Global Hermeneutics? - International Voices in Biblical Studies ...

6 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS?
and South America all together had only a quarter of the European figures in 1900,
they were equal in 1970. This development continued throughout the latter decades
of the twentieth century. In 2005 the European percentage of the total number of
church members had been reduced to 26%, whereas the African percentage had
grown to 19%, the Asian to 17% and the South American to 24%. In other words,
in one generation—from 1970 to 2005—the global distribution of church members
changed from a situation where Europe, on the one hand, and Africa, Asia and
South America together, on the other, were approximately equal, to a situation
where the latter three have more than double the number of church members
compared to Europe. And if we look into the near future at 2025 we see that each of
the three southern regions—Africa with 24% of the total number of church
members, Asia with 19% and South America with 24%—levels the European 20%.
And note that the 2025 figures are not based on pious hopes for a worldwide
Christian revival; they reflect a status quo as far as the percentage of church
members in each region is concerned. What the figures do take into account,
however, are the differences as far as the demographic developments in south and
north are concerned.
The figures of the global distribution of church members by regions should be
broken down to figures by countries, and so the next table is a kind of top ten list,
surveying the development of the ten countries which have the highest number of
church members (abbr. ‘cm’).
1900 1970 2005 2025
Country Mill Country Mill Country Mill Country Mill
cm
cm
cm
cm
USA 73 USA 191 USA 251 USA 280
Russia 62 Brazil 92 Brazil 167 Brazil 193
Germany 42 Germany 70 China 111 China 174
France 41 Russia 50 Mexico 102 Mexico 123
Britain 37 Mexico 50 Russia 84 India 107
Italy 33 Britain 48 Philippines 74 Philippines 96
Ukraine 29 Italy 48 India 68 Nigeria 95
Poland 22 France 43 Germany 62 DR Congo 91
Spain 19 Philippines 34 Nigeria 61 Russia 85
Brazil 17 Spain 33 DR Congo 53 Ethiopia 67
We notice here that in 1900 eight of the top ten countries as far as church
membership is concerned were European: Eastern European countries such as
Russia, Ukraine and Poland, and Western European countries such as Germany,
France, Britain, Italy and Spain. The only non-European countries were the USA as
number one and Brazil as number ten. In 1970 the USA was still at the top and
Brazil has climbed up to the second position. Of the eight remaining ones there are
still six European countries, but Mexico and the Philippines have now joined the