AFRICAN REFORMATION: African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century

Description

African Reformation provides an overview of African initiated churches (AICs) in different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, examining the reasons for the emergence and growth of churches that have resulted from the interaction between Christianity and African pre-Chrisitan religions. It describes the characteristics of different types of churches and the lessons they teach the universal church. Concise histories, teachings, beliefs, and practices of representative churches in different African countries and their significance for world Christianity are examined. Different kinds of AICs are discussed, from the earliest "Ethiopian" and "African" churches that emerged at the end of the nineteenth century to the later, more prolific"prophet-healing" and "spiritual" churches, the main focus, and the most recent "new Pentecostal" or "Charismatic" churches have have developed since 1970. The reasons for the emergence, development and growth of AICs in the twentieth century is considered. Much of the book is historical, discussing the ancient Ethiopian church, Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatrice) and the birth of the AIC movement in the Kongo Kingdom, and early movements in West Africa and South Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. 

The AICs in different regions are then discussed, such as the fascinating story of the Liberian prophet William Wade Harris and the Harrist movement that emerged from his remarkable ministry, as well as their influence on AICs throughout West Africa, the rise of 
spiritual churches" in Ghana, and "Aladura" (praying) churches in Nigeria. Parallel developments in AICs south of the Zambezi, with particular focus on Zimbabwe and South Africa, are then treated, where the greatest proliferation of AICs in the continent is to be found, especially the Zionist and Apostolic movements in Southern Africa and the more unusual Zulu movement of Isaiah Shembe, the Nazareth Baptist Church or "amaNazaretha." The focus shifts to the area from the Congo Basin to the Zambezi, with the moving story of Simon Kimbangu and Kimbanguism in the Congo, the rise of Ngunzism, and the tragic episode of Alice Lenshina and the Lumpa movement in Zambia. In East Africa and particularly in Kenya, AICs have proliferated. Some of the particular churches unique to that region are discussed. The more recent development of the "new Pentecostals" that have arisen in different parts of the continent in the last three decades of the twentieth century are discussed, along with the rapidly growing independent Pentecostal of Charismatic churches and the challenges these present to the church in Africa today.

The significance of these specific churches for the mission and theology of the church in Africa is considered, including the churches' innovative adaptations and their attitudes towards older African religious beliefs, their contribution to an "enacted" and contextualized African theology, and finally, the reforming initiatives of AICs and their challenges to the universal church. This contribution is so far-reaching that Anderson considers this to be a reformation of at least the magnitude of the Protestant Reformation in Europe, and one may be excused for concluding that this was perhaps a more profound Reformation than the European one ever was. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Allen Anderson is a South African, an 'insider' and prolific writer on African initiated Christianity, particularly in its Pentecostal forms. He has written numerous articles and five books on the subject, including Moya: The Holy Spirit in an African Context (1991), and Zion and Pentecost (2000). He was formerly principal of Tshwane Theological College in South Africa, and researcher at the University of South Africa (1988-1995), from where he gained his doctorate in 1992. Since 1995 he has been director of the Research Unit for New Religions and Churches in the School of Historical Studies, University of Birmingham, England. 

Related Content