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Journal articles on the topic 'Africa; Christian churches'
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1
Markos, Antonius. "Developments in Coptic Orthodox Missiology." Missiology: An International Review 17, no. 2 (April 1989): 203–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182968901700206.
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“The Church of Alexandria,” the Coptic Church of Egypt, is the ancient African church established in apostolic times around A.D. 42 by Saint Mark, the Gospel writer. In the ensuing two thousand years Coptic Christians practiced their faith fervently. The Coptic Church, a missionary church since its earliest times, was known to be the first carrier of Christian faith to Ireland, Switzerland, Ethiopia, Nubia, and North Africa. Since geographically and ethnically the Egyptians belong to Africa, the Coptic Church found fellowship with Christian movements in Africa. Two historical meetings of leaders of such churches led to the formation of the Organization of African Independent Churches.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. "United Over Meals Divided at the Lord’s Table: Christianity and the Unity of the Church in Africa." Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 27, no. 1 (January 2010): 16–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265378809351452.
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Christianity in Africa owes its massive growth of the last 50 years to the Independent and Pentecostal/ charismatic churches. The relationships between these churches and the older mission-founded churches are strained. Ethnic and social factors contribute to the divisions. Christian unity in Africa will require conversion to Christ. The strong African tradition of communal life is destroyed by external forces and inter-African conflicts in which members of the same churches have fought one another. Healing is only possible through reconciliation, which calls for conversion from the sin of breaking the community and neglecting the sanctity of human life. The Global Christian Forum offers a new model of working towards Christian unity, which may be particularly meaningful for Africa.
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Mapala, Cogitator Wilton. "A CRITICAL REFLECTION AND MALAWIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE COMMEMORATION OF THE EDINBURGH 1910 INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY CONFERENCE." Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 41, no. 3 (April 19, 2016): 63–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/478.
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This paper interrogates why the Edinburgh 1910 International Missionary Conference needs to be remembered in Malawi. In 2010 Malawian Christian churches joined the Christian community across the globe, celebrating the International Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. Christian churches across the country wanted to conduct services of worship in major cities in memory of this conference. Often we celebrate something that has a direct impact on our lives. However, considering the fact that the conference was disproportionately represented by Western churches, the intriguing question is why it should be remembered in Malawi and in Africa. What impact does it have on the Christian churches in Malawi? While church historians have written on the impact of the Edinburgh 1910 International Missionary Conference in perspective of its ecumenical contribution to the Christendom, there is a scarcity of literature to explain whether the Christians in Malawi see the value of celebrating this historic conference held thousands of kilometres away from them. From the methodological perspective, the paper relies on archives, interviews and church records available in Malawi.
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Borchardt, C. F. A. "Die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk en die Suid-Afrikaanse Raad van Kerke." Verbum et Ecclesia 8, no. 1 (July 17, 1987): 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v8i1.960.
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The Dutch Reformed Church and the South African Council of Churches The General Missionary Conference which was founded in 1904 became the Christian Council of South Africa in 1936. In 1940 a founder member, viz. the Transvaal Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church withdrew from the council. In 1968 a change of name to the South African Council of Churches reflected a deeper involvement in social and political matters and it gradually also became more representative of the black Christian point of view. Despite various invitations, the Dutch Reformed Church has not rejoined the Council and relations have been very strained, but at its last synod in 1986 the Dutch Reformed Church decided that informal discussions could be held.
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Kollman, Paul. "Classifying African Christianities: Past, Present, and Future: Part One." Journal of Religion in Africa 40, no. 1 (2010): 3–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006610x493107.
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AbstractThis two-part article examines the practice of classifying African Christianities, looking at past and current approaches in order to make suggestions for the future. Noting advances in such classification from the disciplines of African church history and the anthropology of Christianity, it proposes a generational approach to African Christian communities. After reviewing past approaches and identifying their shortcomings, part one shows how Pentecostalism has disrupted such classifications further, prompting the late church historian Ogbu Kalu’s assertion of continuity within African Christianities through a longstanding pattern of revivalism. Kalu helpfully emphasizes African initiatives in Christian creativity and detects similarities over time in Christianity’s appeal to Africans. Yet he also relies on a problematic essentialist approach to Africa and, by foregrounding Pentecostals and African Independent (or Initiated) Churches, continues a trend that overlooks other African Christians. The challenge lies in developing classifications that include all African Christians, using concepts that generate insight-producing comparisons.
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Adebayo, Rufus, and Sylvia Zulu. "Christian Communication, Forms, Secularity, and Dimensions of Language in a Multifaceted Cultural Setting." African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies 3, no. 1 (2021): 91–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.51415/ajims.v3i1.914.
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Christian communication and the various dimensions of language are profoundly connected and interchangeably used in a multifaceted cultural setting. Christian churches in South Africa, similar to any other African countries, profess their philosophies, passions, and beliefs to multi-cultural congregations through the use of sacred languages and communication. This study posits that the uprising of Pentecostal churches has paved the way for nonspiritual dialectic languages and has also greatly lessened spiritual communication. As a result, the study highlights the relationship between language and religious communication among Pentecostal churches in a culturally diverse environment. This study employs a qualitative approach, through the gathering and categorisation of information between 20 churches located in Durban, South Africa to recognise Christian communication and the influence of secular linguistic features and their relationships with spirituality. This study has found that there are different forms and secular dimensions of language which differ from spiritual language and Christian communication. The study reveals that as modern Christian churches emerge, a revolutionised communication has evolved as compared to the language of orthodox churches. The study recommends that the use of language for religious communication and discourse should necessitate expounding spiritual values and courses of action.
