There are now about 2.18 billion Christians, about a third of the total global population. The figure comes from an American organization, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, in a report, “Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population.” (Go to pewforum.org for materials.)
Last year, Pew released a report on global Islam and estimated there are about 1.6 Muslims, so Christianity is still the world’s largest religion.
That’s assuming Christianity to be one religion. The reality is that Christianity is actually quite diverse in terms of beliefs and practices. The Pew report in fact breaks down its statistics into “Catholic,” “Protestant,” “Orthodox” and “Other Christian”—and each category includes many diverse groups as well.
“Global Christianity” is full of surprising facts and figures, challenging many of the assumptions we have about Christianity. The Pew report notes that the Middle East/Northern African region, where Christ and the first Christians lived, is now the region with the smallest number of Christians, both in absolute numbers and as percentages of the total population.
The same night I was reading the Pew Report I came across an article in the New York Times about Dura Europos, a very cosmopolitan city that flourished from the third century B.C. into the third century A.D. in what is Syria today. Archaeologists have dug up evidence to show it had people from all over the world, practicing different religions. One building, which looked like a residence from the outside, actually housed an early Christian church with paintings showing Jesus performing miracles and women in a baptism ritual.
Christianity had to be practiced in such houses because it was illegal in the Roman Empire for the first centuries after Christ. After the Roman emperor Constantine endorsed the religion, it spread throughout Europe, which was to remain its main base until the 20th century. The growth was not without problems, with divisions between Roman Catholicism and eastern Orthodox Catholicism. In the 16th century there was the Reformation and the rise of Protestantism, which today has many different denominations.
Catholicism arrived in South America through Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, while North America attracted Catholic and Protestant settlers from Europe, including smaller Christian groups that were persecuted. The United States later gave rise to what the Pew Report classifies as “other Christians”: groups like the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The Pew Report notes that a century ago, two-thirds of Christians were to be found in Europe, making it a mainly “western” religion and associated with the colonizing powers. Today, 61 percent of the world’s Christians are found in the “global south” (Latin America, Asia and Africa), where the practice of Christianity can be much more conservative than in western countries.
Only Christian country in Asia?
The Pew Report should make us rethink our claim to being the “only Christian country in Asia.” Yes, we rank fifth in the world with our total number of Christians and third with Catholics; and yes, we have the most number of Christians in Asia with 86.7 million. But Christians in China number 67 million, many in the early tradition of underground house-churches. India has 31.8 million Christians and Indonesia, 21.1 million. And while Papua New Guinea has only 6.8 million Christians, that represents 99.2 percent of the population. The Pew Report estimates Christians represent about 93 percent of our total population so if you want to play the numbers game, Papua New Guinea is a “more” Christian nation than we are.
The Pew Report noted that 70 percent of Filipino Christians are Pentecostal or charismatic. Pew explains Pentecostals, who are usually Protestant, are those which believe in a baptism of the Holy Spirit with post-conversion religious experiences like healing, speaking in tongues; while charismatic Christians are defined as those who are “non-pentecostal” but believe in a renewal of one’s faith through Pentecostal practices such as divine healing. Catholics can also be charismatics and the Pew report cites Mike Velarde’s El Shaddai as an example, with a large following.
The Pew Report’s section on the Philippines needs to be corrected though. In their discussion of Pentecostal churches, the Pew Report names the Church of Christ (Manalista), Jesus is Lord Fellowship and Assemblies of God. “Church of Christ (Manalista)” is a term used by the enemies of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), similar to the way Muslims used to be called Mohammedans.
The Pew Report mentions the INC again, this time as under “Other Christians,” grouped together with the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses with a total of about 850,000. I thought that estimate was very low since the INC alone should have at least a million members. Unfortunately, the INC itself does not release official figures, so it’s hard to say what the real situation is.
I know some readers are probably reacting now to the INC being classified as Christian. The INC denies Christ’s divinity but looks at him as their real founder. I once asked a graduate class of mine if they thought of the INC as Christian. The class was on the anthropology of religion and had as members Catholic priests, a Protestant pastor and an INC lay leader. One of the Catholic priests was quick to answer, “They follow Christ so they are Christian as far as I am concerned.” It was a gracious answer, so different from the heated exchanges Christian groups have with each other on television and the Internet over Christ and the Bible.
Beyond the numbers, I’d like to see studies on how Filipinos look at Christianity, as an institution, and as personal faith.
I’d say too we should give up this tiring mantra about the Philippines being the only Christian country in Asia. We make that claim whenever we want to show ourselves to be morally superior or, paradoxically, when we’re thoroughly ashamed of our corruption and our failings, and want to call for inner transformation. Ultimately, our “salvation” just might come about as Filipinos, now found all over the world, begin to understand a more catholic (in the sense of universal) Christianity.
Last-minute gifts
Two tips for last-minute gifts. Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) has a P300 desk calendar for its Arts-zone (Advocate Right to Safety Zone for Children) project, with guides for teachers and parents to protect children from violence and abuse. Calendars are available from their office at 5 Eymard Drive at the back of Quezon City Sports Club.
The Ortigas Foundation has desk calendars too, as well as postcard sets showing vintage photographs of Manila. In addition, they are selling, at a discount, Fr. Rene Javellana’s “La Casa de Dios: the Legacy of Filipino-Hispanic Churches in the Philippines.” The foundation will be selling its publications until the end of the month at Virra Mall’s ground floor at the Greenhills Shopping Center.
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Email: mtan@inquirer.com.ph