Historia ya Kanisa — Sehemu ya 10: Karne ya Ishirini Hadi LeoChurch History — Unit 10: The Twentieth Century to Today

Sehemu ya 9 ilifungwa mwaka 1900 Injili ikiwa imebebwa hadi kila bara na karne kuu ya umishonari. Karne ya ishirini ingelijaribu kanisa kama ambavyo hakuna karne nyingine iliyowahi kulijaribu — na wakati huohuo ingeliona likikua kuwa kubwa zaidi, la ulimwengu mzima zaidi, na lenye utofauti zaidi kuliko wakati wowote katika historia yake. Ikiwa karne ya kumi na tisa iliibeba Injili kutoka Magharibi kwenda nje, karne ya ishirini iliona kitovu cha Ukristo wa dunia kikihama kabisa kutoka Magharibi. Kufikia mwaka 2000, Wakristo wengi wa dunia waliishi Afrika, Asia na Amerika ya Kusini, si Ulaya na Amerika Kaskazini. Huu ndio ukweli mmoja muhimu kuliko yote katika historia ya kanisa ya nyakati za kisasa.Unit 9 closed in 1900 with the gospel carried to every continent by the great missionary century. The twentieth century would test the church as no century had before — and at the same time see it grow larger, more global, and more diverse than at any point in its history. If the nineteenth century carried the gospel out from the West, the twentieth century watched the center of gravity of world Christianity shift away from the West entirely. By the year 2000, most of the world's Christians lived in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, not in Europe and North America. This is the single most important fact of modern church history.

Karne hiyo ilifunguliwa kwa kujiamini. John R. Mott, kiongozi mkuu wa umishonari wa enzi hiyo, alikuwa ameifanya kauli mbiu ya Student Volunteer Movement (Vuguvugu la Wanafunzi wa Kujitolea) kuwa maarufu kizazi kimoja kabla: "Uinjilishaji wa Ulimwengu Katika Kizazi Hiki." Roho ileile ya kujiamini ilijaa katika Kongamano la Umishonari la Ulimwengu la mwaka 1910 huko Edinburgh, Uskoti, ambalo Mott aliliongoza kama mwenyekiti. Viongozi wa umishonari wa Kiprotestanti waliamini kwamba dunia nzima ingeweza kufikiwa ndani ya miongo michache. Kisha vikaja vita viwili vya dunia, kuinuka kwa ukomunisti usiomwamini Mungu, kuanguka kwa himaya za Ulaya, na wimbi la usekula lililoyamwaga watu makanisa mengi ya Magharibi. Matumaini ya mwaka 1910 hayakunusurika katika mahandaki ya Vita vya Kwanza vya Dunia. Na bado, wakati kanisa lilipokuwa likipungua katika maeneo yake ya zamani ya msingi, lililipuka kwa ukuaji katika mahali ambapo wamishonari walikuwa wamelipanda.The century opened with confidence. John R. Mott, the great missionary statesman of the era, had made the Student Volunteer Movement's motto famous a generation earlier: "The Evangelization of the World in This Generation." That same spirit of confidence filled the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, which Mott chaired. Protestant mission leaders believed the whole earth might be reached within decades. Then came two world wars, the rise of atheistic communism, the collapse of European empires, and a wave of secularization that emptied many Western churches. The optimism of 1910 did not survive the trenches of the First World War. And yet, while the church declined in its old heartlands, it exploded in the places the missionaries had planted it.

Sehemu hii inafuatilia mavuguvugu makuu ya enzi ya kisasa: mauamsho yaliyozaa Upentekoste wa ulimwengu mzima; kushindwa na uaminifu wa kanisa chini ya maovu ya kutisha ya tawala za kidikteta za karne hiyo; mabadiliko ya Kanisa Katoliki la Roma katika Mtaguso wa Pili wa Vatikano; kurudishwa kwa uinjilisti katika nchi za Magharibi hata utamaduni wake ulipokuwa ukiacha dini; kuongezeka kwa kasi kwa Waprotestanti kote Amerika ya Kusini; na kuhamia kusini kwa kitovu cha Ukristo, kulikoufanya Ukristo, kwa mara ya kwanza, kuwa imani ya ulimwengu mzima kweli ambayo wafuasi wake wengi si wa Magharibi. Katika yote hayo inapita ile kamba ambayo kozi nzima imeifuata: Ahadi ya Mathayo 16:18. Karne ishirini zilitupa kila kitu zilichokuwa nacho dhidi ya kanisa ambalo Yesu alisema angelijenga, na bado milango ya kuzimu haijalishinda.This unit traces the great movements of the modern era: the revivals that birthed worldwide Pentecostalism; the church's failure and faithfulness under the totalitarian horrors of the century; the Roman Catholic transformation at the Second Vatican Council; the recovery of evangelism in the West even as its culture secularized; the Protestant surge across Latin America; and the southward shift that has made Christianity, for the first time, a truly worldwide and majority non-Western faith. Through all of it runs the thread the whole course has followed: the Promise of Matthew 16:18. Twenty centuries threw everything they had at the church Jesus said He would build, and the gates of Hades have still not prevailed.

