Andrew F. Walls: Apostle of World Christianity

Abstract

Andrew Walls (1928-2021) "may be the most important person you don't know. "1 During his life, he was broadly recognized as the doyen of the study of world Christianity-that is, the study of world Christianity as a single, though multidisciplinary, field incorporating church history, missions history, missiological theory, and missional praxis. Through his tireless work with the Centre for the Study of Non-Western Christianity (which he founded at Aberdeen, then moved to Edinburgh, later renamed as the Centre for the Study of World Christianity) and with the Yale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianity and the History of Mission (which he co-founded with Lamin Sanneh of The Gambia, then a professor at Yale), and through his mentoring of so many leading scholars who take the approach of world Christianity rather than a traditional Western approach, Andrew Walls is rightly recognized as a principle founder of the study of world Christianity. This essay reviews the impact of his life and scholarship on the fields of world Christianity and missions studies and aims to introduce him to Missio Dei readers who may not be familiar with his work.

Description

Keywords

Walls, Andrew F., Christianity, world

Citation

Missio Dei: A Journal of MIssional Theology and Praxis 12, no. 2 (2021)

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