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I have vivid memories of arriving in Seoul some years ago and seeing the night sky lit up on every side with neon crosses. Each of them advertised a Christian church, of which there were many, most of them large, prosperous, and filled with successful businessmen. One Methodist church was said to have 50,000 members. Less visible were the small Christian groups putting into practice their "people's theology" among the politically oppressed, the economically exploited, and the socially alienated. The contrast, and apparent lack of contact, between them is typical of many parts of the world, but in Korea is perhaps one of the symptoms of the phenomenally rapid growth of Christianity among the new class of entrepreneurs and industrial workers since the end of the Korean war. It is a growth which has been marked by "fragmentation, indigenisation and the rise of syncretistic sects". In the past 40 years the four groups of Presbyterian churches have split into 87 different factions.

Such drawbacks apart, the vitality of many churches in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America strongly suggests that in the 21st century these are going to be the main centres of Christianity, rather than its traditional heartlands in Eastern and Western Europe. How and why this is happening depends on very different histories in all three continents. There seems to be a common theme, though, in that all have suffered recent periods of rapid social change with major impacts on the lives and security of mass populations. The fact that the main growth is in evangelical and Pentecostal churches will further alter the balance of Christianity worldwide.

Latin America, for instance, with its long history of Catholic dominance, has constantly been riven by the tension between elitism and Vatican control on the one hand, and populism and indigenisation on the other. With the advent of liberation theology, and the prospects opened up by the Second Vatican Council, it seemed as if this long-standing tension could be resolved. The so-called base communities allowed ordinary people to discover their voice at local level and to initiate social action. But it was not a voice that the hierarchy wanted to hear, and the reassertion of clerical control has provided the stimulus to switch to neo-Pentecostalism.

In sub-Saharan Africa there is a steady growth of independent churches trying to develop more authentically African forms of Christianity. In the pre-colonial period missionaries had been close to the people, living alongside them and sharing their culture. With colonialism came a certain social distance - so-called "verandah Christianity". At the same time reliance on African catechists to serve the local communities ensured that even under white administration there was a local and vernacular character to Christianity, though the degree of indigenisation varied enormously. In the post-colonial period it is not surprising that political independence has unleashed energies for religious independence, despite the fact that in many countries the mainline churches eased the way to independence, and in its wake have provided a valuable degree of stability. Churches new and old have also had their martyrs, and it is a tragic irony that the scene of one of the greatest religious revivals, Rwanda, should 50 years later have become the scene of one of its worst massacres. It raises the question of how far religion can transcend ethnicity, especially when, as in this case, the revival movement had allowed no compromise with "pagan" practices.

Christian growth has been much less spectacular in countries such as India and China, and in areas where it has been in competition with Islam. No doubt one reason is that it is much more difficult to displace or convert an existing high culture, than to meet the needs of those whose own culture is revealing its inadequacies. But the story of Christianity in India, with its claim to apostolic beginnings, its conflicts with Europeanised religion, the huge complexity of working within the caste system, its post-colonial distrust of missionaries and the recent spate of persecution, hardly prepares one for the fact that the subcontinent has been a pioneer of Christian unity, and is now exporting Catholic missionaries.

In his introduction Adrian Hastings claims that Christianity is "in historic reality, the one and only fully world religion". The enormous panorama presented here, covering six continents and 2,000 years, goes some way towards supporting the claim. The 13 contributors have been allocated regions or, in the case of Eastern and Western Europe, periods, and there is no attempt at a uniformity of approach. Instead the varying ways in which each has chosen to tackle their section only serve to highlight the immense and often conflicting diversity of the Christian faith, and its continuing ability to find fresh life and inspiration in spite of the many appalling mistakes made by its protagonists. On the whole the chapters that adopt a thematic approach are more successful than those that attempt too detailed a history. I can sympathise with the dilemma of those asked to tell the vastly complex stories of Byzantium and Eastern Europe in some 40 pages each, but the result is hard going. Other chapters provide admirably readable overviews and a truly world perspective on the main issues Christians have had to deal with in different cultural and historical contexts. There are two themes running through the entire history. One is the conflict between enculturation and the preservation of a distinct Christian identity. It lies at the heart of the tension between liberalism and conservatism in modern Western Europe, just as it always has been central, for example, to various churches' attempts to work within the caste system in India. The other is the dilemma between working with the powers that be, often the only way of gaining access and influence, or identifying with popular movements at the risk of becoming over-politicised.

The enormous range of adaptations Christians have been able to make to living in vastly different circumstances raises a further question. What is it about Christianity that makes it such a protean phenomenon, representing such extremes of belief and behaviour, so flexible in its forms of expression, and with such extraordinary ability to recover its drive and direction, and to inspire heroism and sanctity, despite the follies and failures of Christians themselves? The book provides no clear answer, beyond the obvious one that, by being centred on a person rather than a set of ideas, the Christian faith has constant scope for creative responses to new situations. Ten years of working closely with the World Council of Churches, itself a remarkable microcosm of world Christianity, convinced me of this. It is one reason why I feel able to endorse the closing words of a somewhat depressing chapter on Christianity in Western Europe since the Enlightenment. "To those who I feel certain that the territory which was once called Christendom will one day be fully atheist, Christians might well reply that faith, never universal, has been known to survive in even less promising conditions than those of the present."

The Rt Revd John Habgood is the former archbishop of York.