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Houle, Robert. "Mbiya Kuzwayo's Christianity: Revival, Reformation and the Surprising Viability of Mainline Churches in South Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 38, no. 2 (2008): 141–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006608x289666.
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AbstractMuch of the credit for the vitality of Christianity in southern Africa has gone to the African Initiated Churches that date their birth to earlier 'Ethiopian' and 'Zionist' movements. Yet far from being compromised, as they are often portrayed, those African Christians remaining in the mission churches often played a critical role in the naturalization of the faith. In the churches of the American Zulu Mission, the largest mission body in colonial Natal, one of the most important moments in this process occurred at the end of the nineteenth century when participants in a revival, led in part by a young Zulu Christian named Mbiya Kuzwayo, employed the theology of Holiness to dramatically alter the nature of their lived Christianity and bring about an internal revolution that gave them effective control of their churches.
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Quayesi-Amakye, Joseph. "A YEAST IN THE FLOUR: PENTECOSTALISM AS THE AFRICAN REALISATION OF THE GOSPEL." Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 42, no. 3 (February 23, 2017): 71–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/1591.
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The paper discusses the contributions of Pentecostalism to the development of the Christian faith in Ghana and Africa. It argues that Pentecostalism is what fulfils the aspirations and quest of Ghanaian (African) Christians in their search for authentic Christian life. Christianity came to West Africa as a Western contextualised religion impinged by the nineteenth-century rationalisation, the product of the Enlightenment. This paper contends that Pentecostals influence the ethos and praxis of older mission churches in Ghana. It describes, analyses and assesses the various ways Pentecostals are helping to integrate the Christian faith into the religio-social contexts of Ghanaians. This is a complete paradigm shift from their earlier posture to social matters.
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de Gruchy, John W. "From Resistance to National Reconciliation: The Response and Role of the Ecumenical Church in South Africa." Studies in Church History 40 (2004): 369–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0424208400002990.
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Scattered through the history of the Christian Church are seminal moments that have shaped the future course of Christianity whether for good or ill. When later historians of Christianity will write about the twentieth century, I anticipate that they will refer to the role of the Churches in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa as paradigmatic both in terms of success and failure. They might also refer to the role of the Christian Church in the transition to democracy in both countries in similar terms. In what follows I will offer some reflections on the South African side of the story, briefly tracing the response and role of what I have termed the ‘Ecumenical Church’ in South Africa to African resistance, democratic transition and national reconciliation.
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Gruchy, John W. De. "The Church and the Struggle for South Africa." Theology Today 43, no. 2 (July 1986): 229–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/004057368604300208.
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“The church struggle in South Africa is being redefined as a struggle within the churches related to the political struggle for the future of South Africa. Christian participation in and reflection on the political struggle has re-written the agenda for the church struggle.”
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van 't Spijker, Gerard. "The Role of Social Anthropology in the Debate on Funeral Rites in Africa." Exchange 34, no. 3 (2005): 248–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157254305774258654.
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AbstractIn view of the actual debate on funeral rites in Christian Churches in Africa, a revision of the old position of missionaries that forbade all traditional ritual concerning death as belonging to paganism should be undertaken on the basis of social anthropological research which analyses structure and function of the funeral practices. Thus the mourning rites are understood as means of purification and reconciliation of the bereaved extended family. Parallels between African rituals and those of Israel of the Old Testament may also be taken into account. The efforts towards contextualisation of the Christian message in days of mourning by the ancient Ethiopian Church and by churches in Zimbabwe of today may serve as guidelines for developing rituals marking the end of mourning focused on reconciliation and the victory of life over death.
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Oosthuizen, Gerhardus C. "Ecumenical Burial Societies in South Africa: Mutual Caring and Support that Transcends Ecclesiastical and Religious Differences." Missiology: An International Review 18, no. 4 (October 1990): 463–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182969001800406.
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Burial societies play a significant role in the African community in South Africa. Even in the most deprived circumstances, Africans concern themselves with burials of dear ones worthy of the person and the occasion. The sense of mutual support which has always been foremost in the African community comes to expression within the context of the burial societies. Each burial society is a mutual aid organization. Each member contributes towards this communal assistance. In no other organization associated with the churches are denominational and ecclesiastical barriers of so little concern as in the context of these burial societies. Here many non-Christians receive for the first time the Christian message. A few thousand such burial clubs or societies exist in South Africa, with several million members from South Africa's black community.
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Engel, Elisabeth. "The ecumenical origins of pan-Africanism: Africa and the ‘Southern Negro’ in the International Missionary Council’s global vision of Christian indigenization in the 1920s." Journal of Global History 13, no. 2 (June 21, 2018): 209–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1740022818000050.
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AbstractThis article explores the attitudes and policies of the International Missionary Council (IMC) concerning Africa and African Americans. It aims to revise historical scholarship that views the ecumenical missionary movement as originating in white Western missions and guided by the goals of post-war internationalism. It argues that the IMC, founded in 1921 as the central institution for coordinating Protestant missions around the world, developed an ecumenical definition of pan-Africanism. This definition cast African Americans from the US south in the role of ‘native’ leaders in the formation of indigenous churches in Africa. With this racialized version of Christian indigenization, the IMC excluded African Christian groups that sought to form their own churches. It promoted, instead, European colonial projects and missionary societies that aimed to use African American missionaries to counter the incendiary ideas of pan-Africanism.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. "'Broken Calabashes and Covenants of Fruitfulness': Cursing Barrenness in Contemporary African Christianity." Journal of Religion in Africa 37, no. 4 (2007): 437–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006607x230535.
