CLIO IN A SACRED GARB: ESSAYS ON CHRISTIAN PRESENCE AND AFRICAN RESPONSES, 1900-2000
By: KALU, OGBU U.
ISBN: 9781592216314
$29.95
This book consists of essays on African church history: historiography, context (ecology and worldviews), the missionary enterprise and African responses that explain the massive growth of Christianity in contemporary Africa. Some essays have been published; others are unpublished, or rewritten to fit into a theme. Clio is the ancient Muse of History. When dressed in a sacred garb, the muse performs for religious people and, in this case, for church historians. The essays address the cutting edge of contemporary African church historiography and the process of appropriation of the gospel in the encounter with Christianity. The essays contend that culture-contacts, as in the missionary movement, involve configurations of power. Thus, culture, conversion, and civilizing mission are power concepts that dominated the relationship between white missionaries and black Christians even after decolonization. The African context, shaped by diverse cultures, ecosystems, worldviews and poverty explain the changing faces of Christianity. The essays explore the contributions of African Americans in the evangelization of Africa and illustrate the core of the missionary enterprise with the Edinburgh Conference of 1910 and the impact of the World Wars. The antistructural Ethiopianism movement heralded African responses. Massive religious innovations followed apace generating a welter of forces that compelled the decolonization of the church by 1975. Thereafter, charismatic and Pentecostal movements catalyzed enormous growth and reshaped the African religious landscape. But the “trauma of growth” has challenged the depth of discipling, the models of theological education and ministerial formation.