Christianity in Africa is not a recent happening nor is it a product of colonialism if we go back to the very time of the apostle. Christianity in most area was confronted during the centuries after the struggle by Islam, the Christian religion suffered in some measure, but did not disappear. Christianity has been flourishing on the northern part of this continent for years before Islam was born. Christianity in North Africa seemed to have been well founded deeply entrenched and firmly led.
My research will mostly examine the Donatist schism and the violent episodes of the Donnatists that led up to the cause of the great civil war between the religions and the role that the Circumcellions played. We see that the religion Donatism played a
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They joined the ranks of the Donatists, and were called by them agnostici and "soldiers of Christ.” Troops of them were to be met in all parts of Africa. They had no regular occupation, but ran about armed, like madmen. They did not use any swords or other weaponry, on the ground that St. Peter had been told to put his sword into its sheath; but they did continual acts of violence with clubs, which they called "Israelites". They bruised their victims without killing them, and left them to die.” The role of the Circumcellions was very straightforward and that was to go after anyone who supported anything that dealt with Christianity or Catholicism. It is said in Brent D. Shaw’s book “Sacred Violence” one of the main sources that will be closely looked at in this paper is that “these same armed circumcellions even set ambushes on the public roads for Augustine, the servant of God, when he happened to go on the road after he had been asked to visit, to instruct, and to exhort various catholic congregations”
The sources that will be closely evaluated in this paper will be “Sacred Violence” written by Brent D. Shaw, “The Donatist Church” written by W.H.C. Frend, “Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and practices” written by Harold Allen Drake, one of the last secondary sources that will be mentioned and quoted in this paper will be “Donatist Martyr
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Shaw we see that he discusses a lot about and quite frankly more of The Diocletian persecution which I just touched on above in the background, to reiterate this persecution it was one of the main causes of the schism and so happens that could have been the rising point for tension and violence within the Roman Community against the religions. Shaw’s main intention of writing his book was to see how both Catholics and the dissidents collectively remembered their pasts and how this memory informed their actions. Shaw also argued many points in his book, one of them is that the popular idea of late antique Africa as an extremely rebellious province of the Roman Empire needs revision. He touched on that Africa was less violent than many other provinces. The major revolts that took place in the fourth and fifth century were led by the Comites Africae Firmus, Gildo and Heraclius, were not so much nationalist. There’s an interesting part in the introduction where Shaw says that he has “encountered a history of hate- a story of intimate dislike that was motivated by the profound love for one’s own people, belief, communities, and traditions.” Augustine is highly mentioned in this source but Shaw stated that his book was not a study about one individual person and his ideas. Shaw goes over a lot of detail that Augustine had been a main focus of hatred of his generation. “it was a matter of bishops, literary elites, imperial
Christian members in Europe established churches in conquered territories during the nineteenth century. With this Western cultural values were spread. Europe found the option to use imperialism to their advantage when the scramble for Africa occurred. This is when The Berlin West Africa conference occurred regarding the split of Africa into colonies. The country was so behind with the rapid industrialization, that new diffusion of ideas was necessary and sought out by citizens. Colliding of religions also involved new education and new foreign languages. As seen in document five, philanthropy was a key part and wanted “five percent better” through Europe at the time. This showed Africa’s hesitant distinction through the late 1880’s to 1950’s and was portrayed across the globe as a developing reputation. Problems with governments, leaders, and trade reflected onto Africa that also left religious views and questions in the air. Against imperialism, Africa saw no hope in ever regaining independence. Colonial conflict struct, and a self government without the help of other countries was out of the picture. In documents three and nine, a German man and German Social Democratic party address how Africa is beginning to look like Europe and how markets within Africa are no longer relevant “to new markets which each country tries to usurp to itself”. These documents showed how after many
Africa, like many other continents, was a very tremendous and a very diverse civilization that is very complicated to introduce due to all its wonderful but also diverse features and beliefs. From the differences between its society and language to its religion and politics, Africa always had the reputation that its empires, cities, and kingdoms never progressed in the developments and achievements for their civilization. Many people believed that the Europeans were actually the cause of Africa’s achievements and advanced developments for their civilizations. However, this is further than the whole truth. Before the arrival of the Europeans between the 15th and 16th century, African kingdoms, empires, and cities had many achievements and accomplishments
In the source “The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas,” the narrative of a few early Christians who died for their beliefs is told. The two martyred women, named Perpetua and Felicitas, along with a few other followers of the religion were imprisoned because they identified themselves as Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to the Roman Emperor. The Christians were sentenced to death by beast for this. The source illustrate the problems Christians had in navigating the cultural realities of life in the Roman empire. This can be observed along with the struggles involved in class, family, and gender.
