Book Review
EMQ » January–March 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 1
The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals
By Melani McAlister
Oxford University Press, 2018
New York, NY
394 pages
ISBN: 978-0190213428
USD $29.95
In her latest book on the intersection of culture, politics, and religion, Melani McAlister studies the impact that the evangelical brand of American Christianity has had upon the world, especially Africa, over the past several decades.
While mainliners may be lamenting their marginalization in our culture, McAlister, with a secular lens, documents the persistent and growing influence of evangelicals actively engaged in their global mission of transformational reconciliation. She examines evangelicals’ public discourse in the U.S. as it impacts their overseas brethren. She looks at the origin of several significant Christian networks and institutions (often started shortly after World War II) that continue a global ministry of outreach. In a postcolonial world, with drastically new circumstances, constraints, and opportunities, how would evangelicals proceed? The stories of how these challenges were addressed at Lausanne and elsewhere provide considerable food for thought for those interested in understanding how God’s Kingdom has advanced. The thousands of biblically trained students from the global South who returned to their homelands after studying in the U.S. have become the leaders of many of these ministries.
McAlister notes that the negative media portrayal of missionaries, offset to some degree by a few stories of great sacrifice, has done little to stem the growth of parachurch organizations such as InterVarsity, YWAM, and Cru. She describes the shift evangelicals have made to confront flagrant injustices, not just in society at large but also within the global church. Balancing social justice concerns with the proclamation of the gospel of Christ was often the center of debate.
The battles to overcome racism and apartheid are the most discussed issues in the book; sparse coverage, in contrast, is given to the issue of abortion. The exposure of ongoing religious persecution and the church’s race to fill the void resulting from the fall of communism are highlighted. She touches only briefly on the megachurch phenomenon, describing these churches’ contribution to short-term missions and their strategies to penetrate the 10/40 window, translate the Bible, and plant churches among previously hidden people groups. The rising roles of certain Christian NGOs are also discussed at some length.
This book is important for understanding the historical events and people that have shaped the relationship of sending churches in the U.S. and their missionaries with the developing church in the majority world, in its many indigenous forms. Or, perhaps, the relationship an aging mother has with her adult children.
Reviewed by Kimon Nicolaides, retired US Army Chaplain and current Advent Christian church planter and radio host in Honolulu, Hawaii.
For Further Reading
Noll, Roland. The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009.
Wuthnow, Robert. Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches. Berkeley: CA, University of California Press, 2009.
