s work somewhat sidelines what might be regarded, from an evangelical perspective, as the most pressing missiological question raised by the changing shape of global Christianity, namely, what these changing realities mean for global and local partnership in the gospel, in both the post-Christendom West and the global South.

Granberg-Michaelson succinctly draws together many threads in the emerging tapestry of global Christianity in the twenty-first century, and he has done a significant service by pushing the conversation from merely charting the changes in global Christianity to considering their implications. There is more work to be done.