THE CHRISTIAN WORLD – A DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT

The greatest single change that has come upon the Christian faith during the last century has been the demographic shift in its focus away from its traditional centres in Europe and North America. There it has been in deep decline for three centuries, and today professing Christians probably number no more than 15 per cent or so of the population. By contrast the growth of Christianity in the ‘South’ or ‘Third World’ has, within the last hundred years or so, witnessed a phenomenal growth. In the Pacific, Christianity is the religion of the large bulk of the population, while in sub-Saharan Africa reasonable estimates would indicate that more than 60 per cent would claim to be Christian. Even in the vast continent of Asia, where overall Christians would not number more than three per cent of the total population, there are concentrated areas of Christian presence. The Philippines is largely Christian while Korea has a substantial and influential Christian minority. In India the ancient heartland of the Syrian tradition, Kerala, is perhaps a quarter Christian, while in the northern states of Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya, Christianity dominates. In Latin America, beginning from the fifteenth century when the cross of the Catholic priests accompanied the swords of the conquistadores, Christianity has overlaid the religion of the large proportion of the indigenous population.