Independent Christian Research Articles

Sexual Violence on Religious Campuses

Religious colleges and universities make up a substantial segment of the higher education landscape in North America, but the incidence of sexual violence on these campuses remains understudied. This study estimates the incidence of sexual violence on independent Christian campuses using a sample of part-time and full-time undergraduate students (N = 668) from eight private Christian colleges in Ontario, Canada. Using two widely used measures of sexual violence enabled comparisons with studies of self-reported incidents at secular and public colleges and universities. The findings show that 18% of women at religious colleges reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact within the past year, compared to studies of self-reported rates on secular campuses ranging from 21.4% to 31.4%. Exploratory investigation of factors related to victimization suggests that religious colleges may provide a “moral community” that could reduce the risk of sexual violence.

Katrina B. Olds. Forging the Past: Invented Histories in Counter-Reformation Spain .

In 1572, Elizabeth I of England’s first Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, with a team of collaborators, published a massive work in Latin, entitled On the Antiquity of the British Church and the Privileges of the Church of Canterbury, with [biographies of] Seventy of its Archbishops. In 1595, a Jesuit scholar in Toledo, Jerónimo Román de la Higuera, published four supposed chronicles of early Spanish Christian history from Roman times to the late Middle Ages. The Spaniard claimed to have found them in a German monastic library at Fulda, and attributed them to Flavius Lucius Dexter, a contemporary of Saint Jerome (ca. 345–420), and his “continuators” Marcus Maximus, Luitprand, and Julián Pérez (1). Archbishop Parker’s intention was to demonstrate, using a wide range of documentary and archaeological evidence, that Britain, and later England, had been genuinely Christian from the very beginnings of that religion, and had done so without any intervention from the Popes of Rome. Thus Queen Elizabeth’s break with Rome in 1559 was historically justified, and her reformed Church of England was fully Catholic. In the Spain of Philip II and Philip III, Higuera’s purpose was very similar. His “Fulda” cronicones, as they were called, were intended to prove to his compatriots that their native land, too, had an authentic, independent Christian history, even though it remained under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic See of Rome.

A strong commitment: conforming a school identity at one compulsory faith school in a disadvantaged area

ABSTRACTThe focus of the present study is on how educators and students create a ‘sense of belonging’ and school identity. The ethnography was carried out at an independent Christian school with children and students aged six to sixteen years. This study’s aim is to contribute knowledge about how the identity of a school has become an important factor in the context of the marketisation of education. The identity of the school is articulated as a school with a Christian profile. Further, the results show how diversity and multiculturalism were downplayed. The school can thereby be interpreted as a way to avoid categorisation as an immigrant school. The identity as a Christian school symbolically lifts it from its socio-economic position in the urban geography. This identity becomes central to how the school is presented in an economic market of free school choice.

Działalność społeczna ks. Franciszka Blachnickiego

Rev. Franciszek Blachnicki (1921-1987) is counted among the people who in a special way influenced the shaping of the Polish society in the period of the Polish People’s Republic. He spent the Second World War as a prisoner in Auschwitz and other Nazi camps and prisons. After the war he entered the Seminary and in 1950 he started his pastoral work. In the years 1957-1960 he developed a temperance movement – The Temperance Crusade whose central office was located in Katowice. It published its own books and periodicals and it organized numerous actions and retreats. After the Crusade was abolished by the State authorities Rev. Blachnicki started liturgical and catechetic work, initiating the Oasis Movement in 1969. The participants in this movement adopted a style of life that was different from the one popular in the Polish People’s Republic. Despite difficulties created by the communist authorities the Light – Life Movement developed dynamically, gathering 78 thousand people in summer retreats at the end of the 1980s. Because of alcoholism and social demoralization that grew in the 1970s Rev. Blachnicki initiated another temperance movement in 1979 – The Crusade for the Liberation of Man. Seeing the hypocrisy of the communist system and the propaganda of a “broad social support” in March 1980 he appealed to the Oasis participants to boycott the “election” in the Polish People’s Republic and to think over their membership in the communist party and in other Marxist organizations. In the “Solidarity” period Rev. Blachnicki prepared a special program of evangelization retreats for working people. In November 1981 he initiated an association called the Independent Christian Social Service. In 1982, in emigration in Germany, he established the Christian Service for the Liberation of Nations. The association worked for the liberation of nations that lost their statehood or independence. Rev. Blachnicki’s dynamic work was stopped by his sudden death in February 1987.

