Pragmatic Faith and the Tanzanian Lutheran Church: Bishop Erasto N. Kweka's Life and Work by Amy Stambach and Aikande Kwayu

Abstract

Reviewed by: Pragmatic Faith and the Tanzanian Lutheran Church: Bishop Erasto N. Kweka's Life and Work by Amy Stambach and Aikande Kwayu Gaylan Mathiesen Pragmatic Faith and the Tanzanian Lutheran Church: Bishop Erasto N. Kweka's Life and Work. By Amy Stambach and Aikande Kwayu. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2020. 150 pp. Both authors of this book are at the University of Wisconsin-Madison—Kwayu an honorary research fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Stambach the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology and faculty affiliate of the African Studies program. Their subject matter for this timely study is how a post-colonial church body in Africa managed to maintain independence and integrity, while holding an increasingly authoritarian state accountable to standards of justice and human rights. The authors tackle their subject through a biographical study of the life and work of the celebrated Bishop Erasto N. Kweka, who for over forty years led the Northern Lutheran Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) through his country's transition from colonialism to independence under a fledgling socialist government. Going beyond customary analyses of colonialism and Pentecostalism, their investigation provides the reader with unique and valuable insight into African religious life by examining the inseparability of Lutheran Christianity with everyday life in local communities, and the integration of doctrinal faith with worldly power. Key components in their analyses are the Lutheran doctrine of vocation, and what the authors call a "pragmatic faith." The first chapter is a detailed introduction to the anthropological foci and methods the authors used. One questionable feature surfaces in their explanations of certain tenets of Lutheran theology, which will at times sound foreign to Lutheran ears. For example, as non-Lutherans often do, they mistakenly ascribe to Lutherans the doctrine of consubstantiation (10), but the ELCT holds to the Lutheran doctrine of sacramental union as described in the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord and the unaltered Augsburg Confession. Chapter two quickly turns to the biographical by exploring Kweka's calling and the forces that shaped him to support independence [End Page 367] and the new socialist government. Thereafter, chapters demonstrate how Kweka led the church in contributing to civil governance without competing for power or territory. Summarized are the challenges he faced in leading the church to address the knotty problems surrounding the separation of church and state. As militant groups co-opted religion for their own ends and others furthered the ethnicization and politicization of religion for theirs, Kweka responded by strengthening ecumenical alliances and buttressing institutional connections with local congregations, working to bring the Tanzanian Lutheran Church back from the brink of factionalized violence. The authors have done readers a great service by surmounting the usual boundaries of Africa's transition to independence to show how a "pragmatic faith" can work to foster integrity in a nation's governance, especially in contexts of rising authoritarianism. The book is a must read for scholars of politics and religion and for students of African Christianity. Gaylan Mathiesen Lutheran Brethren Seminary Fergus Falls, Minnesota Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.