Andrew Walls
Andrew Walls Frank Leslie Cross | |
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Academic work | |
Discipline | Missiology, religious studies |
Institutions | Fourah Bay College, University of Edinburgh, Liverpool Hope University |
Andrew Finlay Walls
Biography
Walls was born in 1928 in
He taught at
Walls established the
Walls was also active in public service. He was a city councilor for Aberdeen and ran for Parliament in 1970 as the Labour candidate for the Banffshire constituency. Due to his engagement in the arts and service as chair of the Council for Museums and Galleries in Scotland, Walls received an Order of the British Empire in 1987.[7]
With his late wife Doreen Harden (1919–2009), whom he married in 1953, they have two children, Christine and Andrew (an immunopharmacologist at the University of Southampton).[2] After Doreen's death in 2009, he married Ingrid Reneau in 2012, a Research Fellow with the Presbyterian Mission Agency.[7][8]
Walls received an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Aberdeen in 1993, followed by a second one from the University of Edinburgh in 2018, in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the study of Christianity in Africa and the non-Western world.[7][9]
Walls died on 12 August 2021 in Aberdeen after a period of hospitalisation.[10][11] He was part of Aberdeen Methodist Church for over 50 years, and was active as a preacher through the North of Scotland Mission Circuit.[12] After his death, scholars and former students from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas paid tribute to Walls's ground-breaking scholarship and generous personal support.[13]
World Christianity
Walls' most significant observations have concerned the geographical trends in Christianity in the 20th and 21st centuries, especially in terms of expansion in Africa, in what is generally termed World Christianity. Historian Lamin Sanneh commented that he was 'one of the few scholars who saw that African Christianity was not just an exotic, curious phenomenon in an obscure part of the world, but that African Christianity might be the shape of things to come'.[14] His pioneering research led the magazine Christianity Today to describe him in 2007 as 'a historian ahead of his time' and 'the most important person you don't know'.[14]
Liverpool Hope University has a research centre named in honour of him, which encourages and supports research in the field of African and Asian Christianity.[15]
Religious studies
Although he is more well known for his work in Christianity, Walls has also been a significant pioneer in shaping the field of religious studies as it is taught in universities of Scotland.[16] When he first returned to Scotland, Walls taught Ecclesiastical History in the University of Aberdeen in 1966. However, he recognised that the Faculty of Divinity in Aberdeen did not allow for a sufficient global perspective of religion, and founded the Department of Religious studies outside the Faculty of Divinity in 1970.
Significantly, Walls' work in Aberdeen would establish the first department of Religious Studies in Scotland.
Works
Books
- Walls, Andrew Finlay (1996). The Missionary Movement in Christian History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. OCLC 33948470.
- ——— (2002). The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. OCLC 47237613.
- ———; OCLC 173243828.
- ——— (2017). Crossing Cultural Frontiers: Studies in the History of World Christianity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-62698-258-1.
Edited
Select chapters and articles
- Walls, Andrew Finlay (1967). "Papias and Oral Tradition". Vigiliae Christianae. 21 (3): 137–140. .
- ——— (1959). "Introduction". The First Epistle General of Peter. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Tyndale Press. OCLC 978540.
- ——— (1995). "Christianity in the non-western world: a study in the serial nature of Christian expansion". Studies in World Christianity. 1 (1): 1–25. .
- ——— (1996). "African Christianity in the History of Religions". Studies in World Christianity. 2 (2): 183–203. .
- ——— (2004). "Converts or Proselytes? The Crisis over Conversion in the Early Church". International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 28 (1): 2–6. S2CID 147809031.
- ——— (2005). "The cost of discipleship: the witness of the African church". Word & World. 25 (4): 433–443.
- ——— (2014). "Mission and Migration: The Diaspora Factor in Christian History.". In Chandler H. Im and Amos Yong (ed.). Global Diasporas and Mission. Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series 23. Regnum. pp. 19–37. ISBN 978-1498209403.
- ——— (2015). "An Anthropology of Hope: Africa, Slavery, and Civilization in Nineteenth-Century Mission Thinking". International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 39 (4): 225–230. S2CID 171362472.
- ——— (2016). "The Transmission of Christian Faith: A Reflection.". In Lamin Sanneh and Michael J. McClymond (eds). (ed.). The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Christianity. Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 685–698, chapter 51. ISBN 978-1405153768.
- ——— (2016). "Eschatology and the Western Missionary Movement". Studies in World Christianity. 24 (3): 182–200. .
- ——— (2020). "'You are old, Father William': Generational Abrasiveness in the Missionary Movement". In ISBN 978-90-04-43753-1.
- ——— (2022). "The Break-up of Early World Christianity and the Great Ecumenical Failure". Studies in World Christianity. 28 (2): 156–168. S2CID 249288593.
Full bibliography of works through 2011 can be found in William Burrows, Mark Gornik and Janice McLean (eds) Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2011).
References
- ^ Burrows, William R.; Gornik, Mark R.; McLean, Janice A., eds. (2011). Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
- ^ a b Stanley, Brian (October 2001). "Profile of Andrew Walls". Epworth Review. 28 (4): 16–26.
- ^ "Academic Staff". University of Edinburgh. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- ^ "Research Professor at the Center for World Christianity of AIU". Africa International University. Retrieved 14 September 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Academic Staff". acighana.org. Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
- ^ "Frost's Scottish Who's Who". Archived from the original on 16 May 2012.
- ^ S2CID 237481873.
- ^ "Dr. Ingrid Reneau Walls". Archived from the original on 30 January 2016.
- ^ "Honorary Doctor of Divinity: Professor Andrew Finlay Walls, OBE, MA, BLitt, DD, FSASco". School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. 26 November 2018. Archived from the original on 27 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- ^ "Professor Andrew Finlay Walls: A Tribute". Centre for the Study of World Christianity. 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
- ^ "Yale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianity and the History of Mission". divinity.yale.edu. 13 August 2021. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
- ^ "Andrew F. Walls". Aberdeen Methodist Church. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
- ^ Weber, Jeremy (17 August 2021). "Remembering 'Prof' Andrew Walls, Founder of the Study of World Christianity". Christianity Today. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
- ^ a b Stafford, Tim (February 2007). "Historian Ahead of His Time". Christianity Today. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
- ^ "Andrew F. Walls Centre – Liverpool Hope University". hope.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
- ^ .
External links
External videos | |
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Life and revelations in Sierra Leone (2013) | |
What is World Christianity? (2016) | |
European Christianity, the Missionary Movement and the Rebirth of World Christianity (2017) |