7. SUMMARY OF STUDY FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1.6. Review of the Literature
1.6.4. Wilson Niwagila
Wilson Niwagila, in his doctoral thesis From the Catacomb to a self- governing Church: A case study of the African initiative and the participation of the foreign Missions in the Mission history of the North Western Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania 1890-1965, writes a history of the Lutheran Church on the Western side of Lake Victoria in the Kagera Region of Tanzania. Niwagila accounts for the development of conversion and revival, and women within the Movement who he regarded as equal with men. Birgitta Larsson joins hands with Niwagila by saying:
I am of the opinion that anyone who does not look at the Revival also from women's perspective will fail to see the full implication of changes brought about by the fellowship, the equality preached, the openness
in confession and the purity in life style(Larsson 1991:145).
According to Niwagila, those women who manage to get in powerful positions in the Church are often disempowered or they are so heavily laden with the cares that the wish to remain in positions of power diminishes. This makes women in the positions of power unable to make an impact on the Church, simply because presence do not mean participation. He argues that the real task remaining for women in the Church is to dismantle long internalized biases and attitudes against women in both Christianity and the African way of life. He challenges women Christians in the North Western Diocese to struggle very hard to transform those cultural beliefs and practices which have conditioned them to an inferior position.
Niwagila argues that patriarchy amongst the Buhaya has defined women as inferior to men, thereby perpetuating the oppression of women by religion and culture. Aspects of culture that ensures male control of power and authority are upheld by society at the expense of the personhood of women.
He points out clearly that through misused biblical teachings, the Church has constructed an oppressive attitude towards African women, denying them their full humanity. He asserts that a wind of self- awareness is blowing among Christian women in the Diocese.
Women are becoming conscious that they have been in the periphery and that they have accepted their sufferings in the Church and society as from God for too long. They have come to a realization that sexism is a sin. They have realized that their strength is in participating in the revival meetings in their parishes. Through revival meetings they are beginning to re- read the bible and discover that what society and Church is today, is not what is intended.
The researcher supports Niwagila that, it could be argued that today the Revival can be criticized for many negative effects such as legalism, elitism, withdrawal from full participation in society, spiritual jargon, etc. Apart from these tendencies, the writer sees that the Movement helped and is helping Christians after their conversions to set them free from many social constraints through the radical break with traditional and nominal Christian patterns which the Revival implied.
In his thesis, Niwagila argues that the understanding of experience of the Gospel however does not come once and for all but rather is a continual process guided by personal hearing of Christian Scriptures.
1.6.5. Conversion
The phenomenon of conversion into Christianity has inspired plenty of literature in an effort to investigate the factors that encourage it and its implication to the Church. It is not possible to review all the arguments and explanations regarding the phenomenon they come from diverse intellectual positions. Despite various positions it is however, possible to identity certain trends of thought that emerges from this debate. By examining such trends we hope to situate the reasons for the conversion of Lutheran Christians and how far they might have contributed their preponderance in the Revival Movement in the North Western Diocese. Having said that, it may be prudent to mention at least few works, that have already paved the way in the effort to understand the phenomenon of conversion into Christianity.
1.6.5.1. General Conversion
According to the Oxford Advanced Dictionary, conversion is the act or process of changing something from one form, use or system to another ( Wehmeier 2000:272).
Conversion refers to a variety of kinds of changes, or turnings. Other terms used in relation to conversion are "salvation", "born again", "revival", "renewal", "spiritual
experience" or "knowing Jesus". The word conversion has also undergone several developments. In the past, conversion referred only to the initial turning to faith or a religious organization. Recently, however, conversion has been viewed as an ongoing process of the whole person throughout the entire life (Rambo 1990:228; Peace 1990:27- 28). Such transformation shows that a converting person is seen to be continually transformed through a combination of profound intellectual change, emotional maturation, increasing ethical sensitivity and behaviour and an intensifying love of God and humanity. Some conversions are dramatic and others describe conversion as slow and subtle or gradual (Gavental986:2; Peace 1990:28)
Having said that, it may be prudent to mention at least a few works that have already paved the way in the effort to understand the phenomenon of conversion.