European domination in Africa began because the Portuguese wanted to establish a faster route to India. Yet, when the Portuguese arrived they began to set up a trade of gold, slaves and ivory. The Europeans pretended to be Christian humanitarians and attempted to convert the Africans to Christians. They used god to justify their mistreatment of the natives. Many of the natives did convert to Christianity and accepted the Europeans mistreatments. The Europeans set up port cities on the African coast in order to help their ships on their journey to India. At the port cities, they could stop, rest, and replenish their supplies.
Africa has had a long and tumultuous road of colonization and decolonization the rush to colonize Africa started in the 17th century with the discovery of the vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and rubber with colonization hitting a fever pitch during World War I. However, the repercussions of colonization have left deep wounds that still remain unhealed in the 21st century. Early on, European nations such as Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium scrambled for territories. Countries wanted land so they could harvest the resources, increase trade, and gain power. The European colonization of Africa brought racism, civil unrest, and insatiable greed; all of which have had lasting impacts on Africa.
Islam came about from the trade from the North of Africa, with the trade came religion. The Christian population is largely composed of Roman Catholics and Protestants. The trade with Germany that occurred before imperialism, brought their Christian beliefs with them to the region, so many were forced to convert to a religion, that connected to the people who enforced colonization on them. A 2008-09 Pew survey found that, "51 percent of Tanzanian Christians described themselves as Catholic, and 44 percent described themselves as Protestant”(3) All of the people who imperialized have had some influence towards the religious views. Over time, by imperialism, more people started to convert to Christianity. People looked at the Christian missionaries in one of two ways. The first, people viewed the Christians as saints, they were exemplars of ideal piety because of their successes. However, later on, missionaries were then viewed as arrogant and rapacious imperialists. People started to realize that, this was an aggressive force that the missionaries imposed on them, "some Christians have tried to make sense of post-colonial Christianity by renouncing practically everything about the Christianity of the colonizers. They reason that if the colonialists’ understanding of Christianity could be used to justify rape, murder, theft, and empire then their understanding of
The European missionaries wanted to come to Africa to share the good news of Christianity to the natives. However, often times the missionaries would get caught up in the valuable resources of Africa and make a turn for the cruel side. The novel Heart of Darkness, shows how corrupt the Europeans
The Europeans thought it was their burden as white men to bring religion and God to whom they thought were uncivilized people (Spielvogel and McTighe 227) . When coming to Africa the Europeans spread the word of God through missionaries and bible teachings and converted a lot of the Africans to Christianity. As explained through an African proverb, “When the whites came to our country we had the land and they had the Bible, now we have the Bible and they have the land” (Document 3). To justify taking African religion the Europeans said it was their job as white men to give the Africans God so they can experience what comes with it. Bringing new beliefs to the Africans it replaced the other religious ideas and in turn lost much of the culture the Africans held. Incoming Europeans were more concerned with protecting their traditions and culture and spreading it to this new region rather than respecting the Africans and their existing traditional culture. While the Europeans worked to conserve their culture, religions and traditions they were looking to gain economic stability from Africa to help them to become more powerful and overall have good economic
The central Middle Ages was a period of time from the 11th century through the 13th century that was characterized by prosperous economic growth in Europe. The lead of economic growth in Europe was the movements in the Christian communities. Christian movements in the central Middle Ages included Knights Templar, first Crusade, the Franciscans, and pilgrimages. Not only were the movements in the Christian communities made changes in the economy, but they also influenced the challenges against traditional authority. Some challenges of traditional authority were the Dominicans and the Franciscans. Guibert of Nogent’s description of the Revolt in Laon will be examined in this essay. Robert the Monk’s version of Pope Urban II’s speech from 1095
Under the British Empire, Kenya was affected negatively, because it had a large impact on its and culture. In Document 5, it shows individuals who lead Kenya, including the first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta and Tom Mboya, Independence activist wearing suits similar to clothings that Europeans wore. It made Kenyans feel that what they were wearing was unfashionable and bizarre so they changed how they dressed. Colonization had a huge impact on Kenya’s culture. European Colonization influenced Kenya negatively different way, by making people convert their religion.
