A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present [Paperback]

Elizabeth Isichei (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1995

This unprecedented work is the first one-volume study of the history of Christianity in Africa. Written by Elizabeth Isichei, a leading scholar in this field, A History of Christianity in Africa examines the origins and development of Christianity in Africa from the early story of Egyptian Christianity to the spectacular growth, vitality, and diversity of the churches in Africa today. Isichei opens with the brilliance of Christianity in Africa in antiquity and shows how Christian Egypt and North Africa produced some of the most influential intellects of the time. She then discusses the churches founded in the wake of early contacts with Europe, from the late fifteenth century on, and the unbroken Christian witness of Coptic Egypt and of Ethiopia. Isichei also examines the different types of Christianity in modern Africa and shows how social factors have influenced its development and expression. With the explosive growth of Christianity now taking place in Africa and the increasingly recognized significance of African Christianity, this much-needed book fills the void in scholarly works on that continent's Christian past, also foreshadowing Christian Africa's influential future.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The word encyclopedic seems somehow inadequate for a book whose subject spans 2,000 years on a continent as large and diverse as Africa, a continent where--by some estimates--Christianity is expanding at a rate roughly double that at which it is declining in the Western world. But it is probably the best word available to convey the scope and style of Isichei's book, which is informative and readable and will surely become an important reference for historians and others interested in Africa, in Christianity, or in both. But as important as what it contains is what it does. Much of Christianity's history in Africa and elsewhere is inscribed in the tragic consequences of its confusion and entanglement with European culture and colonialism. By chronicling diverse African struggles to disentangle and encounter it anew, and by teasing out a thread of descent that predates colonialism, Isichei lays a foundation for a more conscious and critical encounter with Christianity's enculturation outside Africa as well as in. That is a welcome contribution to the understanding of Africa and Christianity, a corrective to a history of interpretation that has too often confused them with their "inventions" by the West. Steve Schroeder --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Africa World Pr (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865434433
• ISBN-13: 978-0865434431
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,434,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars African Christianity viewed from an African perspective, April 11, 2010

By 

Robert E. Smith (Claremont, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present (Hardcover)

Elizabeth Isichei's book is centered,appropriately, on Africa. Rather than describing the founding of the missionary societies in the West, and their expansion to Africa, she begins with a description of various African polities before the coming of Christianity, and then the encounter of the people in those societies with the harbingers of the Christian message, and the consequences of that encounter.

The author has a sensitive, objective, and balanced perspective, avoiding both the old-style hagiographies and the bitter new critiques that saw only cultural destruction in African Christianity. The book begins with a chapter each on Antiquity and the "Middle Years" (c. l500 to c. l800). The nine central chapters are distributed among five regions and, roughly, two periods, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A final chapter covers events since l960.

Each chapter is constructed around well-chosen issues, such as conflict between Church and State, Christians and Muslims, and Christians and traditional political leaders; the relationship between the modern missionary movement and imperialism; missionary racism; the importance of education to Christianity in Africa; the causes of the acceptance of Christianity; Liberation Theology; attitudes toward polygamy and the celibacy of the priesthood,etc. Inculturation is one of the major recurring themes, as Isichei explores the dialectic between Christianity and Culture.

Coverage is balanced among Protestants, Catholics, and Independent African churches, both "Ethiopian" and "Zionist" types. While presenting the various factors in the rise of these Independent churches, she includes the aspect which some other analysts have ironically neglected, the religious one. She also points out correctly that far more African Christians stayed with the mission-related churches than went into the Independent ones.

In style, this book is like an African truck, filled to overflowing with startling facts and new interpretations, with some dangling inconclusively over the tailgate. If it loses the smoothness of a more integrated analysis, it gains in color and pungency.

Isichei shows a firm grasp of the vast literature not only of Christianity, but of African history in general. The current debates are understood, and contrasting interpretations presented. For a book of 420 pages chock-full of details, there are surprisingly few technical errors. Unfortunately there is no bibliography, but it includes copious end-notes and an index. The maps are nicely done, but need a listing. The back cover states incorrectly that this is "the first one-volume study of the history of Christianity in Africa". Peter Falk's The Growth of the Church in Africa appeared in l979, but Isichei's is certainly the superior one.

Something that the author does better than most is to allow the Africans to speak for themselves. The innumerable citations make one aware of the Africans as people. One feels that one is touching reality. And this is appropriate, for as she rightly states, while the most famous missionary names belong to the nineteenth century, the expansion of Christianity in the twentieth was largely the work of African evangelists.

Elizabeth Isichei is from New Zealand, spent sixteen years in Africa, and gave Igbo names to five of her children. This book is a child of another sort, but thankfully Africanized as well. And in today's climate of hostility toward and ignorance about Africa, that is no mean gift.



































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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly enormous story, January 4, 2008

By 

Brian Griffith (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present (Paperback)

Isichei conveys one of the most dramatic stories of recent history. It is a gigantic tale of passion and creativity, as African Christians claimed independence from colonial churches, launched a myriad of indiginized "new religions", and formed the largest movements of popular Christianity in the modern world.

-author of Correcting Jesus

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Gossipy politicially correct anecdotes, July 20, 2010

By 

Wu Wei (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present (Paperback)

The title of this book is misleading for two reasons. First, only a single short chapter covers the years before 1500.

Second, it would be better titled "Some Politically Correct, Gossipy Anecdotes from African Christianity". Rather than writing a real history, the author gathers a few gossipy snippets from particular regions at specific times in history. Many of the anecdotes are political, about sexism, " white racism", colonism, or ism-ism. Any story about a woman may be included, no matter how minor her role in history. The faults of individual Christian missionaries are noted, perhaps with a guilt-by-association implication for the Christian religion in general. Any sort of bloodshed is considered sensational enough to be included, especially martyrdoms.