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European, not the least Scandinavian, mission societies have played an important role in shaping modern Ethiopia and Eritrea. In spite of this the long-term impact on Ethiopian society by European missions has not yet received much attention. The predominance of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in society and nation makes Ethiopia an exception in the history of European missions, and raises questions of an ecumenical character, which need more attention. Present tension in Ethiopia between Orthodox and Evangelicals, and the tendency to identifiy Christian affiliation with ethnic identity, contribute to make this an urgent matter. The present volume presents the papers delivered at a symposium on these questions held at Lund University in August 1996. They include discussions on the justification of foreign missionary activity in a country already Christian, the impact of the Catholic missionary enterprise of the 16th and 17th centuries, the colonial context of late 19th century missionary activity, the impact of the Europeans on social and intellectual developments, the struggle of the Ethiopian Catholics for an Ethiopian identity in the face of latinization and colonial interests and the question of European influence on structure and leadership in the Evangelical Churches.
List of contents
Contents: Getatchew Haile: The Missionary's Dream: An Ethiopian Perspective on Western Missions in Ethiopia - Richard Gray: The Missionary Factor: An African Perspective - Taddesse Tamrat: Evangelizing the Evangelized: The Root Problem between Missions and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church - Merid Wolde Aregay: The Legacy of Jesuit Missionary Activities in Ethiopia - Sven Rubenson: The Missionary Factor in Ethiopia: Consequences of a Colonial Context - Samuel Rubenson: The Interaction between the Missionaries and the Orthodox: the Case of Abune Selama - Donald Crummey: The Politics of Modernization: Protestant and Catholic Missionaries in Modern Ethiopia - Ezra Gebremedhin: Aleqa Taye: The Missionary Factor in his Scholarly Work - Tekeste Negash: The Catholic Mission and the Catholic Community in Eritrea, 1894-1950 - Ayele Teklehaymanot: The Struggle for the «Ethiopianization» of the Roman Catholic Tradition - Johnny Bakke: Models of Leadership in Ethiopia: The Missionary Contribution - Eskil Jonsson: The Missionary Factor in the Institutionalization of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus - Aasulv Lande: Evangelical Mission in Ethiopia - Why an Ecumenical Failure?
About the author
The Editors: Getatchew Haile is Regents Professor of Medieval Studies and Cataloguer of Ethiopian Manuscripts at the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota (USA). He is a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and former Associate Professor of Ethiopian Languages and Literature at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Aasulv Lande is Professor of Missiology and Ecumenical Theology at the Faculty of Theology, Lund University, Sweden. He is of Norwegian background and has taught as Lutheran Lecturer at the then Mission Department of the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. His particular research field is the history and theology of interfaith encounters.
Samuel Rubenson is Associate Professor of Church History at the Faculty of Theology, Lund University. He was born and brought up in Ethiopia and has studied in Germany and Egypt. His fields of research are Patristics and the History and Theology of Oriental Christianity.