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AbstractChildlessness is an issue of deep religious concern in Africa. Men, women and couples with problems of sexuality and childlessness make use not only of the resources of traditional African religions but also of the many Pentecostal/charismatic churches and movements that have burgeoned throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the last three decades. Initially this was the domain of the older African independent churches, as far as the Christian response to childlessness is concerned; the new Pentecostals have taken on the challenge too. Based on the same biblical and traditional worldviews that events have causes, these churches have mounted ritual contexts that wrestle with the issues of sexuality and childlessness. In pursuing this salvific endeavor, however, the needs of those who may never have children seem to have been neglected by the churches considered here and represented by the Pure Fire Miracle Ministries, a Ghana/Nigeria charismatic church located in Ghana. is partial approach to 'healing' childlessness has led to one-sided interpretations of what it means to be fruitful and prosperous and deepened the troubles of the childless.
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Wild-Wood, Emma, Liz Grant, Babatunde Adedibu, Alan Barnard, Aloys Ojore, and Yossa Way. "The Public Role of Churches in Early Responses to COVID-19 in Africa: Snapshots from Nigeria, Congo, Kenya and South Africa." Studies in World Christianity 27, no. 1 (March 2021): 65–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2021.0326.
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The public role of Christianity in Africa has gained increased attention from scholars. This article gives four snapshots of the responses of churches to COVID-19 in Africa in the early weeks of disease spread on the continent. In many countries, churches are at the forefront of formal and informal health delivery and disease control, through medical services and faith healing. An examination of different approaches of Christian communities to the pandemic shows the influence and the limits of Christian action as governments acted quickly to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Using research methods (remote interviews and surveys, and analysis of authors' own denominations or congregations) consonant with physical distancing measures, the authors observed Churches attempting to carry out their mission as measures were put in place to arrest disease. They maintained worship services, moving them online. They helped Christians make sense of the pandemic and offered themselves as repositories of public trust. In some cases, however, they were less successful than they wished in carrying out their social responsibility because many of their institutions were closed as part of the measures to restrict the spread of disease.
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Togarasei, Lovemore. "Rethinking Christian Identity: African Reflections from Pauline Writings." Perichoresis 14, no. 1 (June 1, 2016): 101–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/perc-2016-0006.
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Abstract Despite its existence for over a century in Africa and statistics putting the Christian populations at average 80 percent mostly in sub-Saharan African countries, Christianity has not managed to provide an alternative identity to ethnicity as issues of identity continue dogging the continent. Many African societies remain divided and at war on the basis of identities, be they racial, tribal, creedal, gender, class, language or other identities. Surprisingly, this state of affairs is also found even within the precincts of the church. Many churches remain divided along racial, ethnic, tribal, and other identities. One does not need to look far and wide to acknowledge this reality. Does Christianity have an identity? Could the writings of Paul address the issues of Christian identity? Or do the writings address this problem at all? These are the questions at the heart of this paper. Making use of Pauline texts such as Galatians 3:28 and scholarly works such as those of Buell and Hodge (2004:237), I discuss Paul’s understanding of Christian identity and its implications for Christian identity in Africa today.
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Linden, Ian, and Paul Gifford. "The Christian Churches & the Democratisation of Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 26, no. 2 (May 1996): 224. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1581463.
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Nweke, Kizito Chinedu. "The Renaissance of African Spiritualities vis-à-vis Christianity: Adopting the Model of Mutual Enrichment." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 48, no. 2 (June 2019): 237–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0008429819830360.
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Christianity has been dominant in many parts of Africa especially since its colonial contact. Recently, however, there is a surge of interest in reviving indigenous spiritualities among Africans, both in Africa and in the diaspora. In Lagos, Nigeria, for example, shrines compete with churches and mosques for adherents and positions. Among the Igbos, a form of convenient interreligiousness has been developed in the society. When issues of practical expediency arise, the Christian would have the option of referring back to his/her traditional religion. Beyond Africa, the rise of African spiritualities has become conspicuous. For various reasons, ranging from Afrocentrism to anti-religious tendencies to the popular religions, from racial animosity to politico-economic ideologies, a lot of people, Africans and non-Africans, are embracing the neo-African spiritualities. This article is a study addressing this revival, by critically analyzing the reasons for its re-emergence, the challenges that have accompanied the revival and the implications of it in the Christian–African spirituality relationship. Can this renaissance in African spirituality bring forth or support a renaissance in Africa? Africa has about 450 million Christians, about 40% of the continent’s population. People of African origin equally make up a good number of Christians outside Africa. In other words, Christianity is decisive, ideologically and structurally, not just as a religion but also in the socio-political life of Africans. Finding a way to harmonize Christianity and African spiritualities, especially in the face of this renaissance, for the growth of Africa, is the aim of this article. Hence, it suggests the model of “Mutual Enrichment.”
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Nnamani, Amuluche-Greg. "The Flow of African Spirituality into World Christianity." Mission Studies 32, no. 3 (October 15, 2015): 331–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341413.
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Much of the spirituality peculiar to African Christians bears traces of the influence of African Traditional Religions (atr). Prayer traditions like incantations, melodious choruses and appeal to spirits, typical of atr, have infiltrated the religious life of African Christians both at home and in Diaspora, amongst Christians in the mainline churches as well as in the African Independent Churches. Though the flow of African spiritual heritage into Christianity happened in the early history of Christianity, it accelerated in the lives of slaves in diaspora in the West Indies, the Americas and Europe. Today, the process continues amongst African migrants fleeing the unbearable political and economic strangulations in Africa; they migrate with their culture and spirituality and impact on Christianity worldwide. It is the intent of this paper therefore to explore how the African mystic sentiment, frenzied excitement and spirit-laden spirituality, which combine the sacred and the secular in practical life, influenced Christian worship and thought down the ages and, in recent times, contributed to the emergence of the Pentecostal and charismatic spirituality.