Karne ya Kipentekoste haikuanza ghafla bila chanzo. Mwaka 1904–1905 uamsho ulienea Wales chini ya mahubiri ya Evan Roberts, kijana aliyekuwa zamani mchimba makaa ya mawe. Katika muda wa chini ya mwaka mmoja wanaume na wanawake wa Wales wapatao 100,000 waliokoka. Matokeo yake katika jamii yalishangaza: vilabu vya pombe vilikosa wateja, viwango vya uhalifu vilishuka kiasi kwamba baadhi ya mahakama hazikuwa na kesi za kusikiliza, na mabonde mazima yaligubikwa na maombi na nyimbo. Mwamko wa Wales ukawa uamsho uliosikika mbali zaidi kuliko yote katika kizazi chake.The Pentecostal century did not begin in a vacuum. In 1904–1905 a revival swept Wales under the preaching of Evan Roberts, a young former coal miner. In less than a year roughly 100,000 Welsh men and women were converted. The social effect was startling: taverns emptied, crime rates fell so far that some courts had no cases to try, and whole valleys were swept up in prayer and song. The Welsh Awakening became the most widely felt revival of its generation.

Umuhimu wake ulifika mbali zaidi ya Wales. Habari za mwamko huo zilivuka bahari na kuchochea mioyo yenye njaa huko Los Angeles, ambako Frank Bartleman aliandikiana barua na Roberts na kuomba mmiminiko uleule. Uamsho ulipozuka katika Azusa Street mwaka 1906, watazamaji waliona uhusiano huo moja kwa moja; Bartleman angesema kwamba vuguvugu la Kipentekoste "lilibembelezwa katika utoto wa Wales mdogo." Moto wa Wales ulisaidia pia kuwasha mauamsho huko India, Korea, China na Afrika.Its importance reached far beyond Wales. News of the awakening crossed the ocean and stirred hungry hearts in Los Angeles, where Frank Bartleman corresponded with Roberts and prayed for the same outpouring. When revival broke out at Azusa Street in 1906, observers saw the connection directly; Bartleman would say the Pentecostal movement was "rocked in the cradle of little Wales." The Welsh fire helped kindle awakenings in India, Korea, China, and Africa as well.

Kisha mwezi Aprili 1906, katika jengo duni lililokuwa zamani zizi la farasi katika Azusa Street, uamsho ulizuka chini ya William J. Seymour, mtoto mwenye jicho moja wa wazazi waliokuwa watumwa zamani. Ulidumu takriban miaka mitatu na unaonwa na wengi kuwa mahali pa kuzaliwa kwa Upentekoste wa kisasa. Ulikuwa wa kushangaza kwa kuwa na watu wa rangi zote katika enzi ya ubaguzi wa rangi — waabudu weusi, weupe, Wahispania na Waasia waliomba pamoja — na ndani ya miezi michache ulikuwa ukituma watendakazi kote duniani. Kutoka katika makanisa madogo ya Wales hadi misheni moja ya Los Angeles, Roho aliwasha utambi ambao ungekuwa vuguvugu la Kikristo lililoenea kwa kasi zaidi kuliko yote katika karne ya ishirini.Then in April 1906, in a humble former stable on Azusa Street, a revival broke out under William J. Seymour, the one-eyed son of former slaves. It lasted about three years and is widely regarded as the birthplace of modern Pentecostalism. It was strikingly multiracial in a segregated age — black, white, Hispanic, and Asian worshipers prayed together — and within months it was sending workers around the globe. From the small chapels of Wales to a Los Angeles mission, the Spirit lit a fuse that would become the fastest-spreading Christian movement of the twentieth century.

