{{Short description|Reference work on Christianity}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{italic title}} {{Infobox book | italic title = <!--(see above)--> | name = World Christian Encyclopedia | image = File:World_Christian_Encyclopedia.png | image_size = | border = | alt = | caption = Title page for ''World Christian Encyclopedia'' (1982) | author = [[David B. Barrett]] | audio_read_by = | title_orig = | orig_lang_code = | title_working = | translator = | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = | language = | series = | release_number = | subject = | genre = | set_in = | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | publisher2 = | pub_date = 1982 | english_pub_date = | published = | media_type = | pages = | awards = | isbn = | isbn_note = | oclc = | dewey = | congress = | preceded_by = <!-- for books in a series --> | followed_by = World Christian Encyclopedia, 2nd edition<!-- for books in a series --> | native_wikisource = | wikisource = | notes = | exclude_cover = | website = }} '''''World Christian Encyclopedia''''' is a [[reference work]], with its third edition published by [[Edinburgh University Press]] in November 2019. The ''WCE'' is known for providing membership statistics for major world religions and Christian denominations including historical data and projections of future populations.
The data incorporated into the ''World Christian Encyclopedia'' have been made available online at the World Christian Database (WCD).
== Editions == ===1st – 1982=== The first edition, ''World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World A.D. 1900–2000'' (''WCE''), by [[David B. Barrett]], was published in 1982 by [[Oxford University Press]].<ref name="WCE1982">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfsPq6PZM0AC|encyclopedia=World Christian Encyclopedia|title=A Comparative Study of Churches and Religions in the Modern World, AD 1900–2000|first=David B.|last=Barrett|author-link=David B. Barrett|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=[[Oxford]]|edition=First|date=1982|isbn=0-19-572435-6|access-date=2020-10-21|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Barrett was a trained aeronautical engineer who became a missionary with the Church Missionary Society (Anglican). He arrived in Nyanza Province in Western Kenya in 1957. Over the course of 14 years he traveled to 212 of 223 countries and corresponded with Christians all over the world in search of the most up-to-date statistics on Christianity and world religions. His research resulted in the first edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia in 1982.<ref>Gina A. Zurlo, "'A Miracle from Nairobi'": David B. Barrett and the Quantification of World Christianity, 1957–1982," Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 2017. Link: https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/27183</ref>
===2nd – 2001=== Barrett moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1985 to work with the Southern Baptists on missionary strategy. He continued his research as an independent researcher, joined by Todd M. Johnson in 1988. With George Kurian, Barrett and Johnson produced the second edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia, in 2 volumes, in 2001 (Oxford University Press).<ref name=WCE2001>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/worldchristianen0001unse/page/n7/mode/2up |encyclopedia=World Christian Encyclopedia |title=A Comparative Study of Churches and Religions in the Modern World |first1=David B. |last1=Barrett |author-link=David B. Barrett |first2=George T. |last2=Kurian |first3=Todd M. |last3=Johnson |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |edition=Second |date=2001 |isbn=0-19-507963-9 |via=[[Internet Archive]] |url-access=registration}}</ref>
===3rd – 2019=== The third edition, written and edited by Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo (Barrett died in 2011), was released in November 2019.<ref name="EUPDetail">{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Todd M. |last1=Johnson |first2=Gina A. |last2=Zurlo |encyclopedia=World Christian Encyclopedia |title=World Christianity, 1900–2050 |edition=Third |date=2019 |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |location=[[Edinburgh]] |isbn=978-14744-032-38 |url=https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-world-christian-encyclopedia-hb.html |access-date=2019-10-01}}</ref> Johnson and Zurlo are co-directors of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, Massachusetts, US).<ref name="EUPDetail" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/publications/world-christian-encyclopedia/|title=World Christian Encyclopedia |website=Center for the Study of Global Christianity |access-date=2019-11-26}}</ref>
