Reviewed by Mark Shaw
An important new book in World Christianity studies is Early South-South Links in the History of World Christianity (16th – Early 19th Century), edited by Klaus Karschorke and others . The numerous case study make the point that world Christianity as we know it today with the famous shift from north to south also had south to south links that helped to bring about the new explosion of the faith. This is one of the first books to help document that important dimension of world Christianity studies. Among the outstanding case studies, the case of Kongo by John Thornton sets the tone and theme for the whole book. In Thornton’s words,
“The Kingdom of Kongo is well known as the only solidly established indigenous kingdom in Western Africa to accept Christianity as its national religion. It is also distinguished by having self-evangelized, that is that it developed much of its Christianity through the efforts of its own elite, with assistance, to be sure from outsiders, mostly missionaries. It was also known for its incredibly destructive descent into civil war, which the most violent part of which continued for nearly two centuries and fed the slave trade to the Americas. These slaves carried their home Christianity with them into the New World. As Catholics they blended easily into the colonies of Catholic Europe, but there is evidence that they also played a role in evangelizing non-Christian slaves in their new environment, both in Brazil and in St Domingue. They also did evangelization in Protestant countries. This second range of activities, difficult to determine, (though with evidence from the Protestant Virgin Islands) may have helped to shape the Christianity that developed throughout African descendants in the Americas.”
This book is recommended for students of world Christianity. It can be downloaded as open access at this link: https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/ddo/artikel/86985/978-3-447-12224-5_Kostenloser%20Open%20Access-Download.pdf