Upentekoste ulisisitiza ubatizo na karama za Roho Mtakatifu — kunena kwa lugha, uponyaji, unabii — kuwa vinapatikana kwa waumini wa kawaida leo, si katika enzi ya mitume peke yake. Kufikia mwisho wa karne hiyo, Wakristo wa Kipentekoste na wa Kikarismatiki walihesabiwa kwa mamia ya mamilioni, na kulifanya hili kuwa vuguvugu jipya muhimu zaidi kwa idadi tangu Matengenezo ya Kanisa. Kuanzia miaka ya 1960 na kuendelea, uamsho wa Kikarismatiki uliingia pia katika makanisa ya zamani zaidi — ya Kikatoliki, ya Kianglikana, ya Kilutheri — hivyo ushawishi wake ulifika mbali zaidi ya madhehebu ya Kipentekoste ya asili.Pentecostalism emphasized the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit — speaking in tongues, healing, prophecy — as available to ordinary believers today, not merely in the apostolic age. By the end of the century, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians numbered in the hundreds of millions, making this the most numerically significant new movement since the Reformation. From the 1960s onward the charismatic renewal also flowed into older bodies — Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran — so its influence reached far beyond the classical Pentecostal denominations.

Kitovu cha nguvu za vuguvugu hilo kikawa upesi Kusini mwa dunia. Kote Afrika, Amerika ya Kusini na Asia, makanisa ya Kipentekoste na ya Kikarismatiki yalikua kwa kasi ya mlipuko — hasa katika maeneo ambako wamishonari wa karne ya kumi na tisa walikuwa wameipanda Injili. Leo makusanyiko makubwa zaidi duniani ni makanisa ya Kikarismatiki huko Seoul, Lagos na São Paulo, yanayokusanya makumi ya maelfu ya watu kila wiki. Ibada yenye nguvu, matarajio ya miujiza, na uongozi wa walei viliufanya vuguvugu hilo kuenea kwa kasi katika nchi zinazoendelea.The movement's center of strength quickly became the global South. Across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, Pentecostal and charismatic churches grew explosively — precisely in the regions where the nineteenth-century missionaries had planted the gospel. Today the largest single congregations on earth are charismatic churches in Seoul, Lagos, and São Paulo, gathering tens of thousands each week. Energetic worship, an expectation of the miraculous, and lay leadership made the movement spread fast in the developing world.

Vyovyote mtu anavyoyatathmini kitheolojia mambo yake ya pekee, Upentekoste ndio habari kuu ya idadi ya watu katika Ukristo wa karne ya ishirini. Uligeuza waumini wachache katika misheni moja ya Los Angeles kuwa vuguvugu la ulimwengu mzima la labda watu nusu bilioni ndani ya karne moja, na ndio injini kuu ya kuhamia kusini kwa kitovu cha Ukristo, jambo ambalo limebadilisha sura ya kanisa la ulimwengu.Whatever one's theological assessment of its distinctives, Pentecostalism is the great demographic story of twentieth-century Christianity. It turned a handful of believers in a Los Angeles mission into a worldwide movement of perhaps half a billion people within a century, and it is the chief engine behind the southward shift that has remade the face of the global church.

Si kila sura ya kanisa la kisasa ni habari ya ukuaji na uaminifu. Mojawapo ya sura zenye giza zaidi ni kushindwa kwa sehemu kubwa ya kanisa la Ujerumani wakati wa kuinuka kwa Adolf Hitler na Maangamizi Makuu ya Wayahudi (Holocaust). Wanazi walipochukua mamlaka mwaka 1933, idadi kubwa mno ya makasisi wa Kilutheri na wa Kikatoliki wa Ujerumani hawakupinga. Wengi waliuunga mkono utawala huo waziwazi; wengi zaidi walinyamaza wakati majirani zao Wayahudi walipokuwa wakinyang'anywa haki zao, wakifukuzwa na kuuawa. Kanisa lililoupa ulimwengu Matengenezo ya Kanisa kwa kiasi kikubwa lilishindwa mtihani wa msingi kabisa wa kumpenda jirani.Not every chapter of the modern church is a story of growth and faithfulness. One of the darkest is the failure of much of the German church during the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the great majority of Germany's Lutheran and Catholic clergy did not resist. Many actively supported the regime; far more stayed silent as Jewish neighbors were stripped of their rights, deported, and murdered. The church that had given the world the Reformation largely failed the most basic test of love for neighbor.

