The Unexpected Christian Century - by Scott W Sunquist (Paperback)

About the Book

A respected scholar surveys the most recent century of Christian history, highlighting epochal changes in global Christianity.

Book Synopsis

2015 Book Award for Excellence in Missiology, American Society of Missiology

Named an Outstanding Mission Book of 2015, International Bulletin of Mission Research

In 1900 many assumed the twentieth century would be a Christian century because Western "Christian empires" ruled most of the world. What happened instead is that Christianity in the West declined dramatically, the empires collapsed, and Christianity's center moved to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific. How did this happen so quickly? Respected scholar and teacher Scott Sunquist surveys the most recent century of Christian history, highlighting epochal changes in global Christianity. He also suggests lessons we can learn from this remarkable global Christian reversal. Ideal for an introduction to Christianity or a church history course, this book includes a foreword by Mark Noll.

From the Back Cover

The Reversal and Transformation of Global Christianity

"It would be hard to overestimate the valuable contribution Scott Sunquist has made to our understanding of the global Christian movement. This short volume illustrates the point. His knowledge is encyclopedic, his perspective fresh. This volume serves as an excellent introduction to what appeared at the beginning to be the century of Western dominance but ended up being so very different. As Sunquist intimates, we are witnessing the most dramatic century of change since the early Christian period."
--Gerald L. Sittser, Whitworth University; author of Water from a Deep Well

"This book provides a learned overview of major themes in twentieth-century world Christianity. Distinguished scholar Scott Sunquist, writing from an insider Christian perspective, shows how such factors as migration, persecution, the decline of Western Christianity, and Pentecostalism have created a religion far different from that of a century ago. He balances depth and breadth in a readable format and, in so doing, provides a valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship on world Christianity."
--Dana L. Robert, Boston University; author of Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion

"This volume places us in Sunquist's debt for extending the Christian story beyond the familiar clichés, luminaries, and events of conventional Western church histories to a trajectory that includes and accounts for the fecund world of Christianity in the global South. Full of surprises, this is an astounding, fast-moving story, whose latest chapter was not and could not have been predicted by earlier generations of church historians."
--Jonathan J. Bonk, Overseas Ministries Study Center

"A godsend for opening up a vitally important history and pointing the way toward responsible Christian life in the future."
--Mark A. Noll (from the foreword)

About the Author

Scott W. Sunquist (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He previously served as dean of the School of Intercultural Studies and professor of world Christianity at Fuller Theological Seminary. Sunquist authored the Christianity Today Book Award winner Understanding Christian Mission, coauthored the multivolume History of the World Christian Movement, and coedited A Dictionary of Asian Christianity.