Book Review: Swimming against the Tide: The New Independent Christian Schools and Their Teenage Pupils

Book Review: Swimming against the Tide: The New Independent Christian Schools and Their Teenage Pupils

Christianity 2014: Independent Christianity and Slum Dwellers

Christianity 2014: Independent Christianity and Slum Dwellers

Measuring the Contribution of Independent Christian Secondary Schools to Students' Religious, Personal, and Social Values

From the late 1960s independent Christian schools have emerged in England and Wales, initiated either by churches or by parents. Many of these new independent schools are linked through the Christian Schools Trust. The impact that these schools are exerting on their students may be of interest for the churches with which they are associated and of concern for wider society. The political debate concerning these schools has so far been informed by only a small number of empirical studies conducted in England and Wales. The present study extends previous research in three ways. It offers a comparative study by examining the responses of 271 year-nine and year-ten students (age 13 to 15 years) from 11 independent Christian schools with 20,348 students from 93 schools without a religious foundation. It examines a range of religious, social and personal values. It employs multilevel models to identify the contribution made by independent Christian schools after taking into account personal, psychological, and contextual differences within the students themselves. The hypothesis was that Christian schools were committed to developing distinctly Christian values among their students. The data supported this hypothesis. Even after allowing for differences in the religiosity of the students themselves, attendance at an independent Christian school was associated with higher self-esteem, greater rejection of drug use, lower endorsing of illegal behaviors, lower racism, higher levels of conservative Christian belief, and more conservative views on sexual morality (abortion, contraception, divorce, homosexuality, and sex outside marriage).

Religion and Interest in Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Since the 1980s, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced a major wave of democratization, and concurrent expansions of independent Christianity and Reformist Islam. Scholarly narratives about the relationship between religion and politics have alternated between emphasizing religion’s inclusive and divisive political potential. Using data from thirteen countries, we evaluate competing hypotheses arising from these narratives. Focusing on the grassroots level, we analyze the effects of religious identity, active religious membership, and education on political interest. We find that active religious membership positively shapes political interest in almost all countries. Yet contrary to extant elite-focused literature, we find no tradition to be uniformly more “political.” Further, religious identity and religious minority status frequently condition the effects of education on political interest. The effects of religion on interest in politics are therefore context-dependent, exhibiting both inclusive and divisive potential.

“Japan and Korea for Christ and His Church”: The Unexpected Success and Demise of the Yotsuya/William D. Cunningham Mission, a Mission of the Stone-Campbell Movement

The Yotsuya/William D. Cunningham Mission operated from 1901 to 1953 in Japan and Korea as a mission of the Independent Christian Church, a stream of the Stone-Campbell Movement, a Protestant reform movement that originated in the United States and known during its earlier years for its eschewal of denominationalism and emphasis on a return to biblical Christianity. The founders of the Mission, William D. Cunningham and his spouse Emily Boyd, sought to develop the Mission mainly as a Japan-based endeavor, with Korea as a subsidiary. But as the Mission developed, the Cunninghams unexpectedly discovered that they were more successful in Korean than in Japan, causing them to reorient their mission policy to cater more to Koreans. For a time, the Yotsuya/Cunningham Mission thrived, becoming the most successful mission of the Independent Christians in Japan. Following the death of Williams, however, the Mission fell on hard times and eventually folded, as it found itself embroiled in internal rivalries and unable to recover from the difficulties it experienced in the final years of Japanese rule in Korea, owing mainly to its refusal to embrace State Shintoism.

