No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
The Early Charismatic Movement in the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church
Abstract
The Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church (KHC), which is an outgrowth of the Evangelical SIM missionaries, has the largest following of Evangelical Christians in Ethiopia, comprising over 7 million members. For the most part of its history, the Church has kept the doctrinal identity of its forebears and remained closed to the influences of Pentecostalism. Today, the picture has changed as most of the churches under its umbrella - both in the rural and urban areas - have become vibrantly Charismatic. What has transpired to bring about this change? This paper is an attempt towards offering an explanation. In doing so, it seeks to locate the primary impulse of the spread of the Charismatic movement in the KHC at a Christian fellowship called Hebret Amba (HA), which was established by students from Haile Selassie I University. Contributing to the spread of the Charismatic movement in KHC are the youthful and progressive nature of HA's leadership (and its congregation), and the unique role that pastor Gosaye played in bringing his Pentecostal experiences from his Full Gospel Believers' Church (FGBC, or Mulu Wongel) background to the Church. I seek to capture the bigger idea of the diffusion of Pentecostalism in the KHC within the framework of two interrelated concepts; namely, "nekekit" (literally, touch-touching), conceptually translated as interactionism/ intersectionism, and the "Mulu Wongel repertoire".
... Apart from ongoing work on textual traditions and new ap-proaches to ritual, many studies have produced new views on the varieties of everyday religious practice, the materialities of religion, and personal religious experiences and changes due to conversion. This is evident in, among other studies, recent publications on Evangelical-Pentecostal beliefs in Ethiopia, which have greatly increased since the early 1990s (see, for example, Haustein 2011aHaustein , 2011bFreeman 2012;Haustein and Fantini 2013;Tibebe Eshete 2013). Some view the growth of this faith in an already majority-Christian country as unexpected, but that would be a superficial judgment on the dynamics of religion in a modernizing society. ...
This essay discusses the continued importance that religion
holds in African life, not only in terms of numbers of believers, but also
regarding the varieties of religious experience and its links with politics
and the “public sphere(s)”. Coinciding with the wave of democratization
and economic liberalization efforts since about 1990, a notable growth of
the public presence of religion and its political referents in Africa has
been witnessed; alongside “development”, religion will remain a hot issue
in the future political trajectory of the continent. Its renewed presence in
public spheres has also led to new understandings of what religion means
and how it figures into both “world-making” and identity politics. This
will prolong the challenges associated with the role and status of religion
in the “secular state model” found in most African countries. Can these
states, while “besieged” by believers, maintain neutrality among diverse
worldviews, and if so, how? The paper discusses these issues in a general
manner with reference to African examples, some taken from fieldwork
by the author, and makes a philosophical argument for the development
of a new kind of “secular state” that can respect the religious commitments
of African populations.
... Apart from ongoing work on textual traditions and new ap-proaches to ritual, many studies have produced new views on the varieties of everyday religious practice, the materialities of religion, and personal religious experiences and changes due to conversion. This is evident in, among other studies, recent publications on Evangelical-Pentecostal beliefs in Ethiopia, which have greatly increased since the early 1990s (see, for example, Haustein 2011aHaustein , 2011bFreeman 2012;Haustein and Fantini 2013;Tibebe Eshete 2013). Some view the growth of this faith in an already majority-Christian country as unexpected, but that would be a superficial judgment on the dynamics of religion in a modernizing society. ...
This essay discusses the continued importance that religion holds in African life, not only in terms of numbers of believers, but also regarding the varieties of religious experience and its links with politics and the "public sphere(s)". Coinciding with the wave of democratization and economic liberalization efforts since about 1990, a notable growth of the public presence of religion and its political referents in Africa has been witnessed; alongside "development", religion will remain a hot issue in the future political trajectory of the continent. Its renewed presence in public spheres has also led to new understandings of what religion means and how it figures into both "world-making" and identity politics. This will prolong the challenges associated with the role and status of religion in the "secular state model" found in most African countries. Can these states, while "besieged" by believers, maintain neutrality among diverse worklviews, and if so, how? The paper discusses these issues in a general manner with reference to African examples, some taken from fieldwork by the author, and makes a philosophical argument for the development of a new kind of "secular state" that can respect the religious commitments of African populations.
This article discusses religious conversion in Sidaama, Ethiopia, 1891-1974. The Sidaama area is in Southern Ethiopia, southeast of Lake Hawassa and northeast of Lake Abaya in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Most of the population belongs to the ethnic group Sidaama, speakers of the Cushitic language Sidaamu Afoo. The region became incorporated into the Ethiopian Empire during the twentieth century. The article will first provide a historical overview of religious change in the area. Next, the paper will present theoretical approaches to religious conversion. The article's main content focuses on the interreligious encounter between the indigenous Sidaama religion and varieties of christianity. The paper will discuss how the interreligious encounter initiated a process of conversion to Christianity. The conversion process occurred at the intersection between indigenous Sidaama converts and various forms of Christianity and was influenced by internal social tensions and inequalities in Sidaama.
Research on the economic effects of African Christianity has mainly focused on Pentecostalism. The dominant opinion of this literature is that Pentecostalism stimulates economic activity and supports economic development. This article looks beyond Pentecostalism by discussing the case of an Evangelical church in southern Ethiopia. Covering a period of two decades, I trace a shift in the relation between Evangelicalism and local aspirations for economic development. Initially seen as a means to achieve religious ends, the pursuit of development has recently been problematized as a source of social and spiritual ills. The church now discourages excessive participation in the commercial economy, and dedicated Evangelicals relinquish economic opportunities that they fear could lead them into sin. This shows that while Christianity can stimulate processes of economic development it can also constrain these, motivating people to renounce the quest for wealth in favour of other values.
The aim of the paper is to test the importance of social networks in the acquisition of technical know-how among apple growers in Southern Ethiopia. What contribution do social networks make in knowledge transfer alongside more formal sources such as training and education? We take special interest in the role of faith-based networks, as apple cultivation was originally introduced into the study area by individuals and organizations linked to the Protestant church. The network effect is proxied by the frequency of contact of an individual producer (‘ego’) with his/her most salient resource persons (‘alters’) as well as the number of visits to their orchards. We find a positive relation between both types of social interaction and knowledge acquisition, although the efficacy of these varies with the producers’ level of education. Protestant producers have been able to maintain a knowledge advantage with respect to Orthodox Christian producers ever since apple cultivation took off in the 1990s.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.