Journal articles: 'Independent churches Independent churches South Africa'

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Nel, Marius. "REMEMBERING AND COMMEMORATING THE THEOLOGICAL LEGACY OF JOHN G. LAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS." Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 41, no. 3 (May 12, 2016): 147–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/400.

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John G. Lake visited South Africa in 1908 as part of a missionary team with the aim to propagate the message of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as experienced at the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission in 312 Azusa Street, Los Angeles under the leadership of William Seymour, son of African-American slaves. Lake’s missionary endeavours that ended in 1913 established the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa and eventually also the African Pentecostal churches (‘spiritual churches’, ‘Spirit-type churches’, ‘independent African Pentecostal churches’ or ‘prophet-healing churches’) constituting the majority of so-called African Independent/Initiated/Instituted (or indigenous) churches (AICs). This article calls for remembering and commemorating Lake’s theological legacy in South Africa in terms of these two groups of churches.

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Oosthuizen, George C. "Interpretation of Demonic Powers in Southern African Independent Churches." Missiology: An International Review 16, no. 1 (January 1988): 3–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182968801600101.

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African Independent Churches (AIC) have grown especially in South Africa at a tremendous pace—from thirty-two denominations in 1913 and hardly one percent of the African population to over three thousand denominations in 1980 and nearly 30 percent of the African population. Various reasons account for this tremendous growth such as several major emphases: Africanization of the church, socioeconomic deprivation, the adaptation process from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic world, and a holistic approach to healing which takes note of the indigenous cosmology. The latter aspect is a central issue. There are two types of diseases—natural, behind which are no malicious external forces, and those which are understood only within the context of African cosmology such as witchcraft, sorcery, ancestor wrath, spirit-possession. The missionaries ignored these forces and the problems Africans encountered with them. To these malicious forces the AIC give attention and their handling of them makes a decisive impact. This is the main theme of the article.

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Bompani, Barbara. "Religion and Development from Below: Independent Christianity in South Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 40, no. 3 (2010): 307–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006610x525435.

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AbstractMost of the literature on African independent churches (AICs) in South Africa has not paid much attention to their economic and developmental role. In contrast, this article will show how AICs are involved in important economic activities such as voluntary mutual benefit societies, savings clubs, lending societies, stokvels (informal savings funds), and burial societies that control millions of South African rand. In light of firsthand empirical research, this article investigates these kinds of activities, and analyses independent churches’ developmental role. This will allow us to better understand how these communities play a strong and supportive function among Africans in a deprived economic situation. In a period of socio-political transformation in South Africa, AICs are able to answer the needs of the people and their hunger to rebuild an identity. My major critique of classical research on AICs is the failure of the literature to address ‘social change’ in a theoretically adequate way, as something more than just descriptions of ‘traditional’ social structures away from interpretations of modernity.

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Bompani, Barbara. "African Independent Churches in Post-Apartheid South Africa: New Political Interpretations*." Journal of Southern African Studies 34, no. 3 (September 2008): 665–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057070802259928.

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Goodhew, David. "Growth and Decline in South Africa's Churches, 1960-911." Journal of Religion in Africa 30, no. 3 (2000): 344–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006600x00564.

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AbstractSouth Africa's churches grew or declined so quickly in the years after 1960 that by 1991 the country's religious map had been redrawn. This article charts and offers explanations for such developments. Almost all Christian churches grew substantially in the first half of the twentieth century but mainline churches were dominant. They continued to grow numerically into the 1960s and 1970s, but were beginning to shrink as a proportion of the expanding population. By contrast, Roman Catholic, African Independent and smaller independent denominations were growing quickly. By the 1990s, mainline Protestant churches were suffering considerable decline and Roman Catholicism's growth had stalled. African Independent and other churches continued to grow rapidly. A matrix of forces help to explain this phenomenon-including the political situation, socio-economic pressures, secularisation and particular religious factors. A comparative perspective shows South Africa's churches to have much in common with African and global trends.

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Cobley, Alan Gregor. "The ‘African National Church’: Self-Determination and Political Struggle Among Black Christians in South Africa to 1948." Church History 60, no. 3 (September 1991): 356–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3167472.

