Religion and University Education: Emergence of the Christian University Movement in Zambia

Abstract

This article explores the growth of the Christian university movement in Zambia to revisit the relationship between religion and education in the country. Informed by interpretivism and interpretive phenomenology, the insights for the study were gathered through interviews with purposively chosen Christian university representatives and document analysis. Layder’s adaptive theory and Geiger’s theorisations on the roles of private higher education informed the study. In addition, the concept of religious resource was used to make meaning of how the Christian churches had navigated through the university education landscape in Zambia. The article argues that contrary to the often ascribed reason of addressing the access to university education challenge, the emergence of the Christian university movement in Zambia had much to do with fulfilling the religious motives of the Christian churches, and therefore mirrored the dominance and influence of Christianity on Zambia’s religious landscape.