TEMPERAMENT OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY MEASURES IN WEST AFRICA
PREFACE
Christianity is one of the two most widely practised religions in the world and by extension, Africa with a large number of faithfuls in sub-Saharan Africa. Christianity in Africa began in the middle of the 1st century in Egypt.
Egypt is identified in the Bible as the place of refuge that the Holy Family sought in its flight from Judea. In Metthew Chapter 2 from verses 12 to 23, the scripture recorded that Joseph arose and took his young Child and wife by night to Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son“.
The Egyptian Church, which is now more than 1,900 years old, regards itself as the subject of many prophecies in the Bible. Isaiah the prophet, in Chapter 19, Verse 19 says “In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.”
The first Christians in Egypt were common people who spoke Egyptian language (Coptic). There were also the Jews such as Theophilus, whom Saint Luke addressed in the introductory chapter of his gospel. When the church was founded by Saint Mark during the reign of Emperor Nero of the Romans, a great multitude of native Egyptians embraced the Christian faith.
The History of Christianity in Africa therfore could be said to have began in the 1st century about the year 43. At first the church in Alexandria was mainly Greek-speaking, but by the end of the 2nd century the scriptures and Liturgy had been translated into three local languages. The church began to expand rapidly, and five new bishoprics were established. These were suffragans of Alexandria, and at this time the Bishop of Alexandria began to be called Pope, as the senior bishop in Egypt. In the middle of the 3rd century the church in Egypt suffered severely in the persecution under the Emperor Decius. Many Christians fled from the towns into the desert. When the persecution died down, however, some remained in the desert as hermits to pray. This was the beginning of Christian monasticism, which over the following years spread from Africa to other parts of the Gohar world. In the early 4th century, King Ezana declared Christianity the official religion of Ethiopian after having been converted into the Ethiopian Orthodox church.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 History and Development of Christianity.
1.2 Spread of Christianity in Africa.
1.3 Objective of the Study
1.4 Significance of the Study
1.5 Limitation of the Study
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Development of Christianity in Africa
2.2 Christian Missionary in Africa
CHAPTER THREE: CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY IN W/AFRICA
3.1 Christian Missionary in W/Africa.
3.2 Impact of Christian Missionary in West Africa
CHAPTER FOUR: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY IN W/AFRICA.
4.1 Catholic Missions
4.2 Orthodox Missions.
4.3 First Protestant Missions .
4.4 Evangelical church Missions.
4.5 The British Missionary Societies.
4.6 African Independent Churches.
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary
5.2 Conclusion
Bibliography
References
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIANITY
Christianity is a religion that believes there is only one God. It is based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christianity has evolved over the centuries. Like any religion, disciples from one generation to another and from place to place as missionary including Africa conveyed the message and teachings.
Christianity in Africa is not devoid of the culture of the people. This integration easily promoted the mass exodus of missionaries into Africa and West Africa in particular. It must be noted that the coming of missionaries to Africa saw a different orientation of the culture of the West African people that was said to seen as negative arising from some customs such as the killing of twins, burial of the living alive with a dead king including corporal punishment to offenders for conduct of certain level of criminal activities. African culture and or customs is not a monolith and while the foundations remain fundamentally unaltered, the interpretation and expression of continues to be a forever-blossoming flower.
Christianity has been plagued with the history of European conquest and today it is yet to escape that legacy and become an agent of true liberation. With the exception of Ethiopia, the intention of Christianity in Africa was never to create development, in any capacity, in the African mind. Jesus was a Jew. He observed the Jewish faith and was well acquainted with the Jewish Law. In His early thirties, Jesus traveled from village to village, teaching in the synagogues and healing those who were suffering. Thus being the very first missionary of the Faith. Jesus’ teaching was revolutionary. He challenged the established religious authorities to repent from their self-righteousness and hypocrisy and realize that the Kingdom of God is rooted in service and love. Jesus’ teachings stirred the hearts of people and created instability, something the Jewish religious authorities feared. Soon, a faithful group of men began to follow Jesus and call him teacher. These men became His disciples. Jesus taught His disciples about the will of God and about the “new covenant” God will bring to humanity through Him. Jesus helped them to see that mankind is bound to the pain and futility of life as a result of sin. Due to sin, mankind lost its relationship with God.
The purpose of this “new covenant” is to restore those who accept it into a renewed fellowship of forgiveness and love with God. What is this new covenant? Jesus himself would pay for the sins of all humanity by being crucified unjustly on a Roman cross. Three days later, He would rise to life, having conquered death, to give hope to a hopeless world. Well, it happened just as Jesus taught, and His disciples were witnesses to an amazing miracle. Their teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, died and three days later rose again to become their Messiah. Compelled by a great commission to share the love that the God of this universe had imparted upon them, the disciples began to proclaim this gospel of hope throughout the territory as the earliest missionaries. Thus, from a small group of ordinary men that lived in a small province in Judea about 2000 years ago, and the Christian Faith has since spread to the rest of the world including West Africa. Their gospel message was and still remains simple: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
