We
are currently living through one of the transforming moments in the history of
Christianity worldwide. The past five centuries or so told us the story of
Christianity, bound up with that of Europe and non-European derived
civilizations overseas, above all in N.America. But over the past century, the
center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted southwards and today the
largest Christian communities on the planet are to be found in Asia, Africa,
and Latin America. Thus a new face of Christianity has emerged. This
presentation attempts to ascertain Africa as a new face of Christianity.
1. History of African Christianity:
Christianity
first arrived in North Africa, in the 1st or early 2nd century AD. The
Christian communities in North Africa were among the earliest in the world.
Legend has it that Christianity was brought from Jerusalem to Alexandria on the
Egyptian coast by Mark, one of the four evangelists, in 60 AD. This was around
the same time or possibly before Christianity spread to Northern Europe.[1]
Once
in North Africa, Christianity spread slowly West from Alexandria and East to
Ethiopia. In the 4th century AD the Ethiopian King Ezana made Christianity the
kingdom's official religion.In the 7th century Christianity retreated under the
advance of Islam.In the interior of the continent most people continued to
practice their own religions undisturbed until the 19th century. At that time,
Christian missions to Africa increased, driven by an antislavery crusade and
the interest of Europeans in colonizing Africa. However, where people had
already converted to Islam, Christianity had little success.[2]
Christianity
was an agent of great change in Africa. With the Christian missions came
education, literacy and hope for the disadvantaged. However, the spread of
Christianity paved the way for commercial speculators, and, in its original
rigid European form, denied people pride in their culture and ceremonies.[3]
Some important Africans who influenced the early
development of Christianity include Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen
of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo.[4]
2.
Christian population in Africa:
A
Christian demographical survey in Africa notes the following information
(approximately)[5]:
1.
During the 1900’s the count of Christians were estimated to be 9 million.
2.
But in 1950’s these figures tripled to 30million.
3. In
1970’s it was observed to be quadrupled to 117 million.
3. The shift:
3.1. The decline in West: Christianity
in crisis
Sudden
and dramatic collapse of Christian faith among western Europeans is occurring
at this time. Historian Callum Brown notes in The Death of Christian Britain that there was a steep decline of
Christians from 1960 in Britain. He also reveals that Christian moral benchmark
was permanently disrupted in the swing sixties and the Britons plunged into a
truly secular condition.[8]
Today,
Christian faith has become peripheral, sectarian, and irrelevant to be the
construction of reality in which the British population is engaged. Of 26
million (approx.) members of Church of England, only 1 million attends on
Sunday. Church loses 1500 people every week, not only people but Church,
leaders and those involved for 20-30 years. And some end up in emerging
churches. What is said about U.K. is true of the other Western European nations
too.[9]
3.1.1. Reasons for the great decline:
Some
of the reasons for the decline of Christianity in West are provided below in
brief:
(1)
Christianity has been undermined by modernism.[10]
(2) Prevalence
of secularism.[11]
(3) Decreasing
percentage of church attendance and ‘the generation gap’, which failed to
impart values to the next generation.[12]
(4) Among
the most striking consequences of the decline of religion have been fewer
children or low birth rates.[13]
(5)
The political polarization, which is common in many western nations caused
people to get polarized due to churches.[14]
(6)
The sexual revolutionprovoked the feeling that the Biblical sex ethic now looks
unreasonable and perverse to millions of people, making Christianity appear
implausible, unhealthy, and regressive.[15]
(7)
The era of decolonization and Third World empowerment, together with the dawn
of globalization, has given the impression that Christianity was
imperialistically "western" and supportive of European civilization's
record of racism, colonialism, and anti-Semitism.[16]
(8)
The enormous growth in the kind of material
prosperity and consumerismhas
always worked against faith and undermines Christian community.[17]
(9)
LesslieNewbiginattributes the marginalization of Christianity in the West on
the outworking of the 18th century Enlightenment, which promoted the
sufficiency of individual human reason without faith in God.[18]
(10)
H. Richard Niebuhr points out in his essay, "The Independence of the
Church," that the church becomes weak and even corrupt whenever it becomes
successful in a culture and this in turn causes declination.[19]
If
all these approaches are right and complementary, Christianity in the West has
been the victim of "a perfect storm" of trends, factors, and forces.
3.2. The
Southern Boom: World is yet to embrace the truth
of this different face of Christianity. It emerged and is flourishing. “The
Third Church” is a term coined by Buhlmann, on the analogy of the Third world.
The phrase suggests that the south represents a new tradition comparable in
importance to the Eastern and Western Churches of historical times. Andrew
Walls sees the faith in Africa as a distinctive new tradition of Christianity
comparable to Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy. For him, it is “the
standard Christianity of the present age, a demonstration model of its
character.”[20]
The
rise of non-western Christianity has come as a huge shock to the secular west.