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Duncan, Graham A., and Anthony Egan. "The Ecumenical Struggle in South Africa: The Role of Ecumenical Movements and Organisations in Liberation Movements to 1965." Ecclesiastical Law Journal 17, no. 3 (September 2015): 269–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956618x15000423.
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When we contemplate ecumenism in South Africa in the twentieth century, we often automatically think of the outstanding work of the South African Council of Churches during the years of apartheid. However, it had two precursors in the General Missionary Conference of South Africa (1904–36) and the Christian Council of South Africa (1936–68). Parallel yet integral to these developments we note the significant contribution of the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. These did not originate or exist in a vacuum but responded to the needs and currents in society and were active in the midst of para-movements such as the Christian Institute.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, Kwabena. "Pentecostalism in Africa and the Changing Face of Christian Mission." Mission Studies 19, no. 1 (2002): 14–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338302x00161.
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AbstractThird World Christianity has been experiencing exponential growth since the turn of the twentieth century. Nowhere is this renewal in Christianity more visible than Africa, where religious innovations led by indigenous Christians have mostly been Pentecostal in character. The Pentecostal movements leading the current renewal of Christianity in African countries like Ghana are autonomous, independent of both the established historic mission denominations and the older classical Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God. Ghanaian Pentecostalism in its various streams has adapted the global Pentecostal culture to suit the needs of the local context in ways that have changed the nature and direction of Christian mission. The traditional themes of healing, deliverance, prosperity and empowerment associated with the global Pentecostal movement have been synthesized with traditional worldviews, giving Pentecostal Christianity an added relevance in African context. This has yielded massive responses. In Pentecostal movements under discussion, therefore, one finds the ingenious ability of indigenous Christians to appropriate a phenomenon of global significance for local consumption.
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Adogame, Afe. "Up, Up Jesus! Down, Down Satan! African Religiosity in the former Soviet Bloc — the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations." Exchange 37, no. 3 (2008): 310–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157254308x312009.
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AbstractAfrican religions are increasingly engaging the diaspora as new abodes and promising 'mission fields' particularly in the last decades. At least two genres of Christian movements can be clearly mapped: those existing as branches of mother churches headquartered in Africa; and those founded by new African immigrants with headquarters in diaspora, from where they are expanding within and back to Africa and elsewhere. The paper deals with an example of the second category, the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations founded in Ukraine by Nigerian-born Sunday Adelaja. While virtually all new African churches in diaspora seem to be dominated by African immigrants, the 'Embassy of God' is an exception with a non-African membership majority. We map its demography and social-ethnic composition, and examine to what extent their belief and ritual system appeal to a population that was until recently home to essentially communist ideas and worldview. We explore how the church is gradually inserting itself in new geo-cultural contexts as well as reconfiguring public roles. It shows how the leader's complex peregrinations demonstrate one instance of religious transnationalization of African churches in diaspora.
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Sackey-Ansah, Alex. "African Christian Immigrants." Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 37, no. 1 (November 11, 2019): 66–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265378819884569.
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The latent functions of African immigration are often overlooked. Over the years, these functions have produced scenarios worth researching. Many people migrate from Africa to the West looking for greener pastures with the goal of economic upliftment. Amid this venture, however, the African immigrants come along with skills, talents, academic potentials, and religious beliefs. Most African immigrants associate with Christianity and deem it a spiritual mandate from God to impact their sphere of influence during their expeditions. Thus, these groups of immigrants raise churches, form prayer groups, preach the gospel, and create mission fields. The focus of this article is threefold. First, to examine how the religiosity of African Christian immigrants have influenced their lives and in turn impacted the American Christian landscape. Second, how immigration legislation of the United States has revolutionized the lives of African immigrants. Third, how pull and push factors have become a source of motivation for African immigration.
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Walshe, Peter. "South Africa: Prophetic Christianity and the Liberation Movement." Journal of Modern African Studies 29, no. 1 (March 1991): 27–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x00020735.
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The struggle against racial discrimination in South Africa, as many have argued, is theological as well as political. This is so, in the words of Ben Marais, because ‘Apartheid erodes the very basis of humanity’. It is also because the great majority of South Africans have some Christian identity and church affiliation, yet their faith commitments are heavily conditioned by class interests and particular ideologies. Consequently, prophetic Christianity, in relating biblical values to the analysis of society and the search for justice, has divided Christian communities by confronting the established churches as well as the state.
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Darkwa Amanor, Kwabena. "Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Ghana and the African Culture: Confrontation or Compromise?" Journal of Pentecostal Theology 18, no. 1 (2009): 123–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/174552509x442192.
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AbstractThe paper establishes the reality of conflict between Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Ghana and the African culture. It examines the history of this conflict since the early days of Christianity in Ghana as well as the causes of the conflict. It also looks at the effects of the conflict on the dialogue expected between Christianity and the African culture, mediation efforts by third party governance and civil society organizations, and the theological implications of the antagonism for the Christian engagement with other non-Christian religions, especially, Islam, which shares Africa with Christianity.
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Wanjohi, Rose, and Alex Kakuru. "Strategies to Equip Christian Organizations and Churches in Africa." Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 20, no. 3 (July 2003): 170–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/026537880302000311.
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Odia, Cyril Aigbadon. "The Role of Scripture in Theology: Is Africa Getting it Right?" International Bulletin of Mission Research 43, no. 2 (May 8, 2018): 134–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2396939318775260.