Kulikuwa na kikundi kidogo cha waaminifu, nacho lazima kiheshimiwe. Kundi la wachungaji wa Kiprotestanti liliunda Kanisa la Kukiri (Confessing Church), ambalo lilitangaza katika Tamko la Barmen la mwaka 1934 kwamba Kristo, si Führer (Kiongozi Mkuu wa Wanazi), ndiye kichwa cha kanisa. Sauti zake zinazojulikana zaidi zilikuwa Dietrich Bonhoeffer, aliyejiunga na harakati za upinzani na kuuawa na Wanazi mwaka 1945, na Martin Niemöller, aliyekaa miaka mingi katika kambi za mateso na baadaye akaandika ungamo lile linalogusa moyo lililoanza hivi: "Kwanza waliwajia wanasoshalisti, nami sikusema neno." Ujasiri wao unang'aa zaidi kwa sababu ya ukimya uliowazunguka.There was a faithful minority, and it must be honored. A group of Protestant pastors formed the Confessing Church, which declared in the 1934 Barmen Declaration that Christ, not the Führer, is the head of the church. Its most famous voices were Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who joined the resistance and was executed by the Nazis in 1945, and Martin Niemöller, who spent years in concentration camps and later wrote the haunting confession that began, "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out." Their courage shines all the brighter against the surrounding silence.

Somo la sura hii ni zito na la lazima. Kanisa haliko moja kwa moja upande wa haki kwa sababu tu ni kanisa; makasisi na makusanyiko wanaweza kutekwa na utaifa, hofu na chuki, na wanaweza kuisaliti Injili wanayoihubiri. Historia ya kanisa lazima iseme hili kwa uaminifu. Ahadi ya Mathayo 16:18 inahakikisha kwamba kanisa litadumu — lakini haikuahidi kamwe kwamba kila kizazi cha Wakristo kingekuwa mwaminifu, na kanisa la Ujerumani chini ya Hitler ndilo onyo zito kuliko yote la karne ya ishirini.The lesson of this chapter is sobering and necessary. The church is not automatically on the side of righteousness simply because it is the church; clergy and congregations can be captured by nationalism, fear, and prejudice and can betray the gospel they preach. Church history must tell this honestly. The Promise of Matthew 16:18 guarantees that the church will endure — but it never promised that every generation of Christians would be faithful, and the German church under Hitler is the twentieth century's gravest warning.

Karne ya ishirini ilizaa wafiadini Wakristo wengi kuliko karne yoyote kabla yake, na injini kuu ilikuwa ukomunisti usiomwamini Mungu. Baada ya Mapinduzi ya Urusi ya mwaka 1917, dola ya Kisovieti ilikusudia kuifuta dini kabisa: makanisa yalifungwa, makasisi walifungwa gerezani na kuuawa, waumini walipelekwa katika kambi za kazi ngumu za Gulag. Hata hivyo Kanisa la Kiorthodoksi la Urusi lilinusurika miaka sabini ya ukanaji Mungu rasmi wa serikali, na likaibuka tena Muungano wa Kisovieti ulipoanguka mwaka 1991.The twentieth century produced more Christian martyrs than any century before it, and the chief engine was atheistic communism. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Soviet state set out to eradicate religion: churches were closed, clergy imprisoned and executed, believers sent to the labor camps of the Gulag. Yet the Russian Orthodox Church survived seventy years of official atheism and emerged when the Soviet Union fell in 1991.

Mfano unaoshangaza zaidi ulikuwa China. Wakomunisti walipochukua mamlaka mwaka 1949 na kuwafukuza wamishonari wote wa kigeni, watazamaji wa Magharibi waliogopa kwamba kanisa la China lingekufa. Badala yake, likiwa limesukumwa kwenda mafichoni na kukatiliwa msaada wa nje, liliongezeka sana. Vuguvugu la makanisa ya nyumbani yasiyosajiliwa lilikua kutoka labda waumini milioni moja mwaka 1949 hadi makumi ya mamilioni kufikia mwisho wa karne hiyo — mwangwi wa kisasa wa maneno ya kale ya Tertuliano kwamba damu ya wafiadini ni mbegu ya kanisa. Watu kama Watchman Nee, aliyekufa katika kambi ya kazi ngumu nchini China, na Richard Wurmbrand, aliyeteswa kwa miaka kumi na minne katika Romania ya kikomunisti, wakawa alama za kanisa linaloteseka ambalo halingemkana Bwana wake.The most dramatic case was China. When the Communists took power in 1949 and expelled all foreign missionaries, Western observers feared the Chinese church would die. Instead, driven underground and cut off from outside help, it multiplied. The unregistered house-church movement grew from perhaps one million believers in 1949 to tens of millions by the end of the century — a modern echo of Tertullian's ancient observation that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Figures like Watchman Nee, who died in a Chinese labor camp, and Richard Wurmbrand, tortured for fourteen years in communist Romania, became symbols of a suffering church that would not deny its Lord.

