Page 139 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

The Middle Ages

along the Zambezi River, it is said the mission baptized hundreds of
people. At this point, several questions come to mind. For example, “Why
did the Catholic missionaries of the Middle Ages fail to establish a lasting
church?” And “Where were the Protestant missionaries in the middle
ages?” In order to answer these questions we must look briefly at the
condition of the church in Europe during this era.

European Christianity in the Middle Ages

By the middle of the eighteenth century Roman Catholic missions in
Africa had declined and in some places disappeared completely. How do
we explain this failure? Here are some factors that contributed:

Syncretistic Christianity
Christianity in Europe had become syncretistic (a mix or blend of
religions). It was influenced by a type of European animism in which
the devil, evil forces, and an angry God were prevalent components.
Historian Adrian Hastings describes what this syncretistic form of
Christianity was like:

There was a vast multiplicity of local saints and protective relics
and holy places to turn to, but especially and increasingly Mary,
mostly a very localized Mary, Mary of somewhere. Mary alone
was always kind, never associated with punishment. Evil too was
often highly localized in witch or diabolical possession. (74)

A student of church history may recall that out of the conditions briefly
described and many more, the Protestant Reformation came about. In
A.D. 1517, Martin Luther nailed some statements and questions on the
door of the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Historians
mark this date as the beginning of the Protestant Christian movement.

In fact, the word Protestant implies that those involved were protesting
against some of the issues related to the church. As we have seen,
Catholic Portuguese missionaries had been going to Africa for many
years before A.D. 1517.

Slave Trade
The Portuguese—traders and missionaries—were associated with the
slave trade. We will address this issue in more detail later in the text.

::: 129 :::