Teachings of Christianity entered Africa long before the full swing of the slave trade. Christianity first entered the African continent in the early AD, around the first to third century from Israel through Egypt. This “first wave” had minimal effects on the region, and hardly spread into the southern regions. It wasn’t until the “Age of Discovery” (15th to 18th Century) when the Europeans made contact with Africans that Christianity took a hold in Africa. African nations took on Christian Monarchy as leadership, and began converting their populaces. The spread of Christianity in Africa, however, was not a full coverage of the continent. Not only did Christianity experience barriers in conversion due to an already present
By comparing the following primary sources, “The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas” and “The Rape of Lucretia,” historians can learn about the archetypes of Roman society. The former text, written in 202 or 203 CE, is a prison diary of a young martyr in Carthage. The protagonist, Perpetua, is arrested and sentenced to death because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. Despite having a newborn and hearing consistent outcry from her father to renounce her faith, Perpetua refused to absolve from Christianity. Prior to her execution, she and her comrades experience visions of entering Heaven and specifics of how their deaths would be bestowed upon them. These visions provided comfort to the prisoners because they legitimized the belief in God, as well as sanctioned the power of God to perform miracles. As God willed it, Perpetua, the “most valiant and blessed martyrs”, was ultimately executed in the arena. The latter text, written in 17 AD by Roman historian, Livy, is a story of propaganda about the rape of a honorable woman named Lucretia. Lucretia, Tarquinius Conlatinus’s wife, was the quintessential example of a Roman martyr. She was applauded for her modest, hospitable, and dutiful nature. Tragically, she was forcibly raped by the emperor’s son, Sextus Tarquinius. Consequently, Brutus, Tarquinius, and Lucretia’s father, did not object while witnessing Lucretia commit suicide in order to preserve her and her family’s
In 1054, the Great Schism occurred between the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Christians, when the Pope first excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople. Not long after that, the Patriarch excommunicated the Pope, causing the split. There were many issues prior that created the Great Schism between the east and west both before and after 1054. It would appear from the documentation that the east had more issues with how the west conducted the church. The issues that caused the Schism between the two churches happened prior to 1054, but more issues occurred after the split.
Estep’s book, The Anabaptist Story, is a thoughtful and impartial account. The author is a delicate, careful, and insightful researcher. His book is the best well known level manufactured treatment of sixteenth century Anabaptist history. Generally this work makes a significant contribution to church history, helping the reader to see and admire the price which has been paid to win freedom for the congregation in our day.
St. Augustine was a theologian and philosopher born in Africa to St. Monica. Although he is now known as a an incredibly influential Christian writer and thinker, his early years were defined by rebellion and discord that did not, in the least, reflect Christianity or the values that he is now known for supporting. His early years were freckled with mindless disobedience, wretched behavior, and characterized godlessness that makes his conversion to the faith incredibly remarkable and one that is worth defining in Saint Augustine 's Confessions. His incredible turnaround from a faithless man to a devout supporter of Christianity is significant and is freckled with many major milestones that truly demonstrate his spiritual and internal growth into one of the biggest spiritual icons of the fifth century. These major milestones include his realization that his boyhood was defined by pointless rebellious behavior, even though he grew up in a Christian home, his new found appreciation for philosophy as well as God and his incredible mercy during his years as a student at Carthage,