Yale-Edinburgh Conference
I was pleased to speak at the Yale-Edinburgh Conference, June 21-23, held in Edinburgh. I spoke via zoom on Christianity in North America (University of Edinburgh Press) co-edited with Drs. Todd Johnson and Kenneth Ross. It was been a joy to work with them on this important volume and I look forward to its publication at the end of the month.
Below is an excerpt from our Volume Preface co-written by Todd Johnson, Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Kenneth Ross.
The landscape of North America is beautiful, pristine and wonderful. The land has majestic mountains such as the Rocky Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains, and freshwater lakes such as the Great Lakes of North America and Lake Tahoe. North America is surrounded by the world’s two largest oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic. The vast continent is covered by deserts, forests, prairies, meadows, forests, canyons and wilderness. It has countless small towns as well as highly populated metropolitan cities. The land was first inhabited by Native Americans and First Nations, who lived off the land and in harmony with creation. It is a magnificent land, composed of only five countries, Canada, the USA, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Greenland and Bermuda.
Just as the land is diverse and bountiful, so are the people who live in these five countries. Though their history is short compared with countries in such contexts as Asia, South America, Africa and Europe, it has been filled by devastation, horror and suffering. With the European conquest of Native land, the terror began for many Native and First Nations peoples as genocide was committed against them. The large-scale enslavement and importation of Africans brought further injustice, horror and suffering.
During this horrific history, Christianity had a large presence and was part of the very fabric that caused the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans. Christian adoption of the Doctrine of Discovery and the perception of Africans as heathens made it theoretically justifiable to enslave them. In addition, Asians were viewed as heathens and foreigners, a perception which white Americans used to indenture them.
Throughout this history of immigration, enslavement and conquest, Christianity was deeply implicated in colonialism, subjugation and domination. Due to increased immigration and the entrance of refugees during the last 70 years, North America is a very racially diverse place. This diversity means that various languages are spoken and different cultural customs are lived out. Many people who came from difficult situations found opportunities to build a new life in North America. Some refugees were able to start fresh lives and contribute to the wider society.
Coming from many different backgrounds, they have formed an enterprising people who have built one of the world’s strongest economies. North America has had the Civil Rights movement and recently the Black Lives Matter movement to fight racism, discrimination and prejudice. It has developed some strong and world-renowned academic institutions that have contributed enormously to scholarship in numerous fields of study. These developments, both the bad and the good, have had an impact on Christianity and its faith practices. It is not a homogeneous religion but rather is marked by diversity. There are several major denominations that have both flourished and declined in North America. Moreover, every region of North America has a slightly different perspective and practice. The great variety of ethnicity and immigration history have influenced Christian practice, worship and understanding. The diversity and fluctuating outlooks within Christianity have also shaped the political landscape in North America. This in turn has impacted economic disparities among the people of North America. The concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the wide gap between rich and poor has also impacted the practice of Christianity. Despite poorer individuals constituting the vast majority of the population, a small subset of rich people still controls the political, economic and religious landscape.
This seventh volume in the Edinburgh Companions series provides one lens through which to view the diversity of Christianity, not only within North America but also globally. It is not as innocent as white European Christians have claimed, as it has been implicated in colonialism, imperialism and other acts of injustice. Christianity changes, syncretizes and transforms as cultures clash, people migrate and refugees move. As a result, new interpretations of Scripture continue to develop and impact how North Americans live out their Christian faith. It is this process of change and transformation that the present volume seeks to map.
In pursuit of understanding, the book offers four angles of analysis. The first is demographic, using the methodology of the highly successful Atlas of Global Christianity (Edinburgh University Press, 2009) to present reliable statistical information in an attractive, user-friendly format. Maps and charts depict the status of Christianity regionally and in terms of the principal church traditions. In this region all countries are majority Christian, though with a difficult history where Christianity came in conjunction with colonial conquest and the introduction of a slave-owning economy. Large-scale inward migration has brought increasing religious diversity while small but growing numbers profess a secular worldview.
For more, please order Christianity in North America.
Read also from my substack:
An Excerpt from "Christianity in North America"
Special Events:
1. Join me at the Wild Goose Festival, July 13-16, 2023 | Union Grove, NC. Use discount code “Madang” to get 50.00 off registration.
2.Hire my son for your graphic design, website building, video editing, podcast editing…
3.Fortress Press ebook sale. Great time to get Invisible