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The first generations of black Christians in Southern Africa went through a painful process of critical examination and experiment as they struggled to assimilate new economic, social, and religious values. These values were presented to them mainly by white missionaries and were based largely on European models. It was as part of this dialectical process that an independent black churches movement—quickly labeled by friends and foes the “Ethiopian Movement”—had emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. The independent black churches spread and multiplied rapidly in South Africa. By 1919 there were seventy-six recognized sects; however, there were many more which were not officially recognized. A black newspaper reported in 1921 that there were “at least one thousand natives within the municipal boundary of Johannesburg who call themselves ministers, but who are unattached to any recognised chuch, and who live on the offerings of their respective flocks.” Although many members of these churches were active politically, the most pervasive influence of the movement was on the ideology of African nationalism, as the role of the church became a recurring theme in debates on the development of an African national identity.

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Naty, Alexander, Morie Kaneko (ed.), and Masayoshi Shigeta (ed.). "The ak’aat k’aal movement among the Aari people of south-west Ethiopia." Aethiopica 9 (September 24, 2012): 49–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.9.1.240.

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Students of African studies have reported a variety of religious movements under the rubric of independent churches. These include the Cherubim and Seraphim, the Church of the Lord, the Church of Simon Kimbangu, the Zionist and Ethiopianist’s independent churches in southern Africa. Most of these churches emerged in those countries that were under European colonial domination. Ethiopia did not experience European colonialism. Indeed, imperial Ethiopia conquered militarily less powerful kingdoms and chiefdoms that were located to the south and south-western of the then Abyssinia. The conquest of formerly independent populations in southern Ethiopia during the late nineteenth century introduced unequal power relations between the indigenous people and the new settlers. This paper examines the evolution of a religious movement referred to as ak’aat k’aal among the Aari people of south-west Ethiopia in the context of the indigenous forms of domination. Although the movement was short-lived, it was meant to enable the Aari to cope with the social psychological stress that the serfdom system generated. The Aari were not able to practice their traditional religion because of the serfdom. Therefore, they had to abandon their religion. However, doing this without finding a substitute was incompatible with Aari religious ideology. The ak’aat k’aal was a substitute just for a short period. ATTENTION: Due to copy-right no online publication is provided.

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Poewe, Karla. "Links and Parallels between Black and White Charismatic Churches in South Africa and the States: Potential for Cultural Transformation." Pneuma 10, no. 1 (1988): 141–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157007488x00091.

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AbstractIn the study of early and late twentieth century South African independent churches, a rigid differentiation is usually made between African and European charismatic movements and independent churches. This paper rejects such a simplistic view and argues, instead, that there are important historical links between recent White and older Black charismatic movements and independent churches. More importantly, the parallels between them have to do with processes of formation which are based on the use of common core symbols of transition from the Old Testament and on similar spiritual experiences which are seen to confirm Biblical texts and to be confirmed by them. Charismatic movements have arisen among Blacks and Whites, rich and poor and have tended to achieve personal and group transformations through prophecy, vision, music, and worship.

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Duncan, G. A. "Notes on the foundation of the Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa (Fedsem)." Verbum et Ecclesia 27, no. 3 (September 30, 2006): 836–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v27i3.189.

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The Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa was established in a changing and fluid situation in 1960s South Africa both politically and ecclesiastically. Its foundation can be attributed to the influence of these national and church influences. Politically, the changing context in the educational world in particular and ecclesiastically, a growing tendency towards ecumenism both nationally and internationally contributed to the need for an independent institution which would train ministers for the mainline churches in a deteriorating political context. In addition, there was a strong view that the influence of the Holy Spirit was operative in the political context which ‘forced the church to be the church’.

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Allison, Norm, and Russell Staples. "Book Review: Engaging Modernity: Methods and Cases for Studying African Independent Churches in South Africa." Missiology: An International Review 34, no. 4 (October 2006): 548–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182960603400427.

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Staples, Russell. "Book Review: Engaging Modernity: Methods and Cases for Studying African Independent Churches in South Africa." Missiology: An International Review 35, no. 1 (January 2007): 110–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182960703500122.

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MAXWELL, DAVID. "HISTORICIZING CHRISTIAN INDEPENDENCY: THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT c. 1908–60." Journal of African History 40, no. 2 (July 1999): 243–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002185379800735x.

