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"What is development? Who defines that one community/ country is "developed", while another community/ country is "under-developed"? What is the relationship between religion and development? Does religion contribute to development or underdevelopment in Africa? These and related questions elicit quite charged reactions in African studies, development studies, political science and related fields. Africa's own history, including the memory of marginalisation, slavery and exploitation by global powers ensures that virtually every discussion on development is characterised by a lot of emotions and conflicting views. In this volume scholars from various African countries and many different religions and denominations contribute to this debate."--
Bengt Sundkler's long-awaited book on African Christian churches will become the standard reference for the subject.
This book investigates the substantial and growing contribution which African Independent and Pentecostal Churches are making to sustainable development in all its manifold forms. Moreover, this volume seeks to elucidate how these churches reshape the very notion of sustainable development and contribute to the decolonisation of development. Fostering both overarching and comparative perspectives, the book includes chapters on West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, and Burkina Faso) and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe and South Africa). It aims to open up a subfield focused on African Initiated Christianity within the religion and development discourse, substantially broadening the scope of the existing literature. Written predominantly by scholars from the African continent, the chapters in this volume illuminate potentials and perspectives of African Initiated Christianity, combining theoretical contributions, essays by renowned church leaders, and case studies focusing on particular churches or regional contexts. While the contributions in this book focus on the African continent, the notion of development underlying the concept of the volume is deliberately wide and multidimensional, covering economic, social, ecological, political, and cultural dimensions. Therefore, the book will be useful for the community of scholars interested in religion and development as well as researchers within African studies, anthropology, development studies, political science, religious studies, sociology of religion, and theology. It will also be a key resource for development policymakers and practitioners.
Furthermore, they extract useful lessons for fostering faith communities around the globe.
"I can merely admire his courage in tackling so complex and difficult a subject; he should succeed in stimulating a fresh generation of research... this well-written, intelligent and lively study will greatly stimulate anyone fortunate enough to read it." Christianity provided the constitutive identity of historic Ethiopia. From the sixteenth century, and increasingly from the nineteenth, it entered decisively into the life and culture of an increasing number of other African peoples. In the course of the twentieth century, African Christians have become a major part of the world Church, and arguably modern African history as a whole is not intelligible without its powerful Christian element. Yet despite the great advance in African historiography over the last forty years, this is the first major volume to consider the historical development and character of the Christian Church in Africa as a whole, linking together Ehtiopia Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and the numerousm 'Independent' churches of modern times. The book focuses throughout on the role of coversion, the shaping of Church life and its relationship to traditional values, and the impact of political power. Professor Hastings also compares the relation of Christian history to the comprable development of Islam in Africa.
In this book, Stan Chu Ilo offers an integral theology of development and a critical social analysis of different development theories and practices in the world, especially in Africa. Ilo offers a comprehensive biblical, anthropological, and theological foundation of the principles and praxis of Catholic social ethics from the Second Vatican Council to Pope Francis. Drawing from the social encyclical Charity in Truth, Ilo shows how Catholic social teaching responds to some of the challenging questions and concerns of our times in relation to human rights, ecology, globalization, international cooperation, development and aid, human and cultural development, business ethics, social justice, and the challenges of poverty eradication. He creatively applies these principles to the social context of Africa, and lays a groundwork for sustainable Christian humanitarian and social justice initiatives in Africa.
There is an important if largely unremarked diversity within African Christianity; on the one hand, an enchanted Christianity that views the world as pervaded by spiritual forces, and on the other a disenchanted Christianity that discounts such forces. An enchanted Christian sees his glorious destiny threatened by witches, marine spirits, spirit spouses, and ancestral curses. Churches catering for this worldview lay bare the workings of this spirit world, deliver those suffering from spirit attacks, and equip members to combat these forces. This enchanted imagination, along with the prosperity gospel, and emphasis on the pastor's 'anointing', are the principal characteristics of much African Pentecostalism. Gifford argues that the enchanted religious imagination militates against development by encouraging fear and distrust.
Annotation Discusses the principles and practicalities of a partnership, covering a broad range of development topics.