Ethiopia And The Missions

Since the sixteenth century, Ethiopian Orthodox Chris-tianity and the indigenous religions of Ethiopia have been confronted with, and influenced by, numerous Catholic and Protestant missions. This book offers historical, anthropological and personal analyses of these encounters. The discussion ranges from the Jesuit debate on circumcision to Oromo Bible translation, from Pentecostalism in Addis Ababa to conversion processes among the Nuer. Juxtaposing past and present, urban and rural, the book breaks new ground in both religious and African studies. Verena Bll and Evgenia Sokolinskaia are researchers at the department of African and Ethopian Studies at the Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg. Steven Kaplan is professor of African Studies and Comparative Religion at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In Envoys of A Human God Andreu Martínez offers an insightful study of the Jesuit mission to Christian Ethiopia. The work combines different approaches –cultural-historical, political and sociological– and draws from a multiplicity of sources, from archival research to archaeology.

European, not the least Scandinavian, mission societies have played an important role in shaping modern Ethiopia and Eritrea. In spite of this the long-term impact on Ethiopian society by European missions has not yet received much attention. The predominance of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in society and nation makes Ethiopia an exception in the history of European missions, and raises questions of an ecumenical character, which need more attention. Present tension in Ethiopia between Orthodox and Evangelicals, and the tendency to identifiy Christian affiliation with ethnic identity, contribute to make this an urgent matter. The present volume presents the papers delivered at a symposium on these questions held at Lund University in August 1996. They include discussions on the justification of foreign missionary activity in a country already Christian, the impact of the Catholic missionary enterprise of the 16th and 17th centuries, the colonial context of late 19th century missionary activity, the impact of the Europeans on social and intellectual developments, the struggle of the Ethiopian Catholics for an Ethiopian identity in the face of latinization and colonial interests and the question of European influence on structure and leadership in the Evangelical Churches.

This book presents an archaeological and architectonic study of the 17th century Jesuit constructions in Ethiopia, which played an important role in the missionary activity. Its comprehensive study gathers and preserves the splendor of these endangered ruins for future generations.

Based on doctoral thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007.

Ancient prayers exist in a rich variety of often unexamined forms, and so they require a comprehensive study. This volume includes diverse scholars, who reveal the wondrous breadth of prayerful religious traditions from the first to the fifteenth centuries.