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Teaching Christian religious studies in Nigeria, like in many other Christian African countries, is based on the use of Scripture. Such instruction is a continuation of the basic faith formation young people have received from their parents, church, and local community. Effective religious education cannot be restricted only to the classroom but must also include social acts of kindness and community building. African theology in recent years has grown with the rise of African Independent Churches and biblical studies. Scriptural studies in the Nigerian secondary school curriculum help construct the basic platform for sustaining a Scripture-based African theology.
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Denis, Philippe. "MEMORY AND COMMEMORATION AS A SUBJECT OF ENQUIRY FOR AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY SCHOLARS." Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 41, no. 3 (April 19, 2016): 4–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/450.
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Little attention has been paid to the Christian churches in memory studies in southern Africa. Using new and existing research, the paper proposes a first approach to this new field of enquiry, with special reference to southern African Christianity. The churches embody their memories in liturgies, canonisations, monuments, commemorative events and name-giving practices. They utilise what French historian Pierre Nora calls lieux de mémoire (sites of memory). Commemorations reinforce identity, especially when identities are threatened by external forces, and they create social cohesion. By pointing at the past, they create meaning for the present. Churches, ecumenical bodies, religious movements and theological institutions articulate their memories in various ways. Memories can be lost and retrieved, contested or marginalised. When the context changes, in church as in society, memories which were oppositional at one point can become dominant or vice versa.
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Levy, Daniel. "Christian Higher Education's Place within Private Higher Education." International Higher Education, no. 88 (January 17, 2017): 22–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.6017/ihe.2017.88.9690.
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Universities sponsored by Christian churches are a neglected but important part of private higher education everywhere. Christian higher education is rapidly expanding in Africa particularly. This article discusses the nature of expansion as well as the challenges facing Christian higher education worldwide.
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Olorunnisola, Titus S. "MIGRATION AND THE TRANS-NATIONALISATION OF AFRICAN PENTECOSTALISM IN EUROPE." Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal 7, no. 1 (January 13, 2020): 66–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.71.7163.
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Migration, the movement of people from one geographical location to another is an indispensable component of globalisation which has impacted the latter with visible effects. Neo-Pentecostal Christian movements from different parts of Africa have seized the advantage of both migration and globalization to advance their missionary causes. This has resulted in planting new churches and organization of para-church ministries and outreaches in different parts of Europe and elsewhere.
Using the Critical Integrated Analysis (CIA) method, which seeks to generate data from the existing body of knowledge, the article explored the trajectories of African migration vis-à-vis the penetration of African-led Pentecostal churches in some part of Europe. This process has stemmed encounters between the European and African cultures plus the hurdle of navigating the cultural nuances of the Europeans.
The article discovered that although there are shreds of evidence of growth among African-led migrant churches, more grounds need to be covered. It suggested that migrant churches need to structure their ministries and organisations in ways that propel appropriate cultural engagement with their host communities to enable them to influence and transform their immediate social realities.
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Kubai, Anne. "Post-Genocide Rwanda: The Changing Religious Landscape." Exchange 36, no. 2 (2007): 198–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157254307x176606.
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AbstractThis paper seeks to examine the proliferation of Pentecostal churches and the changing religious landscape of Rwanda. The horrific genocide of 1994, left the country's traditional mainline churches bloodied and the Christian faith seriously challenged. Unlike elsewhere in Africa, prior to the genocide, Pentecostal churches had not got a foot-hold in Rwanda, then referred to as the most Catholic country in Africa. In the aftermath, Rwanda has experienced a spontaneous growth of new churches imported by returnees from far and wide. Though the Catholic Church still retains its dominant position, there has been an upsurge of Protestants and the Rwandan religious landscape is changing considerably. This gospel explosion has been attributed to the enormous challenges of social-economic reconstruction of a fractured society, where reconciliation and healing are of utmost importance. By packaging their messages with hindsight of the disillusionment with the traditional churches and the spiritual as well as the material need to arise from the ashes of genocide and rebuild their lives, these churches have attracted thousands of Rwandans.
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Bochow, Astrid, Astrid Bochow, and Rijk van Dijk. "Christian Creations of New Spaces of Sexuality, Reproduction, and Relationships in Africa: Exploring Faith and Religious Heterotopia." Journal of Religion in Africa 42, no. 4 (2012): 325–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12341235.
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Abstract In many African societies today Christian churches, Pentecostals in particular, are an important source of information on sexuality, relationships, the body, and health, motivated in part by the HIV/AIDS pandemic but also related to globally circulating ideas and images that make people rethink gender relations and identities through the lens of ‘romantic love’. Contextualizing the contemporary situation in the history of Christian movements in Africa, and by applying Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, this introduction and the subsequent papers show that Christian doctrines and practices are creating social spaces of altering relational ethics, identities and gender roles that appeal especially to upwardly mobile women.
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Garner, Robert C. "Safe sects? dynamic religion and AIDS in South Africa." Journal of Modern African Studies 38, no. 1 (March 2000): 41–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x99003249.
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The HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa is rapidly escalating, and its demographic and social impact is beginning to be felt. Although the damage to the macro-economy is projected to be slight, the consequences for affected households will be dire, and social indicators such as life expectancy will deteriorate dramatically. A large majority of South Africans are affiliated to Christian Churches, but this has not prevented the types of sexual behaviour that promote the epidemic. Based on research in a KwaZulu township, this article presents evidence on the level of extra- and pre-marital sex (EPMS) among members of different church types. It is argued that only Pentecostal churches significantly reduce EPMS among members; and that they achieve this by maintaining high levels of four crucial variables: indoctrination, religious experience, exclusion and socialisation.
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Ward, Kevin. "The East African Revival of the Twentieth Century: the Search for an Evangelical African Christianity." Studies in Church History 44 (2008): 365–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0424208400003727.
