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Christianity and Other Religions in the Age of Globality

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Abstract

This chapter describes, first, the present situation of Christianity within global society in relation to other major religions. Furthermore, it describes the historical process of the globalization of Christianity since its origins and Christianity’s limited awareness of other religions. It is suggested that in Christianity, “global turn” primarily means a change in religious perception in the early twentieth century. Subsequently, in the wake of the ecumenical movement and of the Holocaust, the Western churches and their theologians began thoroughly to reassess their views of foreign peoples and cultures such that in much of Christian theology nowadays a great openness in dealing with other faiths can be found. Finally, this chapter discusses a number of academic challenges which theology and the study of the Christian religion are facing in the age of globality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Statistical data here and below are taken from Todd M. Johnson/Kenneth R. Ross (eds.), Atlas of Global Christianity 1910–2010, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.

  2. 2.

    World Council of Churches, online at www.oikoumene.org (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  3. 3.

    Nostra Aetate. Declaration on the relation of the church to non-Christian religions, proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Paul VI, Vatican City, October 28, 1965, online at www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  4. 4.

    Ibid., paragraph 2.

  5. 5.

    International Council of Christians and Jews, online at: www.iccj.org (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  6. 6.

    Parliament of the World’s Religions, online at www.parliamentofreligions.org (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  7. 7.

    International Fellowship of Reconciliation, online at www.ifor.org (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  8. 8.

    World Congress of Faiths, online at www.worldfaiths.org (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  9. 9.

    Patheos, online at www.patheos.com (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  10. 10.

    Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

  11. 11.

    Jan P. Assmann, The Price of Monotheism, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009; Idem, Monotheismus und die Sprache der Gewalt, Vienna: Picus, 2006.

  12. 12.

    Parliament of World’s Religions, Declaration Toward a Global Ethic, online at www.weltethos.org/1-pdf/10-stiftung/declaration/declaration_english.pdf (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  13. 13.

    Charter for Compassion, online at www.charterforcompassion.org (last accessed 28.11.2017).

  14. 14.

    UNESCO, Interreligious Dialogue, online at www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/dialogue/intercultural-dialogue/interreligious-dialogue (last accessed 28.11.2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Church History, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Wolfram Kinzig

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  1. Wolfram Kinzig
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Correspondence to Wolfram Kinzig .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Political Science, University of Bonn/Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), Bonn, Germany

    Ludger Kühnhardt

  2. Political Science, History of Ideas and Contemporary History, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Tilman Mayer

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Kinzig, W. (2019). Christianity and Other Religions in the Age of Globality. In: Kühnhardt, L., Mayer, T. (eds) The Bonn Handbook of Globality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90382-8_63

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