Some of the scholars who have dealt with conversion are listed below.
1.6.5.2. Lewis R. Rambo
Lewis Rambo gives three dimensions that contribute to conversion: tradition, transformation and transcendence. Tradition puts together the present circumstance, in which people live and ensure connection with the past. Secondly, the dimension of transformation comprises the psychological part of humanity, and lastly the dimension of transcendence refers to the domain of the sacred. These three dimensions are very necessary to any conversion, particularly to world religions (1983:123-124).
Rambo depict religious conversion as a method of looking for solutions that make sense and reach the real value and meaning in present life and a complete sense of existence.
He says, "Religious conversion is one of humanity's ways of approaching its self- conscious predicament of solving or resolving the mystery of human origins, meaning, and destiny" ( Rambo 1993:2). If the assertions by Rambo are reflected in the Haya context, they could be interpreted that even though God initiates Christian conversion in the human presence of Jesus Christ its authenticity is achieved in the cultural and religious expression of the people.
Rambo says:
: But I see "genuine" conversion as a total transformation of a person by the power of God. While transformation occurs through the mediation of social, personal, cultural and religious forces... I believe that conversion has to be radical, striking to the root of human predicament. For me, the root is vortex of vulnerability(Rambo 1993:22)
According to Rambo, authentic conversion involves the mediation of social, personal, cultural and religious forces. This is directly applicable in the conversion of the Haya with a religious faith, where people believed in God, centred their rituals through ancestors, and believed in the existence and the reality of stronger powers of the Spiritual realm.
Therefore, the researcher agree with Rambo that conversion occurs through and in a given cultural context where culture and the religious background of the given community play roles of preparing the ground and making the possibility of a break through for the new faith. While Christian theology according to the Lutheran teaching emphasizes conversion as a dependent on Christ's merit(Rom 8:1-4), it also emphasizes that genuine conversion ought to be perceived as the acceptance of a set of new truths with the need of assimilating them and making the proclaimed gospel and the mission of God amongst the Haya theologically relevant.
1.6.5.3. Emilie Townes
Emilie Townes describes conversion from a theological perspective. She describes the conversion experience in three themes: hope, salvation and transformation. She argues that these themes point to the liberating promises of God now and in the future. Perhaps the promise of freedom both now and in the future could be among the reasons why people experience conversion and revival in their daily Christian lives.
Emillie notes that an increasing number of believing Church women are becoming aware of injustices done against them by the Church authority. Consequently, the impact of this awareness has produced various categories in reaction. The first group includes of those who feel marginalized. They take up a kind of peripheral existence within the Church, neither fully in nor fully out. Women here find themselves at the fringes of the Church life because of their level of consciousness. The second class consists of those loyal to the Church tradition. They hold as a starting point the essential goodness and holiness of religious traditions as a revelation and gift from God. They feel that the scriptures and traditions cannot by their very nature be oppressive or unjust since they come from God.
Their problem is with the recipients of the revelation. They argue that, it is the human vehicles, which are imperfect, sinful, oppressive and unjust. The researcher challenges this group that Christians (men and women) holding this position need to be converted as such stand has not prompted change. The third category includes the revisionists. To them the traditions that encourage andocentric and patriarchal pattern of dominance and submission are serious but not fatal wounds. They encourage for a re- interpretation of historical data in such a way that our story can be freedom from certain kind of unhelpful cultural baggage, which is non- essential to its real message. The task takes the form of going back to the historical sources. Here, the researcher argues that the weakness of this alternative lies on the fact that the optimistic assumptions have not made truths. Lastly, is the liberation group, which advocates a stand on behalf of the disenfranchised and disinherited which its followers believe that of Jesus Christ. They speak of a hermeneutic of suspicion, a critical judgment which begins with assumption that oppression that is humanly caused must be remedied by human action. Their goal is the transformation of human society through conversion.
