Churches of the Global South are spreading egalitarian aspirations that have transformative impacts on law and politics, economy and culture.
Religious change often coincides with major social transformations, and with modernization. Partly, this reflects the mobilization of new social constituencies, but it also involves the appearance new forms of media and communication, from the codex and the printed book to the modern Internet and social media. Although it is by no means the only example, the most celebrated and most widely analyzed such change is the European Reformation, the 500th anniversary of which is being marked this very year. Historians credit the Reformation with such crucial developments as the rise of individualism; the coming of new domestic structures and the nuclear family; the emergence of popular education and mass literacy; and the coming of new ideas of thrift and economic enterprise that made possible European global domination.
At every stage, religion defined and shaped modern identity.
Giving that example a fresh relevance is the widespread of Christianity across Africa, Asia and Latin America, in the regions known as the “Global South.” In some instances, this growth represents fresh conversions to a new religion, while elsewhere, it involves shifts from one form or denomination of Christianity to another. Putting the two trends together, we witness a vast religious transformation, which in Africa alone promises to swell the number of Christians from just ten million in 1900 to over a billion by 2050. Most denominations have benefited to some extent, but by far the greatest beneficiaries have been Pentecostals, and the larger category known generically as ECP – Evangelical/Charismatic Protestants.
The social and cultural impacts of that change are complex and numerous. They include a radical growth in literacy and in reading, the diffusion of reading materials, and a commitment to mass popular education undertaken by churches themselves. Also critical has been the churches’ role in spreading ideas of individualism and self-reliance, the sense that each and every member of a congregation is fully entitled to participate, regardless of age, class or gender. This explains the common appeal of newer churches to groups excluded or demeaned in traditional societies, including women, teenagers, and young adults. Through their lay participation in such churches, the voiceless acquire the ability and confidence to speak out and to assume leadership in wider society. In the words of David Martin, they gain “Tongues of Fire.”
The impact on gender roles is especially significant, as women in evangelical congregations form new aspirations to dignity and mutuality within marriage and family. As a well-known phrase describes Pentecostal churches in Latin America, these congregations lead a “Reformation of Machismo.” Global South Christianity is a women’s movement or it is nothing.
As in the original Reformation too, the new churches teach habits of thrift and economic self-reliance that are fundamental to growth and prosperity.
Although new Global South churches sometime preach conservative messages, their practical effects are profoundly transformative on issues of gender and family. The consequence is the spread of more egalitarian aspirations with potentially enormous effects on law and politics, economy and culture.
In the best case scenario, the emerging religious economy would lay a solid foundation for the essential structures of civil society.