Religion:Third Church

The Third Church or Southern Church is the recent rise of Christianity outside the Western world (particularly in the southern hemisphere, contrasting with the rapid decline in church attendance in North America and Europe. This is contextualized among two other major shifts in global Christianity since its inception in the 1st century:

Broadly defined, these periods can be described as follows:

• First Church: the Eastern church, 0-1000 AD
• Second Church: the Western church, 1000-2000 AD
• Third Church: the Southern church, 2000 AD to present

Criticisms

There are still many Christians living in Middle Eastern nations and that they never entirely disappeared from their native lands. The Four Marks of the Church define the Church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Therefore, the Church has a universality that is not peculiar to geographic areas or historical time frames.

References

• Phillip Jenkins. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford, 2002. ISBN:0-19-516891-7.
• Walbert Buhlman. The Coming of the Third Church: An Analysis of the Present and Future of the Church. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1977. ISBN:0-88344-070-9.