The role of religion in social change : the arrival of Christianity among the Dii people in Adamawa, Northern Cameroon (1934-1960)

Originally published in: Svensk missionstidskrift = Swedish missiological themes, vol. 93(2005) p. 479-503, see http://www.teol.uu.se/digitalAssets/6/6185_SMT4_05.pdfThe main interest in this article is to analyse the social changes that occurred when the Norwegian missionaries introduced the Dii-people in Northern Cameroon to Christianity. It was an encounter where the Dii took an active part and employed to good purpose the alliance with the missionaries, by gaining increased political independence, by receiving western education and by strengthening their ethnic identity. Many questions about the transformation of the Dii society, about their spiritual reorientation and the development of ethnic identity, are yet to be answered. The Dii, however, were not merely passive ”victims” of aggressive Protestant missionaries; they took an active part in forming their future in a period of considerable social change. The ”religious breakthrough” initiated by the missionaries was used by the Dii to promote freedom of religion, and they were thus liberated to choose the road towards modernity that fitted them best, whether their focus was on the Christian or the Islamic religion or on the mainly secular western education

The cross and the crescent in East Africa : an examination of the reasons behind the change in Christian-Muslim relations in Tanzania 1984-1994

Hovedfagsoppgave i kristendom ved MenighetsfakultetetsubmittedVersio

African migrant christianities - Delocalization or relocalization of identities? Kap. 11

I: Lauterbach, K., & Vähäkangas, M. (Eds.). (2020). Faith in African Lived Christianity: Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives.African migrant Christianity is a field that has been attracting increased academic interest in recent decades. Numerous studies within anthropology and theology have discussed the topic in general and activities connected with it in different countries in particular. In addition, the theme has been studied as a transnational field where the relationship between the soil of the ancestors and the new homeland has been brought to the fore. This chapter highlights two particular aspects of epistemological and ontological interest in order to address the question of how anthropology and theology can come into dialogue: firstly, through analysis of how technology influences human behavior, permits simultaneity, and affects Christian discursive practices in transnational and transcultural relations; secondly, by looking at how migration and the new media affect identity construction for the individual believer. The chapter will start by highlighting some of the globalizing processes that have influenced the development of various African Christianities and, in particular, the activities of the Nigerian-based Redeemed Christian Church of God (rccg) in Norway. Of special interest is how technological media and new forms of communication – in particular through the Internet and social media – generate simultaneity in religious practices and facilitate the development of congregations across long distances. The second section of the chapter deals with the relationship between migration, identity construction, and religion, focusing in particular on theories of identity construction linked to religious practices in diaspora churches. Towards the end of the chapter recent developments among African transnational churches are discussed within the framework of technology and forms of identity-making. How do technological innovations influence the individual, and how do questions of technology and migration affect theology, understood as religious discursive practices? Does the intensified use of the Internet and social media favor theories of delocalized identities, or could it be argued that it leads to a relocalization of identities through transnational Pentecostal networks?publishedVersio

The cross and the crescent in East Africa : an examination of the reasons behind the change in Christian-Muslim relations in Tanzania 1984-1994

Hovedfagsoppgave i kristendom ved MenighetsfakultetetsubmittedVersio