Legacies and pitfalls amongst the African Evangelicals: A Kenyan experience from a historical perspective

Julius M Gathogo

doi:10.4102/hts.v78i3.6767

Abstract

The research study sets out to explore the contribution of the African Evangelicals in both the colonial and post-colonial Kenya to the social lives of the nation. Can’t it be viewed as a positive social influence or an ecclesiastical pitfall? In utilising a socio-historical design, it poses the question: how did the Evangelical European Missionaries demonstrate their theological and social influences in Kenya, and how did the post-missionary Evangelical-leaning leaderships play out? And was Muthirigu Dance an extremist reaction against the rigidity of the Evangelicals? Methodologically, this article will attempt to explore the Evangelical European Missionary Christianity, especially the Church Missionary Society that entered Central Kenya in the early 1900s, and assess the way in which they handled indigenous cultures of the local Africans. It has also attempted to critically explore their social influences in both colonial and post-colonial Kenya (1895–2021). The CMS has been given more emphasis in this article as an Evangelical society so as to help in bringing out the specific Evangelical activities in the Kirinyaga County of Kenya. Overall, the article has endeavoured to hypothesise that Eurocentrism was not the Evangelical problem, as there were diverse European missionaries, such as the High Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic and the Lutherans who were non-Evangelicals, and who were not necessarily dogmatic and rigid.Contribution: This study adhered to the HTS journal’s vision and scope by its focus on the histories of the Evangelical European Missionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries, their interactions with the local religio-cultures, and how it later played out amongst the Africans.

Highlights

Evangelicalism is the brand of Christianity that emerged from the ‘pietistic stream of the Reformed tradition; and its emphasis is on salvation through personal encounter with the risen Christ’ (Gathogo 2017:72)
This research article began by defining Evangelicalism as the brand of Christianity that places much emphasis on salvation through personal encounter with the risen Christ, on being ‘born again’, emphasis on the authority of the Bible as God’s revelation to humanity, the crossing of frontiers so as to reach out to the ‘lost world’, conversion and proselytising practices, highlighting on inerrancy of the Bible and overt ways of expressing their Christian faiths
It surveyed the Church Missionary Society (CMS) as an Evangelical strand, and surveyed the legacies and pitfalls amongst African Evangelicals with special reference to the colonial Kenya and the post-colonial Kenya, which is the critical issue under consideration

Summary

Introduction

Evangelicalism is the brand of Christianity that emerged from the ‘pietistic stream of the Reformed tradition; and its emphasis is on salvation through personal encounter with the risen Christ’ (Gathogo 2017:72). As implied in the above Lausanne Conference of 1974, where leading scholars from across the denominational divides turned up as key speakers, the Evangelical Christianity and/or Evangelical theology is not just for the mainline European led Protestants or missionary churches (refer to Anglicans, Presbyterians, Reformed, Baptists and http://www.hts.org.za the Methodists) and/or the African-Pentecostals1 (the African Redeemed Gospel, the Gospel Outreach, the Full Gospel and the Apostolic churches).

Results

Conclusion