Recalling the Term ‘World Christianity’: Excursions into Worldings of Literature, Philosophy, and History

Abstract

‘Recalling’ can be both an act of remembering and of taking back something that is known and used by a broader public, such as the term ‘World Christianity’, which has been understood in different ways and used for different purposes by an English-speaking and reading public for the last hundred years at least.1 It has meant different things for different people in different times, and it continues to create even more new functions when transposed from English into other languages.2 In fact, the jury is still out on the necessity of ‘World Christianity’ being transposed into different languages, especially ones that facilitate communication within the academia, and whether the English term is synonymous with the German term Weltchristentum, the French term Christianisme mondial, or the Portuguese term Cristianismo mundial.3 ‘World Christianity’, in spite of its broad contextual usage, which resulted in the establishment of institutes and chairs at universities, and increased the sales of publishing houses, keeps raising the question, “What do you mean by it?” Even scholars such as Dale Irvin, who were at the cradle of the most recent