Why is the charismatic movement thriving in Africa? — Conrad Mbewe:
“I think that one reason why the Charismatic movement in Africa has been like a wild bushfire is because it has not challenged the African religious worldview but has instead adopted it. It has simply baptised it with Bible verses and Christian words that previously meant something totally different.”
This jogs my memory about a book I read quite a while ago, The Essence of the Reformation by Kirsten Birkett. She argued that, even though the gospel had come to Europe, Christianity was syncretised with the paganism that already existed there. The Protestant Reformation, Dr. Birkett argued, was a decisive confessing and forsaking of this unholy marriage of Christianity and paganism.