The Ethiopian Orthodox Church ir a fascinating study in indigenization. Its deep rootage in the lives of the people ir evidenced by the way in which the Church h a been preserved since the fourth century in spite of repeated threats from enemies within and outside of Ethiopia. The church has Christianized important aspects of Old Testament and Hebrew culture as well as certain remnants of primal religion. It adapted beliefs and symbols which reflected and reinforced African traditiom, and either absorbed or transfigured that which suited its purposes. The Ethiopian Church ir an indigenow church, not an indigenized one. The process of its indigenization ir described and important lessons from thir rather natural development are identified that help in understanding the importance of critical contextualization. The successes and failures of the Ethiopian Church provide perspective for contemporary attempts at contextualization.This study is significant for understanding African Christianity but also has missiological implications for the wider world.
The demise of the church in North Africa and Nubia and its survival in Egypt and Ethiopia has long fascinated church historians and missiologists. Allfour 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 significantfactor. 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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