Discourses on Growth of Indigenous Churches in Africa

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2022) | Viewed by 1941

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Department of Religious Studies & Classics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0105, USA
Interests: decolonization, genocide, indigenous cultures and resistance; globalization capitalism injustice; racism and colonization; Pan Africa/Black studies; ecological and environmental studies; gender and cultural studies; earth heating and climate destruction
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the growth of Indigenous churches in Africa, particularly over the last few decades. Africa has been the home of the earliest forms of human civilization and it also reflects some of the world’s most complex and colorful cultural, linguistic, and historical diversity. Indigenous Earth-based religions and cultures on the continent have existed from time immemorial; as other religious traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam emerged over two millennia ago, so too have new religious, cultural and identity configurations been birthed, such as the Coptic Churches of Egypt, the Orthodox Churches of Ethiopia, the Nazarite Churches of South Africa/Azania, the Kimbanguist Churches of the Congo, and the Aladura Pentecostal Churches and Cherubim and Seraphim Movements in Nigeria. The formation of these Indigenous African churches marked improvisational ways of retaining the Indigenous cultural core while embracing certain evolutionary forms of these Abrahamic religions. Many were sparked in response to European colonial or mission churches being seen as inadequate in catering to the spiritual and social needs of African communities. This call for papers welcomes papers that discuss the growth of these churches over recent decades and ways in which African religiosity and culture are constantly evolving and being remade. In addition, we encourage research that supplements existing academic literature, particularly in the wake of increasing poverty, globalization and privatization, neo-colonial militarization, Earth heating, climate instability, prolonged drought, the COVID-19 pandemic and other environmental and health issues in the early 21st century on the African continent.

Prof. Dr. Julian Kunnie
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • indigenous African churches
  • growth of African religions
  • globalization impacts on indigenous African religions and cultures
  • health and wellness in contemporary African religions and cultures
  • indigenous people and relationships to African churches

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 312 KiB  
Article
Sharpening the Identities of African Churches in Eastern Christianity: A Comparison of Entanglements between Religion and Ethnicity
by Marco Guglielmi
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1019; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13111019 - 26 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1384
Abstract
Although at first sight Eastern Christianity is not associated with Africa, the African continent has shaped the establishment and development of three of the four main Eastern Christian traditions. Through a sociological lens, we examine the identity of the above African churches, focusing [...] Read more.
Although at first sight Eastern Christianity is not associated with Africa, the African continent has shaped the establishment and development of three of the four main Eastern Christian traditions. Through a sociological lens, we examine the identity of the above African churches, focusing on the socio-historical entanglements of their religious and ethnic features. Firstly, we study the identity of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Church belonging to Oriental Orthodoxy. We focus on these African churches—and their diasporas in Western countries—as indigenous Christian paths in Africa. Secondly, we examine the identity of Africans and African-Americans within Eastern Orthodoxy. We consider both to have some inculturation issues within the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the development of an African-American component within Orthodoxy in the USA. Thirdly, we analyze the recent establishment and identity formation of African churches belonging to Eastern-rite Catholic Churches. In short, we aim to elaborate an overview of the multiple identities of African churches and one ecclesial community in Eastern Christianity, and to compare diverse sociological entanglements between religious and ethnic traits within them. A fruitful but neglected research subject, these churches’ identities appear to be reciprocally shaped by their own Eastern Christian tradition and ethnic heritage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Discourses on Growth of Indigenous Churches in Africa)
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