Recent years have seen a paradigm shift in Christian self-understanding. In place of the eurocentric model of "Christendom," a new understanding has emerged of Christianity as a "world" movement. At the cornerstone of this new perspective lies the work of a remarkable scholar, Andrew F. Walls, whose book, The Missionary Movement in Christian History (Orbis 1996) was named by Christianity Today as one of the hundred most influential books of the twentieth century. Understanding World Christianity introduces the Walls's work and explores its wide-ranging implications for the understanding of history, mission, the formative place of Africa in the Christian story, and the cross-cultural transmission of faith.

Contributors include: Kwame Bediako; I. Howard Marshall; Allison Howell and Maureen Iheanacho; Wilbert R. Shenk; Brian Stanley; Jonathan J. Bonk; Moonjang Lee; Lamin Sanneh; William R. Burrows; Stephen B Bevans; Dana Robert; Mark Noll; Michael Poon; J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu; Gillian Bediako; Jehu J. Hanciles.