From the author who permanently changed the way people think about the future of Christianity by calling the world's attention to the fact that Christianity's center of gravity was moving inexorably southward. Philip Jenkins now takes a much closer look at Christianity in the global South, revealing what it is like, and what it means for the future.

The faith of the South is first and foremost a biblical faith, identifying with the world portrayed in the New Testament--agricultural; marked by famine, plague, poverty, and exile; until very recently a society of peasants, farmers, and small craftsmen; belief in spirits and witchcraft are commonplace; and persecution of Christians in many places (Nigeria, Indonesia, Sudan, others). Thus, the Bible speaks to the global South with a vividness and authenticity simply unavailable to most believers in other parts of the world.

More important, Jenkins shows that throughout the global South, believers are reading the Bible with fresh eyes, and coming away with new and sometimes startling interpretations. Some of their conclusions are distinctly fundamentalist, but Jenkins finds an intriguing paradox, for they are also finding ideas in the Bible that are socially liberating, especially with respect to women's rights. Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, such Christians are social activists in the forefront of a wide range of liberation movements.

This book is interesting, eye-opening, surprising, and sometimes disturbing. Anyone interested in the implications of these trends for the major denominations, for Muslim-Christian conflict, and for global politics will find The New Faces of Christianity provocative, incisive, and indispensable.