In the 1970’s Christianity outside of west was thought to be a product of
European imperialism, and it was expected to collapse and die in the
post-colonial era. However, one of the great ironies of these times is that
Christianity grew swiftly after the end of colonialism, suggesting Christianity
in the “rest of the world” is a grass root people’s movement than a product of
western colonialism.[21]
3.2.1. Africa: The Next Christendom
Christianity’s
vast majority of believers will be neither white nor European nor Euro-American
in the near future.[22] According
to the respected World Christian
Encyclopedia some 2million Christians are alive today, about one-third of
the planetary total. The largest single bloc, some 560 million people, is still
to be found in Europe. Latin America though, is already close behind with 480
million. Africa has 382 million, and around 313 million Asians profess
Christianity.[23]
North America claims about 260 million believers. By 2025, there would be
around 2.6 million Christians, of whom 633 m would live in Africa, 640m in
Latin America and 460 m in Asia, Europe at third place with 555 m. Africa and
L.America would be in competition for the title of most Christian continent and
these two continents will together account for half the Christians on the
Planet.[24]
By 2050, Christianity will be chiefly the religion of Africa and the African
diaspora. By then, there will be about three billion Christians in the world,
and the proportion of those who will be white and non-Latino will be between
one-fifth and one-sixth the total.[25]
Another
riveting fact is that though U.S.A. still leads the world in mission sending,
it also receives the largest number of foreign missionaries mostly from Africa.
There are about 400,000 missionaries in the world and in 1990, in Nigeria
alone, 900 missionaries were serving sacrificially in rural Northern Nigeria
and in Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Burkina Faso and London.[26]
3.2.2. Reasons
for rapid progression of Christianity in Africa :
Some
of the reasons for rapid progression of Christianity in Africa are provided
below in brief:
1.
Colonialism.[27]
2.
With vernacular translation went cultural renewal and that encouraged Africans
to view Christianity in a favorable light.[28]
3.
African agency: Africans stepped forward to lead the expansion without the
disadvantage of foreign compromise. Young people, especially women, were given
a role in the church.[29]
4.
Direct connection of biblical events with the life situations of Africans.[30]
5.
Work of Christian missionaries from Europe, North America and other Western
countries inspired by revivalist movements that occurred in the
nineteenth century with the theme of proselytization.[31]
6.
Globalization had a great role to play in the spread of gospel.[32]
7.
Rise of indigenous churches, which have their life and faith indigenous to
local African culture and philosophy.[33]
8.
Revivals, which are led by laity, often by women. For instance, the revival
movements in East Africa during 1935.[34]
4.
Implications of the Demographic Shift:
Though
most other religions have continued to be organized around their historic
centers, Christianity has proved to be a sojourner sort of faith. In its early
history, neither the fall of Jerusalem, the fall of Edessa, the fall of Rome,
nor the fall of Constantinople resulted in the extinction of Christianity. Although these had been significant centers,
and certainly played a critical role in shaping worship, spirituality and theology,
the Christian faith was already advancing across new frontiers by the time they
were in peril.
Some
of the implications of this demographic shift are[35]:
1.
If Christianity is becoming predominantly non-western then what happens in
Africa and other southern countries will have a growing influence on what
Christianity will be like worldwide.
2.
Apart from numerical strength, the passion with which Christianity is lived out
in Africa and Global South is making an impact on world Christianity in terms
of theology, ethics and spirituality.
3.
African Christianity is far more conservative in terms of both beliefs and
moral teachings. The key issue of Christianity in Africa is the prevailing
worldview that subscribes to a belief in direct divine intervention in daily
lives of people. Besides the age-old local beliefs about visions, prophecy and
healing have also contributed to Christianity’s distinctive supernaturalism in
Africa.
4.
While missionary projects continue “from the West to the Rest,” there are also
an increasing number of missionary movements reaching back “from the Rest to
the West” and the leadership in mission is increasingly shaped and led by the
global South including Africa.
5.
Another important fact about the new missionary paradigm is that, it is now
from “poor to rich” and that after the long years when gospel was compromised
by being intertwined with imperial power and economic exploitation, it is now
restored to the poor and marginalized, who are its original agents. This is how
it was with apostolic Christianity. The initially despised Galileans, who first
preached the gospel, eventually won the allegiance of the mighty Roman Empire.
6.
Mission as evangelism and Church planting are taken seriously by the Africa.
African Christians from former traditional mission fields are now evangelizing
and forming new congregations in Europe. The largest congregation in London is
an African-founded one. The largest congregation in Europe in in Kiev and
founded as Nigerian. It is estimated that more than 3 million Christians of
African origin are now living in Europe.
5.