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African Christian history in the twentieth century furnishes many examples of what can justifiably be described as revival or renewal. To the extent that Christian evangelization in sub-Saharan Africa was propelled by the European missionary movement, it is not surprising that an important element in revival should be a concern to ground the Gospel in an African milieu, expressive of African cultures and sensibilities, and driven by an autonomous African agency. The missionary forms in which Christianity was expressed came under critical scrutiny. This essay is an examination of the East African Revival, a movement which originated in the Protestant mission churches in the 1930s and which continues to be a major element in the contemporary religious life of Christian churches throughout the region. There has been considerable scholarly debate about whether the East African Revival should best be seen as an ‘importation’ and ‘imposition’ of a western Evangelical revival culture in an African setting, or as marking the emergence of a distinctive ‘African’ religious sensibility expressed within Christian forms. In endeavouring to avoid the implicit essentialism which such polarities often convey, the essay aims to show how the East African Revival can fruitfully be understood as belonging both to the larger Protestant revivalist tradition, while springing out of the distinctive responses of East Africans to the Christian message as they experienced it from within African cultures which were themselves being transformed by colonialism and modernity.
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Mohr, Adam. "Out of Zion Into Philadelphia and West Africa: Faith Tabernacle Congregation, 1897-1925." Pneuma 32, no. 1 (2010): 56–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/027209610x12628362887631.
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AbstractIn May 1897 Faith Tabernacle Congregation was formally established in North Philadelphia, emerging from an independent mission that shortly thereafter became the Philadelphia branch of John Alexander Dowie’s Christian Catholic Church. Faith Tabernacle probably abstained from merging with Dowie’s organization because, unlike the Christian Catholic Church, it rigorously followed the faith principle for managing church finances. Like the Christian Catholic Church, Faith Tabernacle established many similar institutions, such as a church periodical (called Sword of the Spirit), a faith home, and a missions department. After Assistant Pastor Ambrose Clark became the second presiding elder in 1917, many of these institutions began flourishing in connection with a marked increase in membership, particularly in the American Mid-Atlantic as well as in Nigeria and Ghana. Unfortunately, a schism occurred in late 1925 that resulted in Clark’s leaving Faith Tabernacle to found the First Century Gospel Church. This event halted much of Faith Tabernacle’s growth both domestically and in West Africa. Subsequently, many of the former Faith Tabernacle followers in Nigeria and Ghana founded the oldest and largest Pentecostal churches in both countries.
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Kgatle, Mookgo Solomon. "SOCIOLOGICAL AND THEOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT CAUSED SCHISMS IN THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA." Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 42, no. 1 (August 22, 2016): 47–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/1216.
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The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa has experienced schisms from the year 1910 to 1958. The schisms were caused by sociological and theological factors. These are schisms by the Zionist churches (Zion Apostolic Church, Christian Catholic Apostolic Holy Spirit Church in Zion, Zion Apostolic Faith Mission); Latter Rain; Saint John Apostolic Faith Mission and Protestant Pentecostal Church. The sociological factors that led to the schisms by the Zionist churches and the Protestant Pentecostal Church are identified as racial segregation and involvement in politics respectively. The theological factors that caused these schisms by Latter Rain and Saint John Apostolic Faith Mission are manifestations of the Holy Spirit and divine healing respectively. After comparison of the factors, it is concluded that racial segregation is the main factor that caused schisms in the AFM.
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Weber, Charles. "Book Review: The Christian Churches and the Democratisation of Africa." Missiology: An International Review 26, no. 2 (April 1998): 223–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182969802600235.
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Aboagye-Mensah, Robert. "Book Review: The Christian Churches and the Democratisation of Africa." International Bulletin of Missionary Research 20, no. 3 (July 1996): 136–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/239693939602000320.
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Calvert, Robert. "Why Become a Rainbow Church?" Exchange 34, no. 3 (2005): 269–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157254305774258690.
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AbstractAcross the cities of Europe, there are new and growing Christian communities with leadership originating from Asia, Africa and Latin America. In recent years, the formation of SKIN (Samen Kerk in Nederland — Together Church in the Netherlands) and the publication of a book entitled Geboren in Sion (Born in Sion) have contributed to our understanding. However, it remains a major challenge for the indigenous churches to relate to their life and spirituality. Can we learn from Biblical models of heterogeneous and multicultural Christian communities in the New Testament? Different aspects of the identity and contrasting types of so-called migrant churches are explored in this paper which was first presented to the migrant study group at the Landelijke Diensten Centrum (National Service Centre) of the Protestantse Kerken in Nederland (Protestant Churches in the Netherlands) in Utrecht on November 15, 2004. Some examples have been cited from the city of Rotterdam and questions raised in order to how to recognize and receive their spiritual gift in the Netherlands.
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Jenkins, Paul. "Four Thousand Forgotten Generations: The Longue Durée in African History Challenges Mission, Theology and Piety." Mission Studies 22, no. 2 (2005): 249–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338305774756531.
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AbstractWith a few notable exceptions the history of Christianity in the regions of Black Africa begins around 1800 or later. The bulk of missiological work on the continent naturally concentrates on the 10 generations in which evangelisation has taken place and churches have grown. But the human race has a history of 4–5,000 generations in Africa. Is it possible to build a bridge between the missiological concern with recent Christian history, and the long perspectives which the continent offers the general historian? The author essays a Christian approach to the millennia in which African populations, with little input from outside, have survived by the quality of their knowledge of, and thinking about, their environment – the ability humans always had to observe and to ratiocinate. He argues that over 4–5,000 generations humans in Africa have practised what we call science, interleaved with what we call religion. This view gives missiologists a basis for a positive approach to pre-Christian belief and ritual in Africa, but challenges us also to ask if Christian practice there has paid enough attention to traditional centres of intellectual articulation among its peoples.
