The Demise of the Church in North Africa and Nubia and Its Survival in Egypt and Ethiopia: A Question of Contextualization?

Abstract

The demise of the church in North Africa and Nubia and its survival in Egypt and Ethiopia has long fascinated church historians and missiologists. All four churches had sustained encounters with Arab nationalism and Muslim religious expansion. Two churches lost their soul, and two were preserved. To what extent were demise or survival conditioned by external factors or internal factors? The author suggests that the degree of contextualization was a very significant factor. Churches that were rooted in local culture withstood the threat of Islam, but where faith was too dependent upon outside sources or colonial elites from within, it was not adequately owned and, therefore, succumbed to Islamic pressure.

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