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Scholarly study of Christian independency in southern Africa began with the publication of Bengt Sundkler's Bantu Prophets in 1948. A rich literature subsequently followed, much of it deploying his now classic typology of Ethiopian and Zionist Churches. Nevertheless, the historical study of independency has been limited. As one scholar has recently observed, historians have tended to focus on the Ethiopian-type churches, leaving the study of the Zionist-type to anthropologists and missiologists. The neglect of Zionist-type churches by historians meant that early studies on this form of Christianity were historically weak. Missiologists distorted the whole area of inquiry with theological concerns, at first raising the spectre of syncretistic heresy, and more recently making claims about indigenous authenticity. Anthropologists initially viewed independent churches as fascinating examples of cultural resilience. The movements were seen as sources of community, loyalty and security in the face of the atomising and anomic experience of urbanization; or as foci for ‘the process of modification and adaptation’ taking place throughout rural society. But anthropologists rarely paid attention to independency's origins. Where historians did engage with Zionist-type independency, they did so through the spectacles of nationalist historiography in order to demonstrate independency's supposed proto-nationalist character.By adopting an international and regional perspective, this article provides an account of the historical origins and early evolution of these churches. Where scholars in the past have tended to disaggregate the movement, essentializing its later racial and geographical boundaries, this paper will draw the early history of the movement together, illuminating its common origin and global character. The basic ingredients of this account have been available in the work of Walter Hollenweger, Jean Comaroff, Sundkler's later book, and more recently, studies by Jim Kiernan and David Chidester. Nevertheless, the historical implication that so-called African independent churches emerged out of the global pentecostal movement continues to be ignored.The purpose of demonstrating the origins of southern African pentecostalism is not to make the now commonplace historical and anthropological critique of authenticity, although those pursuing a theological agenda which distinguishes African Independent Churches as a separate category of Christianity would do well to pay heed to that critique. Neither is it assumed that analysis of origins explains the meaning and appeal of different southern African pentecostal movements and denominations. Rather, this paper demonstrates that pentecostalism is a global phenomenon: a collection of vital and powerful idioms about illness and healing, evil and purity which make striking resonances with peoples sharing common historical experiences of marginalization from established religion and from the values of twentieth-century industrial capitalism. At the same time pentecostalism has also exhibited a remarkable capacity to localize itself, taking on very distinct meanings in different local contexts. At the heart of this paper lies a comparative analysis of the radically different responses which the movement engendered from the South African and Southern Rhodesian states.

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Dessì, Ugo. "Soka Gakkai International in Post-Apartheid South Africa." Religions 11, no. 11 (November 11, 2020): 598. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel11110598.

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This paper analyzes the activities of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in South Africa, a largely Christian country with the presence of very strong African Independent and Pentecostal churches, where Buddhism has mostly attracted the attention of a small minority of white middle-class people interested in meditational practices. By focusing on SGI South Africa, which has been able to reach out to a significant number of black, and, to a lesser extent, Coloured and Indian/Asian members, this ethnographic study aims to contribute to the understanding of Buddhism’s interplay with a broader cross-section of post-apartheid South African society, and, secondarily, to add to the existing literature on this Japanese new religious movement overseas. After a brief overview of the historical development of SGI in South Africa, my analysis focuses on SGI South Africa’s main ritual, social, and missionary activities; its interplay with local religions; its attempts to establish a meaningful link with South African culture; and, finally, on the religious experiences and narratives of SGI’s South African members.

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Pauw, C. M. "Traditional African economies in conflict with western capitalism." Verbum et Ecclesia 17, no. 2 (April 21, 1996): 373–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v17i2.525.

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Traditional Mrican economies in conflict with western capitalism Some of the fundamental differences between two economic systems which, by and large, have come into conflict with one another in Africa south of the Sahara are analised, i e traditional African economies and western, capitalist oriented economies. The dire economic conditions prevailing in Africa are the result, to a large extent, of a long history of exploitation and economic disempowerment particularly by western powers. Not all the strategies and programs to counter this poverty are equally appropriate or acceptable. In the meantime a unique coping mechanism is developing, particularly within African Independent Churches which may provide some answers.

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Ludwig, Frieder. "Tambaram: the West African Experience." Journal of Religion in Africa 31, no. 1 (2001): 49–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006601x00031.