Mateso hayakuisha pamoja na Vita Baridi; katika karne ya ishirini na moja yanazidi kuongezeka katika mahali mapya. Korea Kaskazini mara kwa mara hupangwa kuwa nchi moja hatari zaidi duniani kuwa Mkristo, ambako waumini hupelekwa katika kambi za magereza kwa kosa la kuwa na Biblia. Nchini Nigeria, maelfu ya Wakristo huuawa kila mwaka katika mawimbi ya vurugu. Kote katika sehemu kubwa ya Mashariki ya Kati, jumuiya za kale za Kikristo zilizodumu kwa karibu miaka elfu mbili zimesambaratishwa na vita na shinikizo, na wengi wamekimbia. Somo lilelile ambalo kanisa la karne ya kwanza lilijifunza chini ya Roma bado ni kweli: milango ya kuzimu haishindi, hata dhidi ya kambi za magereza na mapanga.Persecution did not end with the Cold War; in the twenty-first century it is intensifying in new places. North Korea is consistently ranked the single most dangerous nation on earth to be a Christian, where believers are sent to prison camps for owning a Bible. In Nigeria, thousands of Christians are killed each year in waves of violence. Across much of the Middle East, ancient Christian communities that survived for nearly two thousand years have been shattered by war and pressure, and many have fled. The same lesson the first-century church learned under Rome still holds: the gates of Hades do not prevail, even against prison camps and machetes.

Mwili mmoja mkubwa kuliko yote katika Ukristo wa dunia, Kanisa Katoliki la Roma, ulipitia mabadiliko yake muhimu zaidi kwa karne nyingi katika Mtaguso wa Pili wa Vatikano (1962–1965), ulioitishwa na Papa Yohane XXIII. Mtaguso wa Pili wa Vatikano haukubadilisha kiini cha mafundisho ya Kikatoliki, lakini ulibadilisha msimamo wa kanisa kuelekea ulimwengu wa kisasa, kuelekea Wakristo wengine, na kuelekea ibada yake yenyewe.The largest single body in world Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, underwent its most significant transformation in centuries at the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), called by Pope John XXIII. Vatican II did not change Catholic doctrine at its core, but it reshaped the church's posture toward the modern world, toward other Christians, and toward its own worship.

Badiliko lililoonekana zaidi lilihusu liturujia: Misa, iliyokuwa ikiadhimishwa kwa Kilatini kwa takriban miaka 1,500, sasa iliruhusiwa katika lugha ya watu — lugha ya mahali ya kila jamii — ili Wakatoliki wa kawaida waweze kuelewa na kushiriki. Mtaguso ulihimiza usomaji wa Maandiko miongoni mwa walei, ulilieleza kanisa kuwa "taifa la Mungu" lote, na ulifungua enzi mpya ya majadiliano ya kiekumene, ukiwaita Waprotestanti "ndugu waliotengana" badala ya wazushi. Mahusiano na Kanisa la Kiorthodoksi la Mashariki, pamoja na mahusiano na dini zisizo za Kikristo, yalishughulikiwa kwa roho ya upatanisho zaidi.The most visible change was liturgical: the Mass, celebrated in Latin for some 1,500 years, was now permitted in the vernacular — the local language of each people — so ordinary Catholics could understand and participate. The council encouraged Scripture reading among the laity, described the church as the whole "people of God," and opened a new era of ecumenical dialogue, referring to Protestants as "separated brethren" rather than heretics. Relations with Eastern Orthodoxy and with non-Christian religions were addressed in a more conciliatory spirit.

Mtaguso wa Pili wa Vatikano uligawa maoni ya Wakatoliki na bado unayagawa — baadhi waliupokea kama upyaisho uliochelewa kwa muda mrefu, wengine waliuombolezea kama kujisalimisha kwa usasa. Lakini hakuna anayebisha ukubwa wake. Haiwezekani kuielewa nusu ya Kikatoliki ya Ukristo wa dunia katika miaka sitini iliyopita bila mtaguso huo, na msisitizo wake juu ya lugha ya watu na juu ya walei kusoma Maandiko uliileta Roma, kwa namna fulani, karibu zaidi na mambo ambayo Matengenezo ya Kanisa yalikuwa yameyainua karne nne kabla.Vatican II divided Catholic opinion and still does — some welcomed it as a long-overdue renewal, others lamented it as a capitulation to modernity. But no one disputes its scale. It is impossible to understand the Catholic half of world Christianity over the past sixty years without it, and its emphasis on the vernacular and on lay Scripture reading brought Rome, in some respects, closer to concerns the Reformation had raised four centuries earlier.

Wakati kanisa lilipokuwa likihamia kusini, