New Maps of the History of World Christianity: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives

The new global situation of Christianity requires new historiographical approaches. Despite many recent efforts by contemporary historians, we are only at the first stages of drawing up an integrated history of world Christianity. Written from a European academic perspective, this article suggests that comparative studies among different regions of the Christian world and the search for early instances of transcontinental links in the “Global South” are critical to such a new historiography. As an example of such an approach, I introduce a new research project currently underway in Munich that examines journals published by indigenous Christian elites from Asia and Africa around 1900. These journals served not only as a “mouthpiece” for local Christians, but also contributed significantly to their cognitive interaction and transregional networking