The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia: Resistance and Resilience

Conclusion

309 Conclusion Religious studies as a field of study and scholarly inquiry does not seem to have attracted many scholars in Ethiopia, notwithstanding the fact that religion has always been and is still a key factor in the sociocultural and economic life of Ethiopian society. In this book, I have outlined the historical evolution and development of the evangelical Christian movement in Ethiopia by exploring the various locales of its origin and growth areas, capturing the central elements of its dynamics, and identifying key actors who have significantly promoted its expansion. As much as possible, I have tried to situate the movement’s historical development in light of the nation’s sociocultural and political contexts. I have attempted to tell the story balancing the macro-historical conditions with the micro-contexts that incorporate grassroots dynamics and articulations. Such an approach posits the view that movements usually occur along fault lines pointing to deficiencies and weaknesses of sociocultural and political systems. By spelling out the historical antecedents of the evangelical movement and the extensive role of the indigenous actors in the expansion of the faith, I have placed a corrective emphasis on the popular notion that it is a foreign religion . This stance considers those who have willingly and sacrificially promoted the faith as recipients and mere transmitters of an imported faith. As the book’s title clearly indicates, what marks the rise and development of the evangelical movement in Ethiopia is its history of persecution and the persistent opposition it faced from established institutions, including state functionaries, that viewed it as foreign, unfamiliar, and heretical. The movement showed its resiliency by refusing to go away and 310 The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia ultimately becoming a vital spiritual and cultural expression of millions of Ethiopians who, for numerous reasons, sought to embrace alternative forms of Christian faith while remaining Ethiopians. Evangelical Christianity rose and developed in a society that has not experienced Enlightenment, in the Western sense of the word, rationalism , and religious renewals that would have fostered values that celebrate tolerance, the primacy of choice, and pluralism. This was chiefly because there has been an established Church that had a dominant influence in Ethiopian society, which was also closely tied with the state and has historically been disinclined to change or allow outside influences. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has been more than a religious institution; it is one of the most important institutions in the nation, with vast structures and influences. It has established much of the master narrative of Ethiopian society by setting the cultural delimiters, legislating norms, and defining national identity, and as such has prevented other forces (at least, until the Marxist revolution) from competing successfully in these roles and capacities. Evangelical Christianity has lived and grown in constant tension and conflict with an established Church and the religio-social norms that it has nurtured. The intriguing question that the work has tried to address is How did it succeed as a movement amid such challenges and oppositions? My study has shown that until the rise of an independent Pentecostal movement of a national strain in the 1960s, the rate of growth of the evangelical movement had been very slow, with the exception of the people’s movement of the south during the brief Italian interlude. Though statistics are hard to come by in Ethiopia, estimates from available records show that up until 1962, the total number of evangelical Christians in Ethiopia did not exceed the mark of 250,000, less than 1 percent of a total population of roughly 26 million. This figure jumps quickly in the early 1970s, when the number of evangelical Christians dramatically rose close to a million, and through the period of the revolution, when the number imperceptibly yet steadily increased to reach 4 million to 5 million by 1991.1 The primary thrust of this book has been to map out the main contours of the development of the evangelical Christian movement in Ethiopia by highlighting the historical, social, political, and global factors that shaped the pattern of its expansion, identifying the principal agencies that have decisively contributed to the growth process, and spelling out the wider socioreligious contexts in which it took a distinctively Ethiopian character. Conclusion 311 The earliest evangelical missionaries made attempts to work with the established Church with the hope of inspiring revival through literature distribution that would facilitate the teachings of the Bible. The...