New Centers of Global Evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa by Stephen Offutt is an empirically rich and ambitious effort to describe and explain emerging new patterns of organization, belief, and leadership among evangelical churches in the Global South. The author refers to these as New Centers of Evangelization (NCEs) and argues that they represent something really new: dynamic clusters of religious and social innovation arising from the global periphery.

The empirical ground of the book is a dense and systematically comparative examination of Protestant evangelical organization, leadership, belief, practice, and commitment in El Salvador and South Africa. The author presents data from a rich mix of elite interviewing, archival research, organizational analysis, and participant observation over an extended period. A useful appendix on methodology provides the details.

The theoretical ground of the book arises from the discovery of self-generated change within religion in the Global South. In the author's account, change is impelled by religious social forces in a volatile mix of transnational influences with local talent and innovation. The motive force for these changes is concentrated in emerging entrepreneurial classes, and the author focuses his attention on this group — successful in business, dedicated to the new churches, and active in extending their reach, both nationally and on the world scene. Developments on the ground in El Salvador and South Africa are nurtured by transnational flows of legitimation, including people and symbolic and material resources, which are extensively documented. But the emerging clusters of organization and innovation are locally controlled and led by a generation of new leaders.

As NCEs consolidate and gain strength and confidence, they have begun to reverse the conventional flow of resources and influence. Churches born in the South now regularly send missionaries and plant churches and other institutions (such as media outlets) in other countries across the global South and also in the North. Growing confidence and capabilities have also led to a reversal of the stereotypical withdrawal of evangelicals from a “sinful world.” Rather than withdraw, this generation experiments with new forms of social and political engagement. They work with drugs and gangs, prison ministries, shelters for orphans, HIV/AIDS advocacy, and political parties, and they form alliances and cooperative efforts with groups that were long anathema, in other churches and on the political left.

The book has a theoretical ground mostly derived from classic work by Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch, and others on the Protestant ethic, but there is no real theoretical question. The author's focus is more on identifying, naming and classifying what he sees rather than on providing a systematic explanation for the patterns described in such painstaking detail. Consonant with this approach, the book is replete with lists: I counted five conditions, three kinds of social forces, six trends, and six characteristics. These are often repeated. There is also a raft of acronyms, many but not all of which are listed at the beginning of the book.

The basic thrust of the author's argument is that continuous change is present everywhere, often self-generated within religion (i.e., not dependent on other social forces) A central point is that some of the most innovative and impactful elements of this change are now blooming in centers in the Global South. Although the detailed exposition the author provides is welcome, the general point is not exactly new: worth emphasizing to be sure, but perhaps not meriting the “gee whiz” treatment it receives throughout this book.

As noted earlier, the author is particularly impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit and abilities of the leaders and groups he studies. He underscores the mutual support of religious groups and local businesses, all new, all reaching for broader connections and a broader impact on a national and transnational scale. Much of the empirical analysis is devoted to this entrepreneurial elite, to its operational ethics, and to the capacity of the churches to serve as “entrepreneurial incubators” (105). Offutt writes: “The culture of contemporary NCEs reflects its Puritan heritage. Many NCEs are characterized by familistic sentiment, frugality, individual accountability, and reliability just as the Puritans were before them (103). He does note differences across the eras: less angst about salvation now, more ease with enjoying and spending. But he sticks to the basic parallel.”

There are two notable absentees from this discussion. First are the Neo-Pentecostal churches, which advance what is known as a “prosperity gospel,” according to which God gives material blessings — health, wealth, tools of business, and tangible success to those who pledge loyalty and belief to Him. Churches of this kind are growing as fast or faster than any others throughout the Global South. They are often run by authoritarian pastors with backgrounds in the media, and show little evidence of nurturing entrepreneurial behavior or entrepreneurs. The prevailing focus is more on the here and now in an operative swap of belief and commitment for immediate improvement. The author acknowledges this sector of evangelical Christianity in chapter 6, noting that they provide “the most ubiquitous signal that evangelical beliefs are no longer strictly otherworldly” (133). But this is not really the point. They are both otherworldly and very much in this world. Those advancing a prosperity or health and wealth version of Christianity in their new churches have grown at an explosive pace and now provide important competition for the more Weberian, entrepreneurial, and “integral mission model” that the author highlights, and clearly prefers.

The second great absentee is the mass (or ordinary believers) — men and women who come to the new churches for healing, fellowship, and solutions to the problems of living in challenging and sometimes violent environments. The author's focus on entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial dimension of one aspect of new churches sometimes leaves this group in the shadows, where they remain more objects of action and organization (say clients at clinics) than active subjects themselves.

Offutt's conclusions in New Centers of Global and Evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa are more a summary and restatement than a further exploration of the significance of the work and its possible connections to other cases. Offutt underscores the case for local innovation and control as central to continued growth. He reemphasizes the centrality of strategies of asceticism and rational thought (not so visible in the churches of the prosperity gospel). He concludes with confidence that “NCEs will continue to evolve” (159). Well yes, everything social does in one way or another.