Book Review: The Religion of the Poor: Rural Missions in Europe and the Formation of Modern Catholicism, c. 1500–1800 (original) (raw)

Missiology, 2000

Abstract

ist and European movements took center stage. Religiously, a plethora of efforts arose. The clash of ideologies began. Conflicting loyalties became overt from 1962 to 1980 as the government clamped down on African political parties and tried to manipulate religious expression. This era began with nationalists confronting churches and concluded with the celebration of independence in April 1980 when a nationalist and bishop became the new prime minister. In addition to the interaction of religion and politics, the author also touches on helpful subjects, such as the honoring of early African missionaries from South Africa and elsewhere, which places today's "pioneers" in proper perspective; the description of the gradual growth of Harare, which provides an excellent documentation of urbanization's impact upon Christians, especially urban contextualization from 1890 to 1980; and three features of modernity: secularization, compartmentalization, and bureaucracy. The historic issues addressed concern African urban issues, such as land, women's recognition, housing, education, organizations, employment, labor, rural/urban dynamics, the rise of indigenous churches, and political competition. Changing church and mission strategies can be traced for Catholic, Anglican. and Methodist Churches. Are these matters easy to extract from this text? No. Yet, the details invite the diligent scholar. What is missing? A subject index, maps, figures, and summary time-lines to provide an overall perspective. This book is an excellent contribution to urban church history, a "relatively new field of study in Zimbabwe"-and elsewhere in the non-Western world (9).

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