Andrew Walls

Andrew Finlay Walls OBE (21 April 1928 – 12 August 2021) was a British historian of missions, best known for his pioneering studies of the history of the African church and a pioneer in the academic field of World Christianity.[1]

Andrew Walls

OBE
Walls in 2016
Born
Andrew Finlay Walls

(1928-04-21)21 April 1928
New Milton, England
Died12 August 2021(2021-08-12) (aged 93)
Aberdeen, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Scholar of missions and religious studies
Known forHistory of the African church and a pioneer in the academic field of World Christianity
Spouse(s)Doreen (née Harden), Ingrid (née Reneau)
Academic background
Alma materExeter College, Oxford
Doctoral advisorFrank Leslie Cross
Academic work
DisciplineMissiology, religious studies
InstitutionsFourah Bay College, University of Edinburgh, Liverpool Hope University

Biography

Walls was born in 1928 in New Milton, England. He studied theology at Exeter College, Oxford, receiving a first-class degree in 1948, and completed his graduate studies in the early Church in 1956 under the patristics scholar Frank Leslie Cross.[2]

He taught at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone (1957–62) and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1962–65). He was later appointed to a post in ecclesiastical history in the University of Aberdeen in 1966, before being the first head of the Department of Religious studies in the University of Aberdeen (1970). He would subsequently move to the University of Edinburgh in 1986. Before his death, he was Professor of the History of Mission at Liverpool Hope University, Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh,[3] Research Professor at Africa International University's Center for World Christianity,[4] and Professor Emeritus at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture.[5]

Walls established the Journal of Religion in Africa in 1967 and Studies in World Christianity in 1995. He also founded the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World (now known as the Centre for the Study of World Christianity), first at the University of Aberdeen in 1982, before moving it to the University of Edinburgh in 1987, a year after he moved to Edinburgh.[6]

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.[16] In the mid-1970s, the department would be known for emphasising work in the study of what was then called 'primal religions'. Moreover, his vision for a global perspective of religion allowed for Walls to attract a number of significant members of staff and students who were interested in religions of the non-Western world. It would also be in this new department that the original Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World was established, before eventually being relocated to the University of Edinburgh in 1987.

Works

Books
  • Walls, Andrew Finlay (1996). The Missionary Movement in Christian History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-570-75059-5. OCLC 33948470.
  • ——— (2002). The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-570-75373-2. OCLC 47237613.
  • ———; Ross, Cathy (2008). Mission in the Twenty-First Century: exploring the five marks of global mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-570-75773-0. OCLC 173243828.
  • ——— (2017). Crossing Cultural Frontiers: Studies in the History of World Christianity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-62698-258-1.

Edited
  • ———; Shenk, Wilbert R., eds. (1990). Exploring New Religious Movements: essays in honour of Harold W. Turner. Elkhart, IN: Mission Focus. ISBN 978-1-877-73608-7. OCLC 22281800.
  • ———; Fyfe, Christopher, eds. (1996). Christianity in Africa in the 1990s. Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh. OCLC 35318556.

Select chapters and articles

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
  1. 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.
  2. Stanley, Brian (October 2001). "Profile of Andrew Walls". Epworth Review. 28 (4): 16–26.
  3. "Academic Staff". University of Edinburgh. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  4. "Research Professor at the Center for World Christianity of AIU". Africa International University. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
  5. "Academic Staff". acighana.org. Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  6. "Frost's Scottish Who's Who". Archived from the original on 16 May 2012.
  7. Stanley, Brian (October 2021). "Andrew Finlay Walls (1928–2021)". International Bulletin of Mission Research. 45 (4): 319–329. doi:10.1177/23969393211043591. ISSN 2396-9393. S2CID 237481873.
  8. "Dr. Ingrid Reneau Walls". Archived from the original on 30 January 2016.
  9. "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.
  10. "Professor Andrew Finlay Walls: A Tribute". Centre for the Study of World Christianity. 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  11. "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.
  12. "Andrew F. Walls". Aberdeen Methodist Church. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  13. Weber, Jeremy. "Remembering 'Prof' Andrew Walls, Founder of the Study of World Christianity". Christianity Today. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  14. Stafford, Tim (February 2007). "Historian Ahead of His Time". Christianity Today. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
  15. "Andrew F. Walls Centre – Liverpool Hope University". hope.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  16. Cox, James L.; Sutcliffe, Steven J. (March 2006). "Religious studies in Scotland: A persistent tension with divinity". Religion. 36 (1): 1–28. doi:10.1016/j.religion.2005.12.001.
External video
video icon Life and revelations in Sierra Leone (2013)
video icon What is World Christianity? (2016)
video icon European Christianity, the Missionary Movement and the Rebirth of World Christianity (2017)
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