“World,” “Global,” and the Reproduction of Asymmetrical Dependencies in the Study of Christianity

This article examines the politics of worlding in world/global Christianity. First, the discussion is situated in relation to the concept of “worlding” and the problem of imagining “worlds.” Second, the article complicates the concept of “world” as applied to sociohistorical phenomena with a planetary scope and argues that such formulations are inevitably engaged in politics—that is, in selectively forming the social and delineating social participation opportunities. Third, arguments from recent scholarship on world/global Christianity that identify the selectivity and normativity entailed in the framings of world/global Christianity are considered. Finally, the lens of asymmetrical dependency theory is applied to highlight the ways that framings of “world”/“global Christianity” reproduce the dependency of scholars of Christianity who work in theological research and education systems outside of North American and western European academic theology on North American and western European academic theology.