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Mawere, J., R. M. Mukonza, A. Hungwe, and S. L. Kugara. "“Piercing the veil into Beliefs”: Christians Metaphysical Realities vis-à-vis Realities on African Traditional Medicine." African Journal of Religion Philosophy and Culture 2, no. 1 (June 1, 2021): 77–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.31920/2634-7644/2020/v2n1a5.
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This paper centres on the contentions between the use of African Traditional medicine and convoluted beliefs among some Christianity groups. It is argued that most Pentecostal churches in Africa vilify African cultural practices and deter their converts from using African traditional medicine. Feelings of disgrace and trepidation when asked about traditional healing frequently make it difficult, particularly for the individuals who have become Christians and have acknowledged western medicine, to reveal their insight into non-western treatments. Against this backdrop, the primary aim of this paper is to unveil the conflict between Christianity and the use of African traditional medicine. The broad aim is to create a platform for a conjectural dialogue towards appreciation for a ‘new world order’ that necessitates an integration of African Traditional Religion and Christianity through adopting a comprehension of cultural differences. The paper draws in the existing scholarly literature on the contention that Pentecostalism do not acclimatize with cultural practices of the African indigenous people preceding persuading them about switching to God who is introduced in the Bible. It has been established that as per the Bible and Christian teachings, the use of traditional medicine is a cursed thing. The authors recommend a confrontation of the healing crisis in Africa through fostering cordial cooperation and of biomedicine, African traditional practitioners and Christian groups.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, Johnson Kwabena. "Faith, An Alien and Narrow Path of Christian Ethics in Migration." Exchange 43, no. 1 (March 13, 2014): 68–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1572543x-12341303.
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Abstract The rise of African immigrant communities in the diaspora, especially in Europe and North America, have contributed significantly to the renewal of Christian presence in those contexts. There are significant numbers of the membership of African immigrant congregations who are economic migrants and whose immigration statuses have not been regularized. The average undocumented migrant lives a very difficult life due to the inability to provide authentic papers for work. This affects the lives of immigrants in several ways, including access to healthcare and education for children. In those circumstances the temptation to survive by assuming false identities is very strong. The mission of immigrant churches includes the provision of ‘protection’ for their vulnerable members who need to survive a physically precarious diaspora. That African immigrants often reinterpret their problems in terms of attacks from supernatural forces and envious witches at ‘home’ in Africa informs the approach of the leadership to care and counselling. This paper proposes to identify the pastoral problems of African immigrant Christians within the context of situation ethics and how the inability to regularize their stay in Europe and North America affects Christian morality and mission in ‘alien lands’.
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Behrend, Heike. "PHOTO MAGIC: PHOTOGRAPHS IN PRACTICES OF HEALING AND HARMING IN EAST AFRICA." Journal of Religion in Africa 33, no. 2 (2003): 129–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700660360703114.
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AbstractIn this contribution, I present a few examples of practices in present-day African Christian Churches in which photographs 'do magic' and are used to heal or harm. To counter a tendency, inherent in this topic, of exoticizing and othering, I not only give examples of African 'photo magic' but also include European ones, examples that in the 'standard' or 'official' histories of Western photography are missing. In addition, I try to work out the interdependence and the mutual mirroring of Western and African practices and discourses, i.e., aspects of their interculturality, against the background of the Christian Eucharist and cult of relics. For it is in the Eucharist and relics that the paradoxes of simultaneous presence and absence as well as substance and representation are dealt with, paradoxes that will reappear in the photographic practices in Kenya and Uganda. Thus, I attempt to interpret Ugandan and Kenyan photo magic in Christian churches as variations of the Eucharist.
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Mildnerová, Kateřina. "African Independent Churches in Zambia (Lusaka)." Ethnologia Actualis 14, no. 2 (December 1, 2014): 8–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/eas-2015-0001.
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ABSTRACT The African Independent churches (AICs) in Zambia, as elsewhere in Africa, from their very beginning formed a protest movement against the cultural imperialism undertaken by the missionary representatives of the historic mission churches and also played an important role in the anti-colonial political struggles. In Zambia, the early AICs were closely related to witchcraft eradication movements such as the Mchape, or socially and politically oriented prophet-healing churches such as The Lumpa church of Alice Lenshina. Since the 1970s and in particular in the 1990s the Christianity in Zambia has been significantly marked by the proliferation of the African Independent Churches - both of Pentecostal and prophet-healing type. These churches that started mushrooming particularly in urban settings became part of the strengthening charismatic movement, particularly within Protestantism. A typical feature of AICs is focus on spiritual healing and religious syncretism - the local traditional customs and beliefs in dangerous ghosts, ancestral spirits, or witches are placed within the biblical religious framework where the Holy Spirit (Muzimu Oyela) is considered to be the only source of healing whereas other ‘inferior spirits’ are labelled as demons. The traditional methods of healing are creatively combined with Christian healing by means of prayers, spiritual blessings, laying on of hands on patients and demon exorcism - it is believed that only a body rid of bad spirits can receive the Holy Spirit, and thus be healed. The paper draws on both secondary literature concerning African Independent Churches and primary data issued from fieldwork in Lusaka (2008-2009).
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Kustenbauder, Matthew. "Believing in the Black Messiah: The Legio Maria Church in an African Christian Landscape." Nova Religio 13, no. 1 (August 1, 2009): 11–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2009.13.1.11.
