"Hot Religion" in Africa
In 1900, three-quarters of Africans identified themselves as members of a traditional African folk religion. Christianity and Islam were marginal faiths. Today, however, about 90 percent of Africans say they are either Christian or Muslim, according to a report published this month by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life with the support of a $793,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
The Pew-Templeton survey of 19 sub-Saharan African nations provides an in-depth portrait of the continent's religious trajectory. “There is no God-forsaking place in Africa,” says Luis Lugo, the Pew Forum’s director, who notes that Africa is, by far, the most religious continent. Roughly 75 percent of respondents said that religion is “very important” in their lives. Even the least religiously observant African nation, Botswana, reports a higher degree of religious engagement than the most religious industrialized country, the United States.
The style of religion practiced in Africa is “very intense, immediate and personal,” the report found. Large numbers of both Christians and Muslims anticipate a momentous religious event in their lifetime, with Christians believing that they will see the return of Jesus to earth and Muslims expecting the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate (that is, divinely mandated government). Lugo calls this “hot religion.”
There is relatively little movement between the two monotheistic faiths, the Pew-Templeton survey found, so neither can expect to grow much by conversion. Majorities of Christians and Muslims acknowledge knowing very little about one another, but large numbers of each group view the other as “honest, respectful of women, devout, and tolerant.” Many respondents said that they trust people of the other faith and report that their own churches and mosques work across religious lines to solve social problems.
Still, there is plenty of tension between the two faiths, particularly along the fault line where the heavily Muslim north meets the heavily Christian south. In some of these nations, more than a third of Christians say that they face hostility from many or most Muslims in their country. And in 17 of the 19 countries, 40 percent or more of the population voiced concern over religious extremism.
Kimon Sargeant, vice president of human sciences at the Templeton Foundation, notes that, despite the expectations of sociologists, the global influence of religion grew markedly in the 20th century and shows no sign of abating, least of all in Africa. “The results from the survey show how prevalent, paradoxical, and promising religion is in Africa,” Sargeant said. “The tensions and conflicts between Muslims and Christians are likely to increase, but informed understanding of different religions will also increase.”
The Africa survey is the second major study released as part of the Pew-Templeton partnership. The first, issued in 2006, was a ten-country report on Pentecostalism, one of the fastest-growing branches of Christianity. Next up are a major demographic study of global Christianity and a comprehensive survey of the Muslim world.
The New Religious Entrepreneurs
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Photo: Donald Miller |
With major support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California has just awarded grants totaling $3.5 million to five centers and 16 individual scholars and their teams to conduct research on charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union. The centers will document the growth of these movements as well as their influence on civil society and politics. USC received almost 500 applications in response to the initial request for proposals, with inquiries from around the world by researchers in anthropology, sociology, political science, and economics.
“Charismatic Christians emphasize the role of the Holy Spirit in religious experience and are marked by occurrences of glossolalia [speaking in tongues], divine healing, and prophecy,” explained Donald Miller, the executive director of USC's Center for Religion and Civic Culture. “But the impact of this movement extends beyond distinctive spiritual practices. 'Renewalists' have a strong entrepreneurial drive that has resulted in major religious realignments as well as profound social, cultural, and economic changes.”
Earth Made of Glass
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was in attendance at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on April 26th for the world premiere of Earth Made of Glass, a documentary about the African nation’s post-genocidal healing. Filmmaker Deborah Scranton followed both Kagame and John Pierre Sagahutu, an ordinary Rwandan citizen, as they struggled to put their lives and the life of their nation back together after the apocalyptic 1994 mass killings.
“President Kagame's efforts in fostering truth and reconciliation amongst Rwandans are truly revolutionary, providing a real-world model for conflict-riddled nations like Israel, Iraq, and Sudan,” said Scranton, whose film was supported in part by a $1.3 million grant from the Templeton Foundation.
