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Christianity in Africa arrived in Africa in the 1st century AD, and in the 21st century the majority of Africans are Christians. [1] Several African Christians influenced the early development of Christianity and shaped its doctrines, including Tertullian, Perpetua, Felicity, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo.
Christian activity in Africa began in the 1st century when the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt was formed as one of the four original Patriarchs of the East (the others being Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem). However, the Islamic conquest in the 7th century resulted in a harsh decline for Christianity in Northern Africa.
Religion in Africa is multifaceted and has been a major influence on art, culture and philosophy. Today, the continent's various populations and individuals are mostly adherents of Christianity, Islam, and to a lesser extent several traditional African religions. [2]
There are thousands of African-initiated churches (more than 10,000 in South Africa alone), and each one has its own characteristics. Ecclesiologists, missiologists, sociologists, and others have tried to group them according to shared characteristics, though disagreements have arisen about which characteristics are most significant and which taxonomy is most accurate.
African Pentecostals have also seen traditional culture as custodians to idolatry and the occult. [20] However, recent evangelicals have begun to wrestle with the quest of developing a Christian theology which has African context in mind. In this direction, African evangelicals have taken initiative to develop an African biblical commentary. [21]
The Syriac Christian missions also served as permanent centers of Christian learning in which Syriac speaking monks finally began to translate the Bible and other religious texts from Greek and Aramaic into Ethiopic so that their Ethiopian converts could actually read Scripture. These translations were vital to the spread of Christianity, no ...
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2011, Nigeria had the largest Christian population of any country in Africa, with more than 80 million people in Nigeria belonging to various denominations. [2] Christianity is the majority religion in the southern and central regions of Nigeria. [3]
St. Augustine. The name early African church is given to the Christian communities inhabiting the region known politically as Roman Africa, and comprised geographically somewhat around the area of the Roman Diocese of Africa, namely: the Mediterranean littoral between Cyrenaica on the east and the river Ampsaga (now the Oued Rhumel ()) on the west; that part of it that faces the Atlantic Ocean ...