Earticle

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

Abstract
 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

키워드

저자

• Caleb Chul-Soo Kim [ 김철수 | Africa international University ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  선교와 신학 [Mission and Theology]

• 간기

  연3회

• pISSN

  1229-2133

• 수록기간

  1998~2026

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 235 DDC 266