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AbstractTambaram 1938, held near Madras in South India, was the first conference of the International Missionary Council in which a significant number of Africans took part. It offered, therefore, a unique opportunity for the fifteen delegates from the continent. For the first time, West Africans exchanged views with South Africans about African Independent Churches, for the first time, they discussed issues such as the tolerance of polygamy in an international setting. The Africans were impressed by the efforts towards church union in India and by Gandhi's national movement. This article describes the experiences of three of the West African delegates, Alexander Babatunde Akinycle (Nigeria), Moses Odutola Dada (Nigeria) and Christian Goncalves Baeta (Gold Coast/Ghana). Baëta subsequently made a very significant contribution to West African Christianity as a church leader, theologian and academic.

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Flikke, Rune. "Writing ‘naturecultures’ in Zulu Zionist healing." Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies 2, no. 1 (December 1, 2016): 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v2i1.2131.

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<div>In this article my primary aim is to argue for an ontological and phenomenological approach to studying healing rituals within the African Independent Churches in South Africa. Through ethnographic evidence I will argue that the healing rituals are misrepresented in more traditional epistemologically tuned studies, and suggest that a better understanding is to be achieved through a focus on Latour’s ‘natures-cultures’ or Haraway’s ‘naturecultures’, thus showing how health and well-being are achieved through a creative process which continuously strive to break down any distinction of nature and culture as separate entities. I conclude by arguing that the contemporary healing rituals, which surfaced in South Africa in the mid eighteen-seventies, were a sensible and experience based reactions to the colonial contact zones of a racist Colonial regime dependent on African labor.</div>

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Williams, C. Peter. "‘Too Peculiarly Anglican’: The Role of the Established Church in Ireland as A Negative Model in the Development of the Church Missionary Society’s Commitment to Independent Native Churches, 1856-1872." Studies in Church History 25 (1989): 299–310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0424208400008755.

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Henry Venn, the CMS honorary secretary between 1841 and 1872, is rightly regarded as the great exponent of self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing churches. I have argued elsehwere that his principles took many years to assume their final shape and that, when they did, they contained what was regarded as an ecclesiological anomaly—that there should be separate bishops for different races in the same geographical area. Between about 1856 and 1872 Venn became increasingly daring in his proposals, abandoned his support for the idea of a single European bishop wherever there were European settlers and was instrumental, not only in having Samuel Crowther appointed as the first black bishop in West Africa or in responding positively to suggestions of an Indian bishop for South India, but also in proposing, both in India and in China, that the needs of a truly culturally integrated independent ‘native’ church demanded that its structures should be separated from those of the imported European church.

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ter Haar, Gerrie. "Engaging Modernity: Methods and cases for studying African Independent Churches in South Africa, edited by Dawid Venter. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. 240 pp. $54.95. ISBN 0-275-96903-7 (hardback)." African Affairs 105, no. 421 (October 1, 2006): 655–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adl032.

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Shank, David A. "Mission Relations with the Independent Churches in Africa." Missiology: An International Review 13, no. 1 (January 1985): 23–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182968501300102.

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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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Kgatla, Thias. "CLERGY’S RESISTANCE TO VENDA HOMELAND’S INDEPENDENCE IN THE 1970S AND 1980S." Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 42, no. 3 (February 23, 2017): 121–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/1167.

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The article discusses the clergy’s role in the struggle against Venda’s “independence” in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as resistance to the apartheid policy of “separate development” for Venda. It also explores the policy of indirect white rule through the replacement of real community leaders with incompetent, easily manipulated traditional chiefs. The imposition of the system triggered resistance among the youth and the churches, which led to bloody reprisals by the authorities. Countless were detained under apartheid laws permitting detention without trial for 90 days. Many died in detention, but those responsible were acquitted by the courts of law in the Homeland. The article highlights the contributions of the Black Consciousness Movement, the Black People Conversion Movement, and the Student Christian Movement. The Venda student uprising was second in magnitude only to the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976. The torture of ministers in detention and the response by church leaders locally and internationally, are discussed. The authorities attempted to divide the Lutheran Church and nationalise the Lutherans in Venda, but this move was thwarted. Venda was officially re-incorporated into South Africa on 27 April 1994.

