Description
A great four-volume history that presents, in comprehensive perspective and within the limits of a single narrative, the various attempts to plant and develop Christianity in Africa. The method of presentation is chronological rather than regional, taking the whole story forward stage by stage rather than dealing completely with one region at a time. As Groves shows in his continental survey, Christianity is now in the midst of its third great attempt to occupy Africa.
Volume I (to 1840) deals with the land and its people; Christianity in the Apostolic Age; the early church in North Africa; Islam; slavery; the formation of Missionary Societies and the arrival of David Livingstone.
Volume II (1840-1878) covers the years in which the Christian faith – following the trail-blazing of Livingstone and Stanley in Central Africa and the Congo respectively – leaped ahead and became one of the formative factors in African life.
Volume III (1878-1914) continues the account of the European penetration into Africa and describes the effect of the ‘scramble for Africa’ on the work of the various Christian missions and the growth of the Christian Churches.
Volume IV (1914-1954) surveys the period after the First World War in which startling and momentous changes took place, with upheavals in African society which have permanently affected the spread and influence of Christianity, and goes up to the era of decolonisation, which created an entirely new social and political background for the churches.
About the Author
Dr Charles Pelham Groves was Professor of Missions at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. He served in Eastern Nigeria as a missionary for thirteen years and was President of the Society for African Church History.
Contents
Volume I: to 1840
Preface
1. The Land
2. The People
3. The Enterprise Begun: (A) Egypt
4. The Enterprise Begun: (B) North Africa
5. The Ordeal with Islam
6. The Crescent Across Africa
7. The Enterprise Renewed
8. A Period of Pause
9. Assault on Slavery
10. The Missionary Awakening
11. South African Development
12. West African Hopes
Index
Volume II: 1840-78
Preface
Part I: Reconnoitring for Advance: 1840-1858
1. The Attempt from the West
2. Contribution from the Carribean
3. Hope Restored
4. Probing from the East
5. The Thrust from the South
Part II: Pressing the Advantage: 1858-1878
6. Prelude to Progress
7. Developments in the North and West
8. Advances in the South and East
9. Livingstone’s Legacy
Index
Volume III: 1878-1914
Prefatory Note
Part I: Political Kalaidoscope: 1878-1896
1. Staking Europe’s Claims
2. Repercussions on Missions: (A) In German Colonies
3. Repercussions on Missions: (B) In French and British Spheres
4. Movement into Central Africa
5. Progress and Problems on the Perimeter
Part II: Under the New Order: 1896-1914
6. Acceleration of Advance
7. Obstacles and Delays
8. The Day of Promise
Index
Volume IV: 1914-54
Preface
1. War Over Africa: (A) Effect on Missions
2. War Over Africa: (B) Impact on Africans
3. Advance in the New Africa
4. A Difficult Decade
5. The Emerging Church
6. Word War Once More
7. Postwar Survey
8. Problematic Outlook
Appendix: List of Bible Translations in African Languages
Index
Corrigenda et Addenda – Vols I-III
