The Expansion of Christianity in Africa

STATES AND SOCITIES IN SUBSAHARAN AFRICA HIST 1301 | History The Expansion of Christianity in Africa North Africa's destiny and fortunes have always been linked to the Mediterranean Sea and the people who live there. Changes and inventions in this region, whether they be political, spiritual, or economic, have had a significant and long-lasting impact on Africa. These shifts frequently occurred simultaneously; for example, Christianity flourished and spread together with the Roman Empire. In the latter part of the first century, Christianity became a separate religion and quickly expanded throughout the Mediterranean region under Roman rule. During its time as a Roman province, North Africa gave rise to some of the first Christian settlements worldwide. Around the middle of the first century, according to Christian history, Saint Mark visited the Egyptian city of Alexandria and established the first Christian community in Africa. It is undeniable that Alexandria was a significant centre of Christianity by the third century, whether or not we believe this legend to be true. At that time, Christians regarded the bishop of the Church of Alexandria as equally significant to the pope (the bishop of Rome), and the prestigious School of Alexandria was a major hub for theological study. Christianity made its way into Upper Egypt by travelling south down the Nile, starting in Alexandria. Roman officials were alerted to the church's rise in Africa, which paralleled its spread across the Mediterranean. Generally speaking, the Roman Empire had no desire to persecute adherents of any of the several religions that were practiced across the empire, even members of relatively new faiths like Christianity. On the other hand, some of the early Christian groups' acts were viewed by Roman authorities as threatening the peace and security of the empire. Christians, for instance, abstained from taking part in the official cults that revered the Roman gods and guarded Roman civilization. Refusing to comply was considered treason and sometimes penalised as such, especially during the reign of Emperor Nero (54–68). However, official persecution throughout the empire grew under the reign of Emperor Decius in 250 and peaked under Emperor Diocletian in 303. Rome launched a number of official persecutions during this time with the goal of reestablishing the ancient pagan religion's dominance across the empire. Many orthodox Christians in Africa fled the relative safety of the Nile to seek safety in the western desert as a result of these persecutions. There, some made the decision to live as hermits in seclusion, while others made the decision to establish monasteries and integrate into religious communities. Among the later was Antony of the Desert, who decided to leave his life of seclusion and invite others who wanted to live with him and learn from him about the year 300. In no time, the desert was peppered with various religious villages. In northeast Africa, three different monastic traditions arose in less than a century. In northern Egypt, there were still a lot of solitary hermits. However, spiritually pious men and women favoured leading communal lives in southern and northwest Egypt. In southern Egypt, monks lived in communities as "brothers," sharing daily tasks and living together. In Northwestern Egypt, a different kind of monasticism developed. Monasteries with a more hierarchical structure were found west of the Nile delta. The guy known as the abbot, or "father," was in charge of the monastery. He attracted other guys to himself who were prepared to follow his guidance and teachings. Religious women made the decision to live as monastics. Similar to males, some made the decision to reside in religious communities where they occasionally held positions of leadership. Some, like Amma (Mother) Sarah, favoured living a life of solitude. Legend has it that Amma Sarah lived a very austere life for sixty years in a little house by a river, most likely the Nile, which she seldom glanced at since she was so preoccupied with her soul's condition and didn't care much about anything else. Christians across Europe and beyond would emulate the manner of life set by the pious men and women of North Africa. Christianity swiftly extended from Egypt to Ethiopia in the south. Frumentius, a missionary, had a major role in the ultimate establishment of the Christian Kingdom of Aksum. After being shipwrecked off the coast of Eritrea, Frumentius was transported to the royal court where he served as a tutor and converted the then-devout polytheist King Ezana. After Frumentius was baptised, Ezana dispatched him to Alexandria to request that the leader of the Ethiopian Christian Church choose a bishop. Frumentius was officially chosen by Alexandria's bishop, Athanasius, who took on the name "Selama." Bishop Selama most likely established Ethiopia's first Christian monastery. Moreover, Christianity originated in Egypt and travelled westward in the second and third centuries along the coast of North Africa to the Maghreb, an area of northwest Africa that stretches across a sizable portion of the Sahara and is situated between modern-day Morocco and Libya. Carthage was one of the locations in this region where Christianity seems to have grown. Similar to the Christians in Egypt in the third century, the Carthaginian community likewise faced persecution by the Romans. The majority of the proof that we possess regarding this group comes from accounts of its martyrs. One such tale, conveyed via a journal, describes the lives of Perpetua, a young Christian woman who was imprisoned with her child and Felicitas, her pregnant servant, who gave birth while incarcerated. Along with other Christians, Perpetua and Felicitas were put to death in the Carthaginian arena. Many Christians in North Africa made the decision to publicly deny their faith while continuing to practise it in safety in order to escape a similar fate. Church leaders would often be content if they just turned over their texts to the Roman authorities. For