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Meyer, Birgit. "Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches." Annual Review of Anthropology 33, no. 1 (October 2004): 447–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143835.

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Volkman, Lucas P. "Church Property Disputes, Religious Freedom, and the Ordeal of African Methodists in Antebellum St. Louis: Farrar v. Finney (1855)." Journal of Law and Religion 27, no. 1 (January 2012): 83–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0748081400000539.

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In October 1846, the men and women of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis (African Church) met to consider whether they would remain with the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) or align with the recently-formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS). Two years earlier, in 1844, amid growing conflict over the question of slavery within the national Methodist Church, its General Conference had adopted a Plan of Separation that provided for the withdrawal of the southern Methodists and the creation of their own ecclesiastical government. The Plan provided that each Border State congregation would have the right to determine for itself by a vote of the majority with which of the two churches it would affiliate.After the southern conferences had organized the new MECS in May 1845, the trustees of the all-white Fourth Street Methodist Church (Fourth Street Church), whose quarterly conference exercised nominal authority over the African Church, informed the black congregants that they could retain their house of worship only if they voted to join the southern Methodists. Throwing caution to the wind, and putting at risk a decade-and-a-half of patient efforts to achieve formal congregational independence within the Methodist Church, the black congregants voted decisively, by a 110 to 7 margin, to remain affiliated with the Northern Conference.

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Ross, Andrew C. "OOSTHUIZEN, G. C. (ed.), Religion Alive. Studies in the new movements and indigenous churches in southern Africa, Johannesburg, Hodder and Stoughton Southern Africa, 1986, ix, 262 pp., 0 86850 129 8. OOSTHUIZEN, G. C., Baptism in the Context of the African Indigenous/Independent Churches (A.I. C.), KwaDlangezwa, University of Zululand Publication Series F, No. 2, 1985, 39 pp. OOSTHUIZEN, G. C., The Birth of Christian Zionism in South Africa, KwaDlangezwa, University of Zululand Publication Series T4, 1987, 56 pp., 0 90795 80 2." Journal of Religion in Africa 21, no. 1 (1991): 93–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006691x00212.

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Dovlo, Elom. "African Culture and Emergent Church Forms in Ghana." Exchange 33, no. 1 (2004): 28–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1572543041172639.

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AbstractThe author gives a review of the African Independent Churches, African Initiated Churches or Spiritual Churches, as he prefers to call them, in West Africa. He also pays attention to the relationship of these churches to the so-called mainline churches. He shows the charismatic renewal that took place in the Spiritual Churches. Furthermore Dovlo turns his eyes to the relationship between the Western mainline churches and the African mainline churches and he makes clear that between all these diff erent types of churches an intra-cultural dialogue is going on. So Dovlo concludes omit that in spite of all tensions between them all churches need each other to communicate the hope of a God who is coming.

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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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Rausch, Thomas. "A New Ecumenism? Christian Unity in a Global Church." Theological Studies 78, no. 3 (August 21, 2017): 596–613. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0040563917714731.

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The author asks if a new ecumenism might be emerging, one that can bring the burgeoning new Pentecostal-charismatic-independent churches of the Global South, most of them non-liturgical or sacramental, together with the traditional churches of Europe and North America that continue to lose members. The article assesses the recent statement of the World Council of Churches, The Church: Toward a Common Vision, seen by many of the new churches as too Western and Eurocentric, and asks if we need a new way of envisioning the ecumenical future.

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Padwick, T. John. "‘The Spirit Alone’: Writing the Oral Theology of a Kenyan Independent Church." Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 35, no. 1 (January 2018): 15–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265378818767677.

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There are few accounts of the theologies of African Independent Churches (AICs), or of how such texts might be developed from what is an essentially oral phenomenon. In consequence, AIC students encounter difficulties in obtaining theological training appropriate for their churches. This article is an interim report on the process of recording such a theology – that of the Holy Spirit Church of East Africa. Based on insights from recent scholars in the fields of African Pentecostal theology, and contextual and local theologies, together with the work of practitioners in the network of the Organization of African Independent Churches, the article proposes a methodology for recording the faith of a predominantly oral church. It then describes a workshop held by the church in 2016, with attention to the ways in which this methodology was worked out in practice. The article explores some of the issues raised by academic engagement with an oral community of faith, and suggests one means by which the lack of dialogue between AIC oral theologies and theologies of the western academic traditions might be addressed.

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Pauw, Christoff M. "Traditional African Economies in Conflict With Western Capitalism." Mission Studies 14, no. 1 (1997): 203–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338397x00121.

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AbstractThis article analyzes some of the fundamental differences between the two economic systems which have come into conflict with one another in sub-Saharan Africa: traditional African economies, based on community and communitarian ownership, and Western, capitalist-oriented economics, based on individual identity and individual rights. While the dire economic conditions prevailing in Africa have elicited various strategies and programs, a unique coping mechanism is developing within African Independent Churches. This not only poses a challenge to other churches, but may also provide alternative solutions for the problems that plague African economic growth.

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Salamone, Frank, and Ane Marie Bak Rasmussen. "Modern African Spirituality: The Independent Holy Spirit Churches in East Africa, 1902-1976." African Studies Review 40, no. 2 (September 1997): 220. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/525166.

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Etherington, Norman, and Ane Marie Bak Rasmussen. "Modern African Spirituality: The Independent Holy Spirit Churches in East Africa, 1902-1976." International Journal of African Historical Studies 30, no. 3 (1997): 685. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/220624.

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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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ENGEL, ELISABETH. "Southern Looks? A History of African American Missionary Photography of Africa, 1890s–1930s." Journal of American Studies 52, no. 2 (May 2018): 390–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002187581700192x.

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This article traces and analyzes the missionary photography of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the most important independent black American institution that began to operate in colonial South Africa at the onset of the politics of racial segregation in the 1890s. It argues that AME missionary photography presents a neglected archive, from which a history of black photographic encounters and a subaltern perspective on the dominant visual cultures of European imperialism and Christian missions in Africa can be retrieved. Focussing in particular on how AME missionaries deployed tropes of the culturally refined “New Negro” and the US South in their visual description of South Africa, this article demonstrates that photography was an important tool for black subjects to define their image beyond the representations of black inferiority that established visual traditions constructed.

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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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Martin, Phyllis M. "Modern African Spirituality: The Independent Holy Spirit Churches in East Africa, 1902-1976 (review)." Quaker History 87, no. 1 (1998): 60–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/qkh.1998.0015.

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Engelke, Matthew. "Past Pentecostalism: Notes on Rupture, Realignment, and Everyday Life in Pentecostal and African Independent Churches." Africa 80, no. 2 (May 2010): 177–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/afr.2010.0201.

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Pentecostal studies has been one of the most vibrant areas of research in Africa for over twenty years, but is it time we started to look past Pentecostalism? Using some of the most important work in this tradition as a point of departure, this article offers both a critique of and supplement to the Pentecostal literature. It focuses in particular on how we should understand the relationship between Pentecostalism and African Independency by pushing the debates on how to frame their oft-shared desire to ‘break with the past’. Every rupture is also a realignment and how each is conceptualized and understood is a matter not only of discourse but decisions and dilemmas faced in everyday life.

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van Rinsum, Henk J. "“Wipe the Blackboard Clean”: Academization and Christianization—Siblings in Africa?" African Studies Review 45, no. 2 (September 2002): 27–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0002020600031413.

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Abstract:In this article the author relates the crisis of African universities to their idiosyncratic birth during the colonial period. The African universities were, to a large extent, conceptualized according to the Western template and its inherent epistemology This Western university originates from a local knowledge system that gained a hegemonic position culminating in the colonial period. The author argues for another conceptualization of African universities, based on a diversity of knowledge systems, and refers to processes of (re-)appropriation as seen in the domain of African Independent Churches.

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Little, Thomas J. "George Liele and the rise of independent black Baptist churches in the lower South and Jamaica." Slavery & Abolition 16, no. 2 (August 1995): 188–204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01440399508575156.

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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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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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Agthe, Johanna. "Religion in Contemporary East African Art." Journal of Religion in Africa 24, no. 1-4 (1994): 375–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006694x00219.