==Reception== One study found that the WCD's data was "highly correlated with other sources that offer cross-national religious composition estimates" but the database "consistently gives a higher estimate for percent Christian in comparison to other cross-national data sets".<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |first1=Becky |last1=Hsu |first2=Amy |last2=Reynolds |first3=Conrad |last3=Hackett |first4=James |last4=Gibbon |year=2008 |title=Estimating the Religious Composition of All Nations: An Empirical Assessment of the World Christian Database |url=http://www.conradhackett.com/uploads/2/6/7/2/2672974/evaluating_world_christian_database.pdf |journal=[[Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion]] |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=691–692 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00435.x |access-date=2012-01-27}}</ref> Concern has also been raised about possible bias because the ''World Christian Encyclopedia'' was originally developed as a Christian missionary tool.<ref name=":1" />
[[Margit Warburg]], a Danish researcher, has argued that the database contains numerical inaccuracies in its statistics on the [[Baháʼí Faith]]. She noted that figures given in WCE for some Western countries are highly exaggerated. For instance, the ''World Christian Encyclopedia'' reports an estimated 1,600 Baháʼís in Denmark in 1995 and 682,000 Baháʼís in the US in 1995. According to her, the Baháʼís themselves do not acknowledge such numbers; the number of registered Baháʼís in Denmark, in 1995, was about 240 and in the number in the US was about 130,000.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Warburg, Margit.|title=Citizens of the world : a history and sociology of the Bahaʹis from a globalisation perspective|date=2006|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-474-0746-1|location=Leiden|pages=218|oclc=234309958}}</ref> Regarding another faith group, the Anlgican Communion, David Goodhew, a researcher and fellow of [[St John's College, Durham|St. John's College]], [[Durham University]], argued that the encyclopedia and WCD "give the best data on the current size of the Communion."<ref>{{Cite web |title=How much influence does the global Anglican Communion have in choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury? |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/6-june/features/features/how-will-the-global-anglican-communion-be-represented-in-deciding-the-next-archbishop-of-canterbury |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=www.churchtimes.co.uk}}</ref>
Peer-reviewed work in the academic journal, ''[[Review of Religious Research]]'', expressed mixed views, both saying the World Christian Encyclopedia's editors "provide reasonable methodological reflections" while also identifying the uncritical acceptance of religious group's membership claims as a weakness.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McKinnon |first=Andrew |date=2021 |title=Christians, Muslims and Traditional Worshippers in Nigeria: Estimating the Relative Proportions from Eleven Nationally Representative Social Surveys |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45390937 |journal=Review of Religious Research |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=303–315 |issn=0034-673X}}</ref> Another review in the same journal, the ''Review of Religious Research'', described the World Christian Encyclopedia as basing its information on "a direct analysis of primary organizational data," but again noted that a weakness is in relying on how religious groups define their own membership.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sullins |first=D. Paul |date=2004 |title=An Organizational Classification of Protestant Denominations |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3512265 |journal=Review of Religious Research |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=278–292 |doi=10.2307/3512265 |issn=0034-673X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Rodney Stark, publishing in the journal, ''[[Sociology of Religion (journal)|Sociological Analysis]]'', determined that the 1983 edition's "data are probably reasonably accurate..."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stark |first=Rodney |date=1983 |title=Review of World Christian Encyclopedia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3711660 |journal=Sociological Analysis |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=70–73 |doi=10.2307/3711660 |issn=0038-0210}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-world-christian-encyclopedia-hb.html Edinburgh University Press: World Christian Encyclopedia] *[https://worldchristiandatabase.org/ World Christian Database] *[https://gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/ Center for the Study of Global Christianity]
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[[Category:1982 non-fiction books]] [[Category:2001 non-fiction books]] [[Category:Encyclopedias of religion]] [[Category:Religious studies books]] [[Category:Books on Christian missions]] [[Category:Kenyan books]] [[Category:American encyclopedias]] [[Category:Oxford University Press reference books]] [[Category:21st-century encyclopedias]] [[Category:World Christianity]] [[Category:2019 non-fiction books]]