Never-Ending Companions?

A constant in my life since 2013 has been the Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity – a book series that seeks to take account of the Christian presence in every country in the world. See https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Edinburgh+Companions+to+Global+Christianity

In fact, it has been with me for even longer than that since the Companions project is an outgrowth of the Atlas of Global Christianity 1910-2010, which we prepared for the centenary of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference – https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-atlas-of-global-christianity.html Our work on the Atlas began in 2005 so this is now my 20^th year of working on these volumes.

At times it has felt like a project that would never come to an end but now, at last, we are closing in on the finish. The Companions were projected as a 10-volume series and 8 volumes are already published. Vol 9 in Eastern and Southern Europe has been submitted to Edinburgh University Press and is now moving to the production phase. 

With Vol 10 we come full circle and offer a Compact Atlas of Global Christianity. Having produced a volume on each different part of the world, we now again take a global view with an Atlas that has many innovative features to help readers to understand the profile of Christianity worldwide in 2025. It also includes future projections to suggest what worldwide Christianity might look like in 2075. 

Work on the Compact Atlas is at an advanced stage so we hope that both Vols 9 and 10 will appear during 2025. Along with my co-Series Editor Todd Johnson I am sure I will have mixed feelings when the Series is complete. It has been such an inspiring collaboration that part of me does not want it ever to end. On the other hand, it is good to quit while you are winning so I think we will be happy to hang up our editorial pencils. But it will be with deep thanksgiving for the many collaborators who worked with us to create this unique set of books.

(The picture shows staff at the Singapore office of the Council for World Mission receiving copies of the first five volumes.)