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AbstractThis article describes three aspects of religious art in East Africa: firstly it examines the artists' personal attitude to and motivation by the Christian religion; secondly, it looks at Christian and Bible subjects in their paintings; and lastly it considers traditional religion and the newer independent churches as motifs. It draws on interviews with artists, their works in the collection of the Frankfurt Museum für Völkerkunde and a recent unpublished diploma study by Alois Krammer. 1

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Stoneman, Timothy H. B. "Preparing the Soil for Global Revival: Station HCJB's Radio Circle, 1949–59." Church History 76, no. 1 (March 2007): 114–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s000964070010143x.

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The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a fundamental shift in the character of the Christian religion—namely, a massive expansion and shift of its center of gravity southward. During this period, Christianity experienced a transformation from a predominantly Western religion to a world religion largely defined by non-Western adherents in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. From 1970 to 2005, the size of the Southern Church increased two and a half times to over 1.25 billion members. By the early twenty-first century, 60 percent of all professing Christians lived in the global South and East. The most dynamic source of church growth during this period was Independent (evangelical or Pentecostal) Protestant groups, which increased at nearly twice the rate of other Christian affiliations. The spread of evangelical Protestantism represents a truly global phenomenon and has included large populations in East and Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Americas.

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Ethe, Kamuyu-Wa-Kang. "African Response to Christianity: A Case Study of the Agikuyu of Central Kenya." Missiology: An International Review 16, no. 1 (January 1988): 23–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182968801600102.

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This article explores the religious, cultural, and political dynamics of the Agikuyu response to Christianity from 1900–1950. The article is divided into five sections. In the first section the author briefly traces the theological ideas which prevailed in Europe in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and how these ideas led to the rise of the Evangelical Missionary Movement. The second section deals with the initial contact made by Europeans and missionaries with the Agikuyu. The third section explores the nature of the Agikuyu religion and culture and the missionary response to that religion and culture. The fourth section discusses the Agikuyu response to missionary reaction to their beliefs and practices with particular reference to the Agikuyu initiation rite which was central to their belief system. The Agikuyu response led to the development of independent churches and schools. These churches and schools were later utilized to politicize the African masses on the evils of missionary Christianity and colonialism. In the fifth section the author briefly analyzes the three groups which emerged out of this Christian response. He concludes that the Karing'a group can be considered as a good case study of how churches in Africa can develop a new theology which encompasses African ontological understanding of God, man, and the universe.

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Akpama, Elizabeth G. "Parental Percetion of the Teaching of Sex Education to Adolescent in Secondary School in Cross River State, Nigeria." Himalayan Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 6 (July 4, 2014): 134–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hjsa.v6i0.10714.

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This study was an ex-post facto research, design to determine parental perception of the teaching of introducing sex education to adolescents in secondary schools in Cross River State, as the area of study. Two null hypotheses were formulated on the basis of the identified major independent variables of nature of parental perception and parental literacy status. A 15-item questionnaire was developed, validated and tested for reliability. It was then administered to 400 respondents (parents–200 male, 200 female) from 20 churches in the entire state (7 churches from central, 7 from south and 6 from north senatorial districts). The sample was selected by stratified cluster and simple random procedure. Data was analysed using the independent t-test. Results revealed that parental perception of the teaching of sex education to adolescents in secondary schools is significantly negative; no significant difference exists between literate and illiterate parents in their perception of the teaching of sex education to adolescents in secondary schools. It was concluded that parental perception of the teaching of sex education to adolescents in secondary schools is generally negative in Cross River State. Some recommendations were enhanced as the way forward. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hjsa.v6i0.10714 Himalayan Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.6 2014: 134-145

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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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Pfeiffer, James. "Civil Society, NGOs, and the Holy Spirit in Mozambique." Human Organization 63, no. 3 (September 1, 2004): 359–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.17730/humo.63.3.wr0rc09qeyafn84l.

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The concept of “civil society” has been used by major donors in the world of international development to justify the rechanneling of aid resources away from public sector services to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in an era of structural adjustment. Mozambique provides an especially valuable case study of the civil society experiment in Africa, given its dramatic conversion from state-centered development to civil society and free markets over the last decade. The rapid retreat of the state in the lives of ordinary Mozambicans during this period quickly cleared a space for the emergence of an “independent” civil society that has been quickly filled by two social currents: international NGOs and Pentecostal-influenced churches. This article argues that the NGO presence has intensified already growing social inequality by channeling resources primarily to elites, while the church movements have thrived in poor communities outside the foreign aid world. The enormous popularity of the churches reveals the deepening marginalization of poor communities in the market economy and exposes the inadequacy of the NGO-civil society model to meet the needs of vulnerable populations.

