oa [Het gewicht van het zwaartepunt: Recht doen aan het wereldchristendom, Weighing the Centre of Gravity: Doing Justice to World Christianity]

Uncritically claiming that Christianity’s centre of gravity has shifted from the West to the global South is problematic because such a claim does not pay sufficient attention to the underlying power dynamics at play. I critique the popular conception of World Christianity where the West is tacitly omitted from the ‘World’ of World Christianity and therefore retains its normative character. Furthermore, I critique the usage of the concept of centre of gravity, because it perpetuates the language of power. Dismantling the binary between the West and ‘the rest’ involves both a theological reappropriation of centre and periphery and renewed attention to the history of Christianity.