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This article examines the Legio Maria Church of western Kenya, a relatively rare example of schism from the Roman Catholic Church in Africa. One of more than seven thousand African Initiated Churches in existence today, it combines conservative Catholicism, traditional religion and charismatic manifestations of the Spirit. Yet this group is different in one important respect——it worships a black messiah, claiming that its founder, Simeo Ondeto, was Jesus Christ reincarnated in African skin. This article considers factors involved in the group's genesis as a distinct modern-day messianic movement, including: (1) the need to defend and define itself vis-àà-vis Roman Catholicism; (2) the appropriation of apocalyptic ideas found in Christian scriptures and their synthesis with local religious traditions; and (3) the imitation of Jesus' example and teaching to confront political and religious persecution in a manner marked by openness, universalism and nonviolence. Eschewing Western theological categories for African ones, this article draws upon internal sources and explanations of Legio Maria's notion of messianism and Ondeto's role therein to illustrate that, far from being a heretical sect, Legio may well represent a more fully contextualized and authentically homegrown version of Catholicism among countless other African Christian realities.
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Ashe, Muesiri O., and Vivian Besem Ojong. "Christian Missions and Covid-19 in Africa and Latin America: A Case Study of Brazil, Nigeria, and South Africa." Journal of Intellectual Disability - Diagnosis and Treatment 9, no. 3 (June 1, 2021): 228–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/2292-2598.2021.09.02.10.
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Congregational worship among the religious organizations in Africa and Latin America, particularly the rapidly expanding Christian missions, has been of significant consideration in the light of medical recommendations involving social distancing and avoidance of large social gatherings concerning the coronavirus pandemic. This is among recent observations and has attracted more focus following an acute controversy over the role of the Church in Brazil vis-à-vis government policies on the Covid-19 pandemic and the fact that a number of churches in Nigeria were allegedly initially reluctant to respond to the government lockdown declaration and the resultant ban on congregational worship. Simultaneously, the agenda of financial and material assistance to the poor by the large Christian denominations in South Africa as one means of sustaining the lockdown rather attracted criticism, as they were unable to sustain the project. Furthermore, the role of religious bodies came to the fore as global surveys demonstrated that, on average, the masses in these two continents are among the most religiously observant people in the world. As we shall see in the concluding section, this is the major consideration of Idayat Hassan, Director of the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development, in his assessment of the African context.
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Lauterbach, Karen. "Religion and Displacement in Africa." Religion & Theology 21, no. 3-4 (2014): 290–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15743012-02103004.
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This article is about the role of religion in contexts of displacement. The article looks at the role churches and church leaders play in the lives of refugees and more particularly the assistance that these actors provide. The analytical approach is to take into consideration both religious ideas and experiences as well as the everyday practices of people and the socio-economic structures within which they live. The empirical focus is on Congolese Christian congregations in Kampala, Uganda that for the most are founded and attended by refugees. I analyse the forms of assistance that are provided to refugees, how this is conceptualised as well as the practices in a perspective that includes the intersection between religious ideas (compassion and sacrifice) and ideas around social relationships, gift-giving and reciprocity.
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Englund, Harri. "CHRISTIAN INDEPENDENCY AND GLOBAL MEMBERSHIP: PENTECOSTAL EXTRAVERSIONS IN MALAWI." Journal of Religion in Africa 33, no. 1 (2003): 83–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006603765626721.
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AbstractRecent scholarship on Pentecostalism in Africa has debated issues of transnationalism, globalisation and localisation. Building on Bayart's notion of extraversion, this scholarship has highlighted Pentecostals' far-flung networks as resources in the growth and consolidation of particular movements and leaders. This article examines strategies of extraversion among independent Pentecostal churches. The aim is less to assess the historical validity of claims to independency than to account for its appeal as a popular idiom. The findings from fieldwork in a Malawian township show that half of the Pentecostal churches there regard themselves as 'independent'. Although claims to independency arise from betrayals of the Pentecostal promise of radical equality in the Holy Spirit, independency does sustain Pentecostals' desire for membership in a global community of believers. Pentecostal independency thus provides a perspective on African engagements with the apparent marginalisation of the sub-continent in the contemporary world. Two contrasting cases of Pentecostal independency reveal similar aspirations and point out the need to appreciate the religious forms of extraversion. Crucial to Pentecostal extraversions are believers' attempts to subject themselves to a spiritually justified hierarchy.
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LUNKIN, R. N. "The Social and Political Role of Religion in Europe: the Demand for Christian Identity." Outlines of global transformations: politics, economics, law 11, no. 4 (October 16, 2018): 46–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.23932/2542-0240-2018-11-4-46-64.
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Inthearticleanalyzedthesocial and political role of Christian churches, their position in Europe from the pint of view of statistics and presence of the faith-based organizations in the society. The author made a conclusion that the politicized Christianity on the European continent tied with the preserving of the role of Christian churches in the social structure as with the secularizationthatdidnotbecomedesecularization (thereturningofreligiontouchedonlyLatin America,Africa,Asia)andcreatedthevacuum of identity. The weakness of the modern Western European society in its capacity to defend and express the identity forced politicians to seek the support from Christian worldview. Different confessions demonstrated stable development and social mobility in the period of the formation of EU structures. The European politicization of Christianity became the part of the world process of the transfiguration of the religion into a way of the self expression of multiple identities in the circumstances of the inevitable globalization and becoming of the democracy as the optimal form of the social existence. The basic features of the process: the high number of church affiliated (faith based) civil organizations, network church activity, the possibility to reflect various forms of identity in a frames of the Christianized democratic structures.
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BEDIAKO, K. "Paul Gifford (ed.), The Christian churches and the democratisation of Africa." African Affairs 96, no. 384 (July 1, 1997): 468–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007877.
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