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Ranger, Terence. "Dignifying Death: the Politics of Burial in Bulawayo." Journal of Religion in Africa 34, no. 1-2 (2004): 110–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006604323056741.

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AbstractThere has recently been much more recognition of the African role in the making of the colonial cities of southern Africa. Nevertheless, many kinds of action have still seemed to be impossible for Africans living in tightly controlled municipal townships. Among these is the political and symbolic management of death. While literature on West African towns celebrates 'mausoleum politics' and the struggle over the burial of dead men under the floors of their houses, in colonial Southern African cities it has been assumed that Africans had no choice but to accept the constraining rules of drab municipal cemeteries. Similarly, the initiative and agency, which we know rural Africans in Southern Africa to have exercised in their encounters with mission Christianity, have been much less documented in the towns. In short, it has been assumed that the Southern African town—and particularly the black townships—represented colonial control at its most intense and oppressive, allowing little room for symbolic or practical autonomy whether in social life, politics or religion. This article tests such presuppositions in relation to Southern Rhodesia's second largest town, and major industrial centre, Bulawayo. It argues that from the late 1890s there has always been a black Bulawayo, expressed first in the absence of municipal or state control of the Location and expressed later by the emergence of varying influential men and women there with the capacity to take cultural and symbolic initiatives, perhaps especially in the sphere of death, burial and commemoration. It discusses the successful performance of rites to 'bring back the spirit' a year after death despite missionary and municipal prohibitions; it discusses the role of the innumerable Burial Societies in colonial Bulawayo; it discusses the efforts of educated young men to erect memorials for African kings and chiefs; it discusses the varying focus of three types of African urban Christianity—missionfounded churches, 'Ethiopianist' independent churches and Apostolic prophetic churches—on rituals of death. By so doing it opens up many questions about the social, political, cultural and religious life of an African Location in colonial southern Africa.

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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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Yarotskiy, Petro. "Church and world after the Second Vatican Council." Ukrainian Religious Studies, no. 66 (February 26, 2013): 28–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.32420/2013.66.247.

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Cathedrals of the Catholic Church, as a rule, are gathering at the turning points of the development of the world and the life of the Church. II Vatican Council took place after the curves of the second drama of humanity in the Second World War, in the conditions of the post-war split of the world, first of all in Europe, in two opposing camps and the establishment of totalitarian regimes in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, the collapse of the colonial system and the appearance on the political map of the world (first of all in Africa and Asia) of young independent countries. At the same time, the world was once again faced with the threat of a new, already thermonuclear war, which, like the Damocles sword, hangs over humanity. The problems of the post-war world development in the conditions of the growing scientific and technological revolution, the launch of the space era, as well as the uneven economic and social development of the world in the coordinates of the North-South, arose.

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Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. "Learning to Prosper by Wrestling and by Negotiation: Jacob and Esau in Contemporary African Pentecostal Hermeneutics." Journal of Pentecostal Theology 21, no. 1 (2012): 64–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/174552512x633303.

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Pentecostalism in Africa has evolved as different streams characterized by particular modes of articulating the Christian message. The older independent churches were known for their emphasis on healing and prophecy and the classical Pentecostals talked much about speaking in tongues and holiness. Although these themes are present in contemporary Pentecostal discourse the new churches are best known for their messages of empowerment and prosperity that are meant to address the aspirations of Africa’s upwardly mobile youth. Using the writings of two of the movements most influential leaders from Ghana, this article discusses the ways in which the story of the Patriarchs, especially Jacob, has been reinterpreted to fit into the message of upward mobility and the principles that are meant to lead up to it. It is argued here that although the authors did not intend to misapply Scripture, by reinterpreting the schemes of Jacob in terms of the principles of success, they fail to take account of the element of ‘grace’ which is able to turn the worst of sinners into saints. Jacob did not succeed because he applied the principles of success but because God touched him with his grace during the time of wrestling with the angel.

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Journal articles on the topic 'Independent churches Independent churches South Africa'

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