Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781850659341
Category : Christianity
Languages : en
Pages : 283
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Book Description
Since independence in 1963, Kenya has been a classic personalised patronage state, run by a corrupt elite for its own benefit, as became tragically evident in December 2007's stolen election and its aftermath. Kenya is also said to be 80 percent Christian. Under the bland label 'Kenyan Christianity', several different overlapping realities can be distinguished, and it is these which Gifford investigates in this book, relating them to the country's politics and public life. The politically engaged form that challenged the dysfunctional one-party state in the early 1990s is given due prominence, but Gifford contends that today the mainline churches, both Catholic and Protestant, are marked less by such political engagement than by their involvement in development, in which foreign missionaries and global networks play a huge role. The theology of Kenya's mainline churches is consciously focused on African culture, as a non-negotiable foundation, and the Catholic church has an additional agenda - to Africanise its religious congregations. Kenya is also noted for its rich variety of African indigenous Churches, all originating in a defence of Kenyan cultures, while in recent decades countless Pentecostal churches have also sprung up. They range from affluent middle class churches to refuges for the poor, but nearly all are characterised by a stress on power, success, achievement and prosperity that prioritises modernity rather than traditional culture. Gifford discusses their deployment of the media, crusades, organisation, theology and use of the Bible, and above all the economics that has made this phenomenon possible. Yet another distinct form is an enchanted Christianity in which demons or spiritual forces are deemed responsible for almost everything
Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher: C. HURST & CO. PUBLISHERS
ISBN: 9781850653356
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390
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Book Description
This text analyzes African Christianity in the mid-1990s, against the background of the continent's current social, economic and political circumstances. Paul Gifford employs concepts taken from political economy to shed light on the current dynamics of African churches and churchgoers, and assesses their different contributions in political developments since 1989. He also evaluates the Churches' role in promoting a civil society in Africa. Four detailed case-studies - Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and Cameroon - cover all strands of Christianity: Catholic, Evangelical, mainline Protestant, Pentecostal and Independent. These serve as detailed analyses of the state of the churches in each country and suggest more general patterns operating widely across sub-Saharan Africa.
Author: Adriaan van Klinken
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271085606
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
Popular narratives cite religion as the driving force behind homophobia in Africa, portraying Christianity and LGBT expression as incompatible. Without denying Christianity’s contribution to the stigma, discrimination, and exclusion of same-sex-attracted and gender-variant people on the continent, Adriaan van Klinken presents an alternative narrative, foregrounding the ways in which religion also appears as a critical site of LGBT activism. Taking up the notion of “arts of resistance,” Kenyan, Christian, Queer presents four case studies of grassroots LGBT activism through artistic and creative expressions—including the literary and cultural work of Binyavanga Wainaina, the “Same Love” music video produced by gay gospel musician George Barasa, the Stories of Our Lives anthology project, and the LGBT-affirming Cosmopolitan Affirming Church. Through these case studies, Van Klinken demonstrates how Kenyan traditions, black African identities, and Christian beliefs and practices are being navigated, appropriated, and transformed in order to allow for queer Kenyan Christian imaginations. Transdisciplinary in scope and poignantly intimate in tone, Kenyan, Christian, Queer opens up critical avenues for rethinking the nature and future of the relationship between Christianity and queer activism in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa.
Author: George Kalantzis
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830896201
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 243
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Book Description
George Kalantzis and Gregory W. Lee edit twelve essays that explore the topic of Christian political witness, originally presented at the 2013 Wheaton Theology Conference. Contributors include Stanley Hauerwas, Mark Noll, William Cavanaugh, Peter Leithart and Scot McKnight.
Author: B. Knighton
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230100511
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
Addresses the various political aspects of the Kenyan political mosaic during the time of Bishop David Gitari, later Archbishop 1997-2002. These essays focus on both this courageous man and the various aspects of the political mosaic in Kenya at that time to 2008, in an effort to bring out the religious dimensions of Kenyan and African politics.
Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198815697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 786
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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Kenyan Politics provides a comprehensive and comparative overview of the Kenyan political system as well as an insightful account of Kenyan history from 1930 to the present day.
Author: Mwenda Ntarangwi
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252040061
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
To some, Christianity and hip hop seem antithetical. Not so in Kenya. There, the music of Julius Owino, aka Juliani, blends faith and beats into a potent hip hop gospel aimed at a youth culture hungry for answers spiritual, material, and otherwise. Mwenda Ntarangwi explores the Kenyan hip hop scene through the lens of Juliani's life and career. A born-again Christian, Juliani produces work highlighting the tensions between hip hop's forceful self-expression and a pious approach to public life, even while contesting the basic presumptions of both. In The Street Is My Pulpit, Ntarangwi forges an uncommon collaboration with his subject that offers insights into Juliani's art and goals even as Ntarangwi explores his own religious experience and subjective identity as an ethnographer. What emerges is an original contribution to the scholarship on hip hop's global impact and a passionate study of the music's role in shaping new ways of being Christian in Africa.
Author: Charles E. Farhadian
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405182482
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
This interdisciplinary introduction offers students a truly global overview of the worldwide spread and impact of Christianity. It is enriched throughout by detailed historic and ethnographic material, showing how broad themes within Christianity have been adopted and adapted by Christian denominations within each major region of the world. Provides a comprehensive overview of the spread and impact of world Christianity Contains studies from every major region of the world, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, the North Atlantic, and Oceania Brings together an international team of contributors from history, sociology, and anthropology, as well as religious studies Examines the significant social, cultural, and political transformations in contemporary societies brought about through the influence of Christianity Discusses Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox forms of the faith Features useful maps and illustrations Combines broader discussions with detailed regional analysis, creating an invaluable introduction to world Christianity
Author: Duncan B. Forrester
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521556118
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
Disagreements about justice are not simply academic matters. They create problems for practice and for policy-making. In a morally fragmented society in which 'nobody knows what justice is' issues such as wages policy, punishment and poverty become particularly difficult to handle. People striving to act justly are often uncertain how this might be done. Secular theories such as those of Rowls, Hayek, Habermas and modern feminist theorists, examined here, give some guidance for problems of justice that arise on the ground, but have serious limitations. This book argues that Christian theology, although it can no longer claim to provide a comprehensive theory of justice, can provide insights into justice - 'theological fragments' - which give illumination, challenge some aspects of the conventional wisdom, and contribute to the building of just communities in which people may flourish in mutuality and hope.
Author: Chima Jacob Korieh
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761831402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
Religion, History, and Politics in Nigeria is concerned with the problematic nature of religion and politics in Nigerian history. The book provides a lively and straightforward treatment of the relationship among religion, politics, and history in Nigeria, and how it affects public life today. By adopting various cultural, historical, political, and sociological perspectives, the text's contributors provide an excellent introduction to the volatile mix of religion and politics in Nigerian history, as well as a range of strategic choices open to religious adherents. The complexity of the relationship among religion, history, and politics is organized around four themes: indigenous values and the influence of Islam and Christianity, colonialism and religious transformation, the religious landscape of the post-colonial period, and the rise of evangelism and fundamentalism. The volume provides an insightful guide to contemporary history, contemporary religion, and contemporary politics, enabling the reader to reach informed and balanced judgments about the role in religion in Nigerian history and politics. This opens the door for serious examination and debate, and will be excellent for use by the general reader and in political science, history, and religion courses.