some Christians, this practice was preferable than execution, but for others, it was an unacceptable transgression to refuse to embrace martyrdom as a price for their religion. Many in North Africa refused to acknowledge individuals who had abandoned their faith as leaders when the persecutions ended in 313 with the Edict of Milan, which allowed Christianity to be tolerated across the Roman Empire. They also maintained that baptisms, marriages, and even the consecration of clergy were void if carried out by these leaders after they had abandoned their religion. The movement was founded by a Carthaginian bishop called Donatus, and as a result, there was a significant divide in the North African Christian community that came to be known as the Donatist conflict. Emperor Constantine had to step in when the issue got out of hand. Even when Donatus was banished in 347 to Gaul (present-day France), however, the debate persisted in North Africa. One of the most important intellectuals in Christianity, Augustine of Hippo, was the one who finally put a stop to the Donatist divide. In Tagaste, Roman Numidia (modern-day Souk Ahras, Algeria), Augustine was born to an African mother and a Roman colonist father. He began studying at Carthage when he was seventeen years old, and he later worked as a rhetorician instructor at the imperial court in Milan. Augustine was moved to become a Christian when he was in Italy after reading about the life of the well- known Egyptian hermit Antony of the Desert. In 395, Augustine made his way back to North Africa and was named bishop of Hippo (now known as Annaba, Algeria). By now, North Africa had been rocked by the Donatist conflict for almost a century. Augustine was a staunch opponent of the Donatist viewpoint and adamant about eliminating it. At the 411 Council of Carthage, called by the emperor to finally settle the difficult matter, he was the main opponent of the Donatists. Augustine's efforts caused the council to decree the Donatists' excommunication from the church. Parts of the Donatist group continued to exist in North Africa until the seventh century, in spite of this deadly blow. Apart from his triumph over the Donatists, Augustine authored other works about Christian theory, which had a lasting impact on the early church. The City of God, which he penned in reaction to the Visigoths' destruction of Rome in 410, is arguably the most significant of them. In this book, Augustine made the case that while human-created kingdoms, like Rome, may collapse, the Kingdom of God, which is made up of Christians, would endure eternally. Augustine was essentially telling Christians who had seen Rome almost destroyed that there was still hope for the world. The Kingdom of God, the Christian civilization that had developed throughout the ages, would continue. Augustine had a significant role in assisting Christianity in becoming more standardised throughout the empire. Additionally, as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, Christians increasingly persecuted pagan religions. Alexandria had one of the worst episodes of Christian persecution. The pagan philosopher Hypatia was ambushed by a Christian mob in 415 when she was riding her chariot through the streets of the provincial capital. After being pulled from the waggon, she was taken to a neighbouring temple and subjected to abuse, including being stabbed to death and having her body mutilated with broken roof tiles. Her remains were taken to a neighbouring location and set ablaze. The assassination of Hypatia in Roman North Africa marked a turning point in the empire's declaration of Christian supremacy after a sharply violent uptick in persecution across the Mediterranean region. Recently, the pagan Roman empire gave way to Christianity, and in an effort to completely destroy every remnant of the old Roman religious practices, it started pogroms and persecutions of pagans and non-believers. The central government and provincial governors both actively and passively tolerated violence against pagans, which resulted in the abuse and murder of pagans and the destruction of their temples, altars, and sanctuaries by Christians throughout the Roman world. This was a crucial component of the programme. The church hierarchy was trying to bring in elements of the faith that were deemed heretical at the same time as pagans were being persecuted throughout the empire. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 and its ruling on the nature of Christ marked the culmination of this process. Regarding the exact character of Jesus, the faithful have been divided since the early days of the church. The Dyophysite stance held that Jesus was entirely divine and totally human, whereas the Monophysite position said that Jesus's humanity and divinity were inseparable. The council declared the Monophysite stance, which was dominant in Egypt, to be heretical, which led to a schism and the expulsion of monks and churchgoers across the country. After then, the Egyptian Christian Church took a more autonomous turn and progressively distanced itself from the larger Christian community. The adoption of Coptic as the primary literary language and the medium of public prayer in Egypt at the time led to its eventual designation as the Coptic Church. By the ninth century, the Coptic Church was thriving in the upper portions of the Nile valley and had universally accepted Monophysite Christianity, thanks to the guidance of the patriarch of Alexandria. Up until its ultimate demise in the eleventh century at the hands of the Zagwe queen Gudit, the Christian Kingdom of Aksum flourished. The Zagwe Kingdom was founded by Queen Gudit and her lineage, with Roha serving as the capital city. Later, Roha gained prominence as a Christian pilgrimage site and was dubbed "the new Jerusalem" under the reign of King Lalibela, who reigned from 1181 to 1221. Lalibela had new churches cut out of solid rock, and he dubbed the stream that passed through his capital the River Jordan. Northeastern Africa was a stronghold of Monophysite Christianity by the thirteenth century.