FREED SLAVES, MISSIONARIES, AND RESPECTABILITY: THE EXPANSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FRONTIER FROM ANGOLA TO BELGIAN CONGO

AbstractThis article extends the history of freed slaves from the well-studied areas of West Africa to the frontier between Angola and Belgian Congo. Originally enslaved by Ovimbundu traders in what became south-eastern Belgian Congo, these enslaved people became Christians through contact with Euro-American missions while labouring in Angola. Following the abolition of slavery in the Portuguese Empire in the 1910s, they returned to their home areas as Christian evangelists. In Belgian Congo, they helped to spread Christianity but clashed with missionaries over authority and respectability. Some struggled with the trauma of enslavement while others sought alternative routes to status and authority through participating in Independent Christian movements or assuming positions of traditional leadership.

Defining and Assessing Spiritual Health: A Comparative Study Among 13- to 15-Year-Old Pupils Attending Secular Schools, Anglican Schools, and Private Christian Schools in England and Wales

This article argues that the nation's commitment to young people involves proper concern for their physical health, their psychological health, and their spiritual health. In this context the notion of spiritual health is clarified by a critique of John Fisher's model of spiritual health. Fisher developed a relational model of spiritual health, which defines good spiritual health in terms of an individual's relationship to four domains: the personal, the communal, the environmental, and the transcendental. In the present analysis, we make comparisons between pupils educated in three types of schools: publicly funded schools without religious foundation, publicly funded schools with an Anglican foundation, and new independent Christian schools (not publicly funded). Our findings draw attention to significant differences in the levels of spiritual health experienced by pupils within these three types of schools.

Trying to Make Sense of History: Chinese Christian Traditions of Countercultural Belief and their Theological and Political Interpretation of Past and Present History

The dramatic changes occurring in China in recent years have made many intellectuals ask about history, its values, and its purpose. When Chinese Christians reflect about history they find themselves in a contradictory situation. They enjoy the fruits of tremendous social changes, yet they also experience ongoing hostility of the state. Equally, they recognise that social change is not only a blessing, but may also contribute to growing disintegration in society. This paper introduces three interpretations of Chinese history offered by independent Christian groups or individuals. They are attempts to make sense of history and the radical changes and emerging contradictions of the past years. The historical constructs try to shed light on the question where Christians stand in this process of change. The examples presented are (a) the Back to Jerusalem Movement (BJM), a strongly revivalist missionary movement, (b) Yuan Zhi Ming who became famous through a DVD, called China's Confession, and (c) Ren Bumei, a Christian intellectual. They all in different forms offer a political theology that shows a political assertiveness and outspokenness that is atypical of the independent Christian tradition in China. The article concludes that the three presented historical interpretations stand in continuity with a long countercultural history in China. They reflect an experience of powerlessness and a promise of empowerment that are both responses to the experience of life in a totalitarian state.

Mission's Changing Landscape: Global Flows and Christian Movements

AbstractSince Christianity is a world religion, changes in worldwide Christianity both reflect and affect global affairs and transnational issues. From its inception the IRM has demonstrated this in its holistic approach and global scope. In its pages are developments in the global landscape over the last one hundred years, although with significant shifts in the contributors. These developments include the breakdown of imperial Christendom and the rise of the present world order, how the people of the world are described and relate to one another, and the configuration of religions. Three trends in world Christianity impinge on contemporary mission: the rise of independent Christian movements and the migration of Christians result in an ever‐increasing plurality of Christian expression. In view of this, this article argues that mission should be contextual, mission theology expressed in pneumatological terms, and the church understood as a dynamic movement.

Do christian denominations exhibit higher rates of alcohol consumption? A study of Korean American women in California.

