원문정보
초록
영어
Africa’s Christianity is an immensely dynamic religiocultural phenomenon. Churches have proliferated, especially after Africa’s political independence in the 1960s. Unlike some anticipation that African Christianity would shrivel with the withdrawal of the colonial powers, churches increased in number and flourished dynamically without equal in history. However, the rapid church growth after colonialism was not a new phenomenon in the history of African churches in the twentieth century. In the early part of the twentieth century,even before Western churches set out to evangelize Africa,indigenous preachers had already been actively involved in preaching the gospel and planting churches. Thanks to early African evangelists, such as Wade Harris, the African style of Pentecostal revivals was born and began to spread across sub-Saharan Africa before independence. The flame of charismatic movements went on and kindled spiritually hungry souls, which led to the explosion of churches in Africa, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Interestingly, such revivals took place when Africans were greatly dismayed and frustrated by homegrown political elites, who are believed to have contributed considerably to the drastic deterioration of African economies and to the exacerbation of structural corruption. This coincident church growth should not be interpreted as religious escapism; rather,most churches, regardless of their denominational affiliations,were playing socially significant roles that filled the hollows created by dysfunctional social systems and poor leadership after independence. There are a number of important features that characterized African Christianity. African Christians were able to survive and overcome harsh conditions of life during and after Western colonialism thanks to their charismatic revival movements that led them to a radical faith in the God of Jesus. Related to this was the religio-cultural factor that the African primal religion (or primal worldview) always played the role of a spiritual seedbed on which the gospel of Jesus was planted, nourished,and sprouted without resistance. While African churches typically belong to one of three types, namely, mainline churches (stemmed from Western missionaries), Pentecostal churches, and AICs (Africa Instituted/Initiated Churches), all of them share the primal religion/worldview as their spiritual bedrock. Although there were some extremely puritanical approaches to African traditions among these churches,most of them were characterized by strong pneumatology and supernatural awareness, which can be ascribed to the traditional or primal religiosity that has been the foundation of African cultural knowledge and life. This explains why charismatic Pentecostal currents have been notably detected across all three ecclesiastical types. However, there are also a number of obstacles that African churches must continuously work to overcome. The churches should more proactively take the responsibility not only to provide biblically faithful and socio-culturally relevant answers to questions posed by African traditions but also to respond to malfunctioning social milieus in light of Kingdom values and ethics. One other issue to deal with is the increasing acceptance of the prosperity gospel. This problem does not represent African Christianity, but its lurking danger should be discerned and addressed theologically. Lastly,African churches must also make all efforts to carry out their missional responsibility to witness for Jesus pacifistically among Muslim neighbors.
목차
Introduction
A Methodological Issue in Studying African Christianity
Proliferation of Christianity in Independent Africa
A Typology of Resurgent Churches in Independent Africa
Mainline Churches
Pentecostalism in Africa
AICs (African Instituted Churches)
Constructive African Elements in African Christianity
Conclusions: Missional Challenges
Bibliography