Significance:
This
continent that has endured countless disasters since independence is wearying
in unrelieved horror by looking at the life expectancy, child mortality or
death from AIDS. According to U.S. intelligence community, “In sub-Saharan
Africa, persistent conflicts and instability, autocratic and corrupt
governments, over-dependence on commodities with declining real prices, low
levels of education and widespread infectious diseases will combine to prevent
most countries from experiencing rapid economic growth.” That is the underlying
reality for the Christian masses of new century.[36]
African
and Latin American Christians are people for whom the New Testament beatitudes
have a direct relevance inconceivable for most Christians in Northern
societies. The words of Jesus that the poor are blessed, in which ‘poor’ means
the total poverty or destitution directly connects with the great majority of
Southern Christians (and increasingly all Christians), who are really the poor,
the hungry, the persecuted even the dehumanized.[37]
Global
South and African influenced Christianity in all its diversity and
contextuality can provide a model for reshaping religion and Christian faith
into a holistic undertaking in the Western world. However, the issue is whether
the Western churches are ready to embrace the opportunity available at their
doorsteps. The remark of Hollenweger that“Christians in Britain prayed for many
years for revival and when it came they did not recognize it because it was
black” sums it up all.[38]
It is
time for the Western as well as the rest of the world to recognize that mission
and mission fields have completely changed. No longer is missionary tasks
one-side but is done by Christians all the churches around the globe and Africa
have a big role to play in that in terms of its passion for evangelism. Africa
before referred as “mission field” or “the third world” is no longer only a
recipient of mission but also an agent of mission which points toward its fast
growth as future Christendom along with other countries of Global South.[39]
Conclusion:
Mission
is now “from everywhere to everywhere.” Though Europe is no longer the
Christian heartland, the heartening news is that, in the world as a whole,
Christianity is not in decline. The current situation in the West can be
understood as a challenge, a new opportunity, providing new possibilities
rather than a dangerous situation. A new way of being a global Christian
community is possible today through the growing strength of Christianity in the
non-western world, the migration of a section of these Christians to the
Western hemisphere and the easy interconnectedness made possible through the
modern phenomenon of globalization. Mission is no longer a one-way street; we
need to learn from each other and enriched by each other.
Bibliography:
Bowen,Robert.So I Send You.London:
SPCK, 1996.
Jenkins, Philip. The Next
Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Oxford University Press,
2002.
Kalu, Obgu.Mission after
Christendom: Emergent Themes in Contemporary Mission. Louisville: John Knox
Press,
2010.
Sanneh,Lamin. Whose Religion
is Christianity: The Gospel Beyond the West. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2003.
Webliography:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section8.shtml
(retrieved on 03-07-13)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Africa(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2012/12/the-decline-of-the-church-in-
britain.html (retrieved by 04-Jul-13).
http://www.christianpost.com/news/scholars-find-decline-of-christianity-in-the-west-19971/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-08-10-europe-religion-cover_x.htm?POE=click-refer(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/09/why-is-christianity-on-the-decline-in-america/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/believing-in-the-global-south-17
(retrieved by 04-Jul-13).
http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m14/activity4.php(retrieved
on 03-07-13).
[1]http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section8.shtml
(retrieved on 03-07-13).
[2]http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section8.shtml
(retrieved on 03-07-13).
[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section8.shtml
(retrieved on 03-07-13).
[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Africa(retrieved on
03-07-13).
[5]ObguKalu, Mission after
Christendom: Emergent Themes in Contemporary Mission (Louisville: John Knox
Press, 2010), 60. Hereafter referred to as Kalu, Mission...,
[6] This is according to census records of 2010.
[7]Kalu, Mission..., 60.
[10]http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2012/12/the-decline-of-the-church-in-
britain.html (retrieved by 04-Jul-13).
[11]http://www.christianpost.com/news/scholars-find-decline-of-christianity-in-the-west-19971/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[12]http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-08-10-europe-religion-cover_x.htm?POE=click-refer(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[13]http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-08-10-europe-religion-cover_x.htm?POE=click-refer(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[14]http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/09/why-is-christianity-on-the-decline-in-america/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[15]http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/09/why-is-christianity-on-the-decline-in-america/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[16]http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/09/why-is-christianity-on-the-decline-in-america/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[17]http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/09/why-is-christianity-on-the-decline-in-america/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[18]http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/09/why-is-christianity-on-the-decline-in-america/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[19]http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/09/why-is-christianity-on-the-decline-in-america/(retrieved
on 03-07-13)
[20] Philip Jenkins, The Next
Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press,
2002), 2. Hereafter referred to as Jenkins, The
Next..,
[21]Kalu, Mission..., 61.
[22]http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/believing-in-the-global-south-17
(retrieved by 04-Jul-13).
[23]Kalu, Mission..., 61.
[24]Jenkins, The Next…,3.
[25]http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/believing-in-the-global-south-17(retrieved
by 04-Jul-13).
[26]Kalu, Mission..., 64.
[27] Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion
is Christianity: The Gospel Beyond the West(Michigan: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2003), 18. Hereafter referred to as Sanneh, Whose…,
[28]Sanneh, Whose…, 18.
[29]Sanneh, Whose…,18.
[30]Jenkins, The Next…,215.
[31]http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m14/activity4.php(retrieved
on 03-07-13).
[32]Kalu, Mission..., 68.
[33] Robert Bowen, So I Send You(London:
SPCK, 1996), 131. Hereafter referred to asBowen, So I…,
[34]Bowen, So I…,142.
[37]Jenkins, The Next..., 215.
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