A Brief History and Typology of the African Reformation

Abstract

This introductory essay elucidates the three phases of new African Christianity: Ethiopian churches, Zionist churches, and African Pentecostalism. In so doing, it provides a basic typology and history of the African Reformation, while simultaneously contextualizing the articles in this collection. Articles in this special issue, unlike much previous scholarship, explains African churches on their own internal terms, rather than external Western ones.