Abstract: This is the first major volume to chart the historical development and character of the whole Christian Church in Africa. Christianity provided the constitutive identity of historic Ethiopia from long before the fifteenth century, and from the nineteenth century it entered decisively into the life and culture of an increasing number of other African peoples. In the course of the twentieth century, African Christians have become a major part of the world church, and arguably, modern African history as a whole is not intelligible without its powerful Christian element. This book links together Ethiopian Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and the numerous ‘Independent’ churches of modern times, and focuses throughout on the role of conversion, the shaping of church life and its relationship to traditional values, and the impact of political power. The author also compares the relation of Christian history with the comparable development of Islam in Africa. The period covered, in fact, goes beyond 1950 into the 1950s, although this decade is not covered in detail, since it has already been dealt with in A History of African Christianity 1950–1975 (1979). The intention of the book is to end with some account of where the churches had reached on the eve of the collapse of colonialism. It is arranged to cover three main periods: (1) 1450–1780, a medieval environment; (2) 1780–1890, from the anti-slavery to total subjugation; and (3) 1890–1960, the Christianizing of half a continent.

Keywords: Africa, Christian Church, Christianity, Church, colonialism, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Orthodoxy, history, Islam, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism