Evangelicalism in Africa: What it is and what it does

Abstract

Evangelicalism is experiencing spectacular growth on the African continent. However definitions of Evangelicalism continue to be dominated by a western understanding of the phenomenon. An African understanding of Evangelicalism as well as African examples need to feature in discussions of the topic. Evangelicalism in Africa should be understood more by what it does for its adherents than by its doctrinal formulations. Its success on the sub-continent of Africa could be due to the fact that it transacts at the interface of a modern and pre-modern worldview. It meets the needs that an African condition creates and opens the way to what a modern condition demands. It resonates both with the spirituality of Africa and the materialism and individualism of modernity and provides its adherents the sense of agency demanded in the modern world but which is opaque and complex in an African universe. It translates in various and diverse ways, both positively and negatively, into the social, economic, and political structures of African society.