Although Korean American women show high levels of involvement in religious practices and high prevalence of alcohol consumption, no studies have assessed the association between religious denomination and alcohol intake among this group of women. This cross-sectional study examined the associations of religious denomination and religious commitment to alcohol consumption among Korean American women in California. Polychotomous regression models were used to provide estimates of the associations between religious denomination and religious commitment to alcohol consumption. Catholic Korean American women (OR 5.61 P < 0.01) and Independent Christian women (OR 4.87 P < 0.01) showed stronger associations to heavy alcohol consumption when compared to Conservative Christian Korean American women. Path analysis suggested that specific denominations had both direct and indirect effects on the outcome of interest, and that religious commitment and drinking models served as moderators for this phenomenon.

Evangelical Audiences and “Hollywood” Film: Promoting Fireproof (2008)

By any criteria, Evangelical Christians constitute a significant segment of the American population, but they have always been a difficult audience for the American film industry to target, because many Evangelicals view themselves as ideologically opposed to Hollywood – a fraught relationship often referred to as the “Culture Wars.” This essay uses the recent hit Fireproof (2008) to examine the complex relationship between Hollywood, Evangelical audiences and independent Christian film producers.

Religion and Development from Below: Independent Christianity in South Africa

AbstractMost of the literature on African independent churches (AICs) in South Africa has not paid much attention to their economic and developmental role. In contrast, this article will show how AICs are involved in important economic activities such as voluntary mutual benefit societies, savings clubs, lending societies, stokvels (informal savings funds), and burial societies that control millions of South African rand. In light of firsthand empirical research, this article investigates these kinds of activities, and analyses independent churches’ developmental role. This will allow us to better understand how these communities play a strong and supportive function among Africans in a deprived economic situation. In a period of socio-political transformation in South Africa, AICs are able to answer the needs of the people and their hunger to rebuild an identity. My major critique of classical research on AICs is the failure of the literature to address ‘social change’ in a theoretically adequate way, as something more than just descriptions of ‘traditional’ social structures away from interpretations of modernity.

The Cambridge History of Christianity , Vol. 4: Christianity in Western Europe c. 1100-c. 1500 (review)

Reviewed by: The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 9: World Christianities c. 1914-2000 Bill J. Leonard The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 9: World Christianities c. 1914-2000. Edited by Hugh McLeod. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2006. Pp. xviii, 716. $180.00.) Surveys of Christianity in the Modern Era are difficult to write and seldom attempted. This volume in The Cambridge History of Christianity series offers a superb overview of major movements, events, and challenges that impacted Christian churches in the twentieth century. The editor, Hugh McLeod, professor of church history at the University of Birmingham, has assembled an outstanding group of scholars who address specific eras, denominations, or ecclesiastical issues in creative and insightful ways. McLeod's introduction suggests that two "central themes" of the book focus on the fact that Christianity developed a worldwide presence during the twentieth century even as its European base experienced multiple crises politically and religiously. He notes that by century's end, the churches' power bases continued to be in the West (though shifting), and in spite of declines in Western secular societies, churches still exerted extensive influence. Essays explore these dynamics with particular attention to war, interfaith relationships, liberation movements, and changes in technology. Of particular importance are the chapters that explore the development of Christianity outside the West, materials often not found in a single volume. Part I explores "Institutions and Movements" including the papacy, ecumenism, colonialism/missions, Pentecostal/Charismatic movements and the growth of large independent Christian groups in Africa and Asia. The latter chapter, written by Allan Anderson and Edmond Tang, offers important distinctions between groups, noting, for example, that Chinese "house churches" are no monolithic movement, but reflect varying theological and liturgical differences. Part II surveys "Narratives of Change" that include chapters on the impact of the wars, the development of Christianity inside and outside the [End Page 120] West, and the rise of postcolonial identities in "mission" churches. Chapters on Christianity in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia are particularly helpful in distinguishing varying expressions of Christian belief and practice in specific regions. Part III details various issues related to "Social and Cultural Impact" that include liturgical developments Catholic and Protestant, relations between Christians and Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, along with debates related to sexuality, gender, economics, science, film, and the arts. Pirro Markkola, research fellow at the University of Tampere, Finland, provides two particularly insightful chapters dealing with "Patriarchy and Women's Emancipation" and "The Church as Women's Space." She rightfully observes that in spite of some more positive response to women in ministry, "the willingness of Protestant churches to recruit female clergy should not be exaggerated" (p. 560), a sobering reality as the twentieth-first century moves along. The chapter on "African Christianity: From the World Wars to Decolonization," written by Ogbu U. Kalu, is a particularly significant contribution to the volume, detailing the "ambiguities" of the missionary movements and certain endeavors that extended colonialism implicitly and explicitly. Kalu writes that after World War I "bush schools" became a "means of evangelization, rivalry, civilization, legitimization of colonial industrial policy, expansion into rural areas and domestication of Christian values" (p. 204). The essay examines the confrontation of cultures as missionary and indigenous churches responded to the African world. Kulu notes that there were only sixty-one African bishops out of 2500 at Vatican Council II. More recent appointments have extended that number significantly. Roswith Gerloff's chapter on the "African Diaspora in the Caribbean and Europe" is likewise insightful in part because this region of the world is often overlooked in survey texts and because of the materials it presents. As a Baptist, I was particularly grateful for the attention given to the black missionary George Liele and the work of the anti-slavery British Baptist missionary William Knibb, a pioneer in the efforts to stop the British slave trade. Gerloff's description of the Pentecostal Apostolic movement in the islands is also intriguing. In a chapter on Christianity's crisis in the West, Hugh McLeod suggests that "there are reasons for doubting" that Europe is a post-Christian region, and he offers a variety of sound reasons for his assertion...

