The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia
Resistance and Resilience

In this sweeping history, Tibebe Eshete presents a new view of Ethiopian Christianity. Synthesizing existing scholarship with original interviews and archival research, he demonstrates that the vernacular nature of the Ethiopian church played a critical role in the development of a state church. He also traces the effects of the political on the religious: the growth of other “counter-cultural” movements in 1960s Ethiopia, such as renewal movements, youth discontentment, and the Marxist regime (under which the church still flourished). This strikingly authentic work refutes the thesis that evangelicalism was imported. Instead, Eshete shows, it was a genuine indigenous response to cultural pressures.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I:  The Ethiopian Orthodox Church

1:  From the Early Church to Early Modernity

2:  The Challenge of Modernity and the Need for Reform

Part II:  The Evangelical Church in Ethiopia

3:  The First Three Centuries of Reformed Missions

4:  The War Years and the Restoration (1936-1959)

5:  Post-War Mission Impulses

6:  Keys to Post-War Growth

Part III:  The Pentecostal Church

7:  The 1960s Rise of Pentecostalism

8:  Independence and Persecution

Part IV:  The Ethiopian Revolution (1974-1990)

9:  The Political Seeds of Revolution

10:  Early Church-State Relations under Communist Rule

11:  Ecumenism and Flexibility

12:  Underground “Free” Space and Lay Leadership

13:  The Commitment Factor and the Role of Resistance in Church Growth

14:  Evangelical Christianity and the Legacy of the Revolution

Conclusion

Informants

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Tibebe Eshete (Ph.D. Michigan State University) is Assistant Professor of History, Calvin College.  He is the recipient of the Compton Peace Fellowship Award 2003 and the Herbert C. and Mary L. Jackson Endowed Graduate Award in Arts and Letters 2004.  He is the author of The Silent Revolution: The Role of Community Development in Reducing the Demand for Small Arms (2000).