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Christianity in Africa began in Egypt in the middle of the 1st century. By the end of the 2nd century it had reached the region around Carthage. Important Africans who influenced the early development of Christianity include Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo. The spread of Islam into North Africa reduced the size of Christian congregations as well as their number, so of the original churches, the only ones remaining are the Coptic Church in Egypt, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church in the Horn of Africa. Both the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches have their own distinct religious customs, a unique canon of the Bible and unique architectures. Neither of these communities of Christians in the Horn of Africa is the product of European missionary work; rather, they were founded prior to missionary work by any European country.〔http://www.africanchristian.org African Christianity〕 Christianity is embraced by the majority of the population in most Southern African, Southeast African, and Central African states and others in some parts of Northeast and West Africa. The Coptic Christians make up a significant minority in Egypt. The ''World Book Encyclopedia'' has estimated that in 2002, Christians formed 40% of the continent's population, with Muslims forming 45%. In a relatively short space of time, Africa has gone from having a majority following one of its indigenous, traditional religions, to being predominantly a continent of Christians and Muslims. Since 2013, only in Togo have the majority of religious people been followers of a traditional African religion. No official statistics currently exist for South Sudan, and some scholarly studies state that traditional African religions are more popular there than Christianity.〔G. Arnold, Book Review: Douglas H. Johnson, The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars. ''African Journal of Political Science'', Vol.8 No. 1, 2003. p.147〕 However, the December 18, 2012 Pew Forum research estimates that in 2010, 6.010 million Christians, 3.270 million traditional African religion followers, 610,000 Muslims and 50,000 unaffiliated (no known religion) people lived in South Sudan.〔(Pew Forum on Religion )〕 This would mean that in 2010 according to Pew Forum, about 60.46% of the population of South Sudan's 9,940,000 population were Christian while 32.9% were followers of traditional African religions. Importantly, within most self-declared Christian communities in Africa, there is significant and sustained syncretism with traditional African religious beliefs and practices.〔 Rosalind Shaw, Charles Stewart, Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis (1994), books.google.com/books?isbn=0203451090 〕 ==History== Mark the Evangelist became the first bishop of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria in about the year 43.〔Eusebius of Caesarea, the author of ''Ecclesiastical History'' in the 4th century, states that St. Mark came to Egypt in the first or third year of the reign of Emperor Claudius, i.e. 41 or 43 A.D. "Two Thousand years of Coptic Christianity", Otto F.A. Meinardus, p.28.〕 At first the church in Alexandria was mainly Greek-speaking. By the end of the 2nd century the scriptures and liturgy had been translated into three local languages. Christianity also spread in Sudan in the early 1st century, and the Nubian churches there were linked to those of Egypt.〔Jakobielski, S. ''Christian Nubia at the Height of its Civilization'' (Chapter 8). UNESCO. University of California Press. San Francisco, 1992. ISBN 9780520066984〕 Christianity also grew in northwestern Africa (today known as the Maghreb). The churches there were linked to the Church of Rome and provided Pope Gelasius I, Pope Miltiades and Pope Victor I – all of them Christian Berbers like Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica. At the beginning of the 3rd century the church in Alexandria expanded rapidly, with five new suffragan bishoprics. At this time, the Bishop of Alexandria began to be called Pope, as the senior bishop in Egypt. In the middle of the 3rd century the church in Egypt suffered severely during the persecution under the Emperor Decius. Many Christians fled from the towns into the desert. When the persecution died down, however, some remained in the desert as hermits to pray. This was the beginning of Christian monasticism, which over the following years spread from Africa to other parts of the Christian world. The early 4th century in Egypt began with renewed persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. In the Ethiopian/Eritrean Kingdom of Aksum, King Ezana declared Christianity the official religion after having been converted by Frumentius, resulting in the foundation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. In these first few centuries, African Christian leaders such as Origen, Lactantius, Augustine, Tertullian, Marius Victorinus, Pachomius, Didymus the Blind, Ticonius, Cyprian, Athanasius and Cyril (along with rivals Valentinus, Plotinus, Arius and Donatus Magnus) influenced the Christian world outside Africa with responses to Gnosticism, Arianism, Montanism, Marcionism, Pelagianism and Manichaeism. Ecumenical councils were organized by them from time to time to help keep the Church unified in matters of doctrine. The world also owes to such Christians the idea of the University (after the Library of Alexandria), the understanding of the Trinity, Vetus Latina translations, methods of exegesis and biblical interpretation, monasticism, Neoplatonism, and African literary, dialectical and rhetorical traditions.〔Oden, Thomas C. ''How Africa shaped the Christian Mind'', IVP 2007.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Christianity in Africa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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