Experiencing education in the new Christian schools in the United Kingdom: listening to the male graduates

The new independent Christian schools developed by parents and evangelical churches in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s remain controversial among both Christian and secular educators. In response to this controversy, the present study traced 106 men who had graduated from these schools between 1985 and 2003 and analysed their evaluation of the education they had received in these schools within four main themes: the quality of the education, the context of Christian and moral nurture, the quality of relationships (among the pupils, with the teachers and with the wider world) and preparation received for life after leaving school. Although there were some issues of criticism, the balance of opinion among the former pupils within all four areas was generally supportive of the new independent Christian schools, which were generally perceived as having prepared them well for life.

Religion and African Civil Wars

This volume contains an introduction and seven case studies by anthropologists,historians, and theologians. The papers were originally presented at a1999 conference on “Religion and Social Upheaval in Africa” in Denmark.As a result, some of the papers are somewhat out-of-date, although the questionsthey raise are, sadly, just as relevant as ever to the continent’s currentsituation.As Niels Kastfelt points out in his introductory essay, the authors rejectany approach that seeks to understand African civil conflicts in terms of a“New Barbarism,” an irrational manifestation of “tribal” or religious atavism.This strategy, which is perhaps most typical of journalistic accountsbut also finds some support among academics, clearly constitutes an obstacletoward any meaningful comprehension of the phenomena in question. Ina similar vein, they equally reject any notion of a “conflict of civilizations”or that African civil wars can be explained in terms of the incompatible religiousvalues of Christianity, Islam, and indigenous African religions.Rather, their papers provide a detailed account of the local context in a historicalperspective by focusing on the political, economic, and explicitlyreligious phenomena.Indeed, the lines of cleavage in many of these cases are not defined inreligious terms. As a result, the nature of the relationships between “religion”and the civil wars in question are so disparate that the volume does notquite hang together. For example, René Devisch’s paper on Kinshasa is notreally about civil war, but rather about the effects of the collapse of stateauthority and the formal economy, both of which unleashed rampant violencein the city but also led to the emergence of independent Christian healingcommunes as a sort of refuge ...

Independent Christian schools and pupil values: an empirical investigation among 13–15‐year‐old boys

Nineteen independent Christian schools participated in the teenage religion and values survey, contributing to the overall database of nearly 34,000 Year 9 and Year 10 pupils. The present analysis demonstrates that 13–15‐year‐old boys educated within independent Christian schools display a distinctive values profile, in comparison with pupils educated in state maintained non‐denominational schools.