Andrew Walls, Christian Conversion and Mission: A Brief Cultural History (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2025)

reviewed by Paul Thaxter

Published posthumously, this edited, accessible, condensed short book (about 150 pages with notes) is an excellent introduction to the writings of Andrew Walls, who died in 2021. It explores the cultural history of Christian conversion which Walls, a Scottish historian of Christian mission, had spent most of his long life considering in the company of other leading missiologists and theologians from around the world. Conversion is a contested notion in contemporary societies. Walls perceived Christian conversion as “turning toward Christ what is already there”. He argued that the cultural context needs to be considered and understood both in and across history. People come to Christ differently and express themselves in both geography and history.

Mark R. Gornik writes an informative introduction to the lectures, notes and writings of Walls. Interestingly, the first four chapters are from his lectures at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1996, which were unpublished transcripts. They provide, in my opinion, a hitherto-lacking coherent, concise introduction into Walls’ writings and thought. They look at the nature of converts and proselytes in Jewish Christianity and Hellenistic Christianity, contrasting with Barbarian Christianity and the birth of Christendom, culminating in Chapter 4 with his insights on “Christianity without Christendom”.

Chapter 5 (“Worldviews and Christian Conversion”) highlights some of the important developments and implications for mission over the centuries, whilst chapter 6 (“Monks and Evangelicals”), only four pages, looks at the nature of Christendom and some of its radical movements. In Chapter 7 (“When World Christianity Fell Apart”) Walls describes the astonishing diversity of the Church in culture and geography, and comments that the current reality of global Christianity is “a return to normality, a return to the multicentric, multilingual, multicultural reality of the Early Church…” In the epilogue there is a summary of six different phases of Christianity with its ensuing diversity but also noting points of coherence and continuity. Having read Walls previously, I found this last short book to be a good entry point for both the general interested reader and for those students who wish to explore the dynamics of conversion and culture further. As it is edited posthumously from notes, lectures and conversations it occasionally lacks a completely smooth read but it does provide an authentic expression of Walls’ unique contribution to mission, theology and faith. 

This book is ideal for mission practitioners, church planters, discipleship trainers, evangelists and church leaders pondering the interactions of culture and conversion over church history. When we encourage people and communities to turn to Christ, what exactly are we seeking to do? How much of our culture (including the way we do church) is essential, disposable or open to transformation in the process? Reading this book could lead to stronger reflection on how to generate healthier, more open creative Christian communities, stronger disciples and a more multi-culturally relevant church. Not only do I recommend this book but I am buying it for friends and for those I think would benefit from contemplating its contents.

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