The global expansion of Christianity under the wings of Western imperialism and colonialism in the late nineteenth and twentieth century : Rethinking the imperialistic aspects of the Bible under the colonial embrace in Sub–Saharan Africa

Abstract

This paper is a study of an exceptional global expansion of Christianity in history which paralleled the colonial expansion of the West, as a result of the extension of the European monarchism into the non–Western world, and which became a worldwide phenomenon in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. The center of my study is how the competition for acquiring colonies overseas among the European nations escalated and prompted the birth of a new imperialism profoundly affecting every aspect of Sub–Saharan African life. While investigating the relationship between the missionaries and the colonialists in my study, I look specifically into the role and function of the Bible within the framework of the European imperialism and colonialism in the Sub–Saharan African setting by applying postcolonial theory. The work is organized into four main parts. In the first chapter, I set forth the background of my study, personal motivation, aim and scope of the study, my methodology and theoretical framework, literature review, and the structure of the thesis. In the second chapter, I make an overview of European expansionism, its causes, peculiarity, and an analysis of the imperial and colonial systems. The third chapter discusses the impact of the Enlightenment thinking on the Western society and Christian mission, the emergence of the religious revival movements among transatlantic Protestants, and the outburst of the Protestant missionary movement which was concomitant with Western imperialism. The accent of this chapter falls on the colonialist missions, and their use of the Bible in their rhetorical discourses to assert their theocratic imperial view. The last chapter is devoted to the critical evaluation of my findings where I discussed through the lens of postcolonial reading.