Christianity is the world’s largest religion. In 1900, approximately 558 million people around the globe identified as Christian. By 2020, that number had grown to approximately 2.5 billion. Despite that numerical growth, Christianity shrank as a percentage of the world’s … Continue reading The State of Global Christianity | Influence Podcast
Global Christianity by Gina A. Zurlo is a statistical guide to the world’s largest religion, organized by continent, tradition or movement, and country. It functions as a précis of World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd ed. (2019) and World Christian Database (2021), … Continue reading Global Christianity | Book Review
Muhammad is the world’s most common personal name. This reflects the honor that Muslims give the founder of their religion. Indeed, Islam’s confession of faith requires affirmation of two propositions: “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the … Continue reading A Concise Guide to the Life of Muhammad | Book Review
The American Muslim population is growing. According to Pew Research Center, there were 2.35 million Muslims in the U.S. in 2007 and 3.85 million in 2020. Pew estimates that by 2050, there will be 8.1 million Muslims in the U.S. … Continue reading How to Share the Gospel with Muslims | Influence Podcast
The subtitle of James W. Sire’s The University Next Door calls the book “a basic worldview catalog.” Chapter 1 defines the term worldview and enumerates eight questions worldviews ask. Chapters 2–10 describe how nine worldviews answer these questions, beginning with Christian theism, which is … Continue reading The Universe Next Door | Book Review
Religious freedom is one of America’s most cherished values. It is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and protected by a thick web of statutory laws and judicial decisions. The same holds true at the state level. … Continue reading Free to Believe | Book Review
What should Christians believe about Islam? And how should Christians treat their Muslim neighbors? Contemporary events both abroad and in the U.S. require thoughtful Christians to answer these questions. In Episode 173 of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood, Influencemagazine’s executive editor, interviews Mark Brink, Mark Hausfeld, and Mark Refroe about Islam and Christian mission. All three are veteran Assemblies of God missionaries to Muslim-majority nations. Mark Brink is international director of Global Initiative, a ministry of Assemblies of God World Missionswhose mission statement is “To equip the global church to reach Muslims because every Muslim must know the truth about … Continue reading Islam and Christian Mission | Influence Podcast
In his 1996 bestseller, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Samuel P. Huntington argued “culture and cultural identities, which at the broadest are civilization identities, are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration, and conflict in the post-Cold War world.” He went on to describe several civilizational cohorts, but a comment on Islam is germane here: “In the early 1990s, Muslims were engaged in more intergroup violence than were non-Muslims, and two-thirds to three-quarters of intercivilizational wars were between Muslims and non-Muslims.” Then came his famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) conclusion: “Islam’s borders are bloody and so … Continue reading Sword and Scimitar | Book Review
Patrick Johnstone is best known as editor of the first six editions of Operation World, a prayer guide for Christians interested in fulling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16–20). Now in its seventh edition, and edited by Jason Mandryk, Operation World presents data on the geography, peoples, economy, politics, and religion of the regions and countries of the world, which is drawn from sophisticated databases maintained by WEC International, an interdenominational missions agency. This data helps readers pray intelligently about the needs of those regions and countries throughout the year. In The Future of the Global Church, Johnstone has drawn on … Continue reading The Future of the Global Church | Book Review
“Religions die,” writes Philip Jenkins in The Lost History of Christianity. “Over the course of history, some religions vanish altogether, while others are reduced from great world faiths to a handful of adherents” (p. 1). While contemporary Christians might like to think that this statement applies to other religions—after all, who worships the Greek pantheon today?—the sobering truth is in history, Christianity has experienced reduction in the historic heartlands of its faith. As Jenkins shows, for a thousand years, Christianity was the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, and western Asia, but now it is at best a … Continue reading The Lost History of Christianity | Book Review
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