Looking at these four categories Emillie has discussed the need for all Christians to undergo actual conversion, which embraces several elements. She talks of structural, personal, moral, intellectual and spiritual elements, as essential for actual conversion.
Structural because of the systematic subjection, denigration and oppression of women in the name of the gospel need no documentation in many institutional Churches. Personal,
because both men and women need to repent and reform the ecclesiastical structures in order to bring them into line with the imperatives of the gospel. Moral, because there must be a change from what is now seen as wrong or sinful, to what is judged to be right.
Intellectual, because Christians need to recognize that; their ignorance and lack of information prevented them from thinking or doing any different before. Spiritual meant a call to a new way of life, with no suggestion that what went before was wrong; it was simply no adequate.
1.6.5.4. Richardson and Bow den
They give four different meanings of conversion as follows:
Conversion means traditional transition. This is the decision of an individual or a group to change affiliation from one major religious tradition to another, for example from African traditional religions to Christianity. Such conversion is typical in the missionary context.
Conversion is transition from one denomination to another within a major tradition.
Motivation for this type of conversion varies from mere convenience to the conviction that the truth of the gospel is more perfectly embodied within a particular group.
Conversion from non involvement in a religion, to 'affiliation with a religious group.' Given the fact that more people are being raised within totally secular families, this type is becoming increasingly prominent
Conversion means intensification that is the deepening of feelings experienced by individuals who change from nominal or pathetic members of a religious group to ones whose religion is a central part of life. This is perhaps the most numerous of the four kinds of conversion (1983:123-124).
1.6.5.5. Biblical Conversion
Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament the underlying concept of conversion is "to turn." The words "to turn" indicate the alteration that is made in people's lives when "they turn" from an old way of life to a new and different allegiance. Conversion, therefore, signifies "a turn away" from sin and "a returning to God".
In the Old Testament conversion is directly related to the covenant. God through his prophets appeals to the people to return to Him. Imperatives are numerous. "Turn from your evil ways" ( 2 Kings 17:13), " return to me, for I have redeemed you" (Isa. 44:23).
People were called, time and again, to a fresh understanding of what it meant to be a person in covenant with God. Those outside the covenant were called upon to discover a filial relationship with God for whom all human beings were created. The relationship destroyed by sin has been re-established in the new covenant.
In the New Testament conversion refers specifically to the call of God in Christ, at first to the Jews and later to Gentiles as well. In the Acts of the Apostles, people in various circumstances, all shared a common faith. Examples are numerous. An Ethiopian leader who was eager to learn about Christ ( Acts. 8: 26-40), Saul of Tarsus, as a Pharisee of the Pharisees and a persecutor of the Church became a very important preacher and itinerant missionary planting the Church around the Mediterranean sea (Acts.9:1-30; 2 Cor.l 1:16- 33), a religious officer, worshiping God as best as he knew how(Acts. 10:1-48) and a prison keeper, subject to acute stress, making a sudden profession (Acts. 16:16-34). The people all differ; the circumstances differ widely, but all come to faith in Christ. Out of these four examples of conversion we can argue that there is no single stereotype into which every Christian conversion must fit if it is to be accepted as genuine. But, in every case the outcome was the same. They believed in God and had faith in Christ.
As is shown in this thesis, some Christians minimized the importance of their Christian life before conversion. The radical change brought about through the Revival encouraged men and women to break oppressive patterns. The question is: What is the situation today within the Revival Movement in the North Western Diocese? As we know, every movement reaches a stage of climax and sooner or later begins to show signs of stagnation. Men and women belonging to the Haya Revival are almost anxiously conscious of such possibilities. They ask themselves "Does our Revival still have the same glow and life as in the first flush of enthusiasm?" Some writers discussed this sub- topic and have analyzed conversion and Revival from a historical point of view. The researcher of this thesis will focus on the current situation of conversion and Revival as it is reflected in chapter four and five. Various conventions, evangelistic campaigns, and other educative methods are to be developed in counteracting such tendencies. The future of the Revival will depend on its capacity to renew itself and attract the support of many Christians in the diocese.