With over four million members, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) is one of the major denominations in Kenya. It was established in 1946 after the Gospel Missionary Society (GMS) from the United States of America and the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM) from Scotland merged. The two missionary societies had been working independently in central Kenya since 1898. Consequently the GMS became the only mission in Kenya that failed to leave behind its own functioning self-propagating, self-governing, and self-supporting church with links to its American mother church. The Presbyterian Church of East Africa is, therefore, a study of the missionary work of the GMS from its inception in 1895 to 1946 when it merged with the CSM in order to establish why the mission gave up the struggle to establish its own church when victory seemed imminent. The book also uses the GMS as a case study to analyze not only how Christian missions in colonial Africa struggled to win souls for Jesus Christ, but also some of the major problems that they encountered and how they tried to solve them.

Christian Spirituality in Africa holistically approaches the convergence of East/West, and Christian/Traditional African religions. Its theological, historical, and anthropological perspectives contribute to a balanced understanding of Christian spirituality/transformation in an African context.

From the 1930s the East African Revival influenced Christian expression in East Central Africa and around the globe. This book analyses influences upon the movement and changes wrought by it in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Congo, highlighting its impact on spirituality, political discourse and culture. A variety of scholarly approaches to a complex and changing phenomenon are juxtaposed with the narration of personal stories of testimony, vital to spirituality and expression of the revival, which give a sense of the dynamism of the movement. Those yet unacquainted with the revival will find a helpful introduction to its history. Those more familiar with the movement will discover new perspectives on its influence.

Containing more than 300 articles, covering the alphabetical entries P-Sh, this book also includes articles on significant topics ranging from Paul, political theology and the Qur'an, to religious liberty, salvation history and scholasticism.

As its name implies, the Reformed tradition grew out of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The Reformed churches consider themselves to be the Catholic Church reformed. The movement originated in the reform efforts of Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) of Zurich and John Calvin (1509-1564) of Geneva. Although the Reformed movement was dependent upon many Protestant leaders, it was Calvin's tireless work as a writer, preacher, teacher, and social and ecclesiastical reformer that provided a substantial body of literature and an ethos from which the Reformed tradition grew. Today, the Reformed churches are a multicultural, multiethnic, and multinational phenomenon. Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches, Third Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 1,000 cross-referenced entries on leaders, personalities, events, facts, movements, and beliefs of the Reformed churches. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about reformed churches.

Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival shows how, in the era of African political independence, cosmopolitan Christian converts struggled with East Africa's patriots over the definition of culture and community. The book traces the history of the East African Revival, an evangelical movement that spread through much of eastern and central Africa. Its converts offered a subversive reading of culture, disavowing their compatriots and disregarding their obligations to kin. They earned the ire of East Africa's patriots, who worked to root people in place as inheritors of ancestral wisdom. This book casts religious conversion in a new light: not as an inward reorientation of belief, but as a political action that opened up novel paths of self-narration and unsettled the inventions of tradition.

All of it happened. It was hard for author Terry Dykstra to believe. Yet if she could not believe it, she had her memoir to prove it to herself. She dreamed of becoming a missionary in Africa, and the dream came true. Orphaned and vulnerable children were fed and educated. Grace rose up and walked. A university soared on the wings of eagles. Abused women fought back with political clout. A teenaged girl jumped over puddles of blood escaping ethnic violence. HIV/AIDS stalked the land. Eager, bright, and beautiful Kenyan students became skilled and loving Christian pastors. Violence and crime and corruption were commonplace. Missionary friends were gunned down and killed. Yet the persistent light of the Christian faith remains a beacon of hope in Kenya. The American and Scottish missionaries who arrived in Kikuyu one hundred years ago would be proud of the Kenyan Christians who continue to carry the torch. They clothe the naked, feed the hungry, bind up the wounds, and preach the good news to the poor. Down through the ages, the work of Christians goes on from generation to generation, from continent to continent. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. Terry witnessed the Church in action in Kenya, and she was humbled and blessed.

In 1905, Westminster Press published History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World by church historian Richard Clark Reed (1851–1925). Reed’s book, intended as a textbook for college and seminary students, covered the history of churches that subscribed to Presbyterian polity from the New Testament era to the beginning of the twentieth century. Based on Reed’s original work as well as an unpublished manuscript by Presbyterian historian Thomas Hugh Spence Jr. (1899–1986), Presbyterian and Reformed Churches: A Global History picks up the story of Presbyterian and Reformed churches where the earlier works left off. In this volume, James McGoldrick revises and updates Reed’s and Spence’s original, historically relevant works, continuing the survey to the twenty-first century. Each chapter traces the history of Presbyterian and Reformed churches in individual nations and regions around the globe. The author covers the major events, leaders, and institutions influencing Presbyterian and Reformed church history in a readable style that is ideally suited for classroom study as well as for independent reading. A list of suggested additional readings concludes each chapter. Nations/regions covered: Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and other European nations Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales United States Mexico and Central America Caribbean Basin South America Africa Middle East India Indochina and Southeast Asia China Korea, Japan, and lesser Pacific Islands

DIVDIVDIVThe first single-volume history of Reformed Protestantism from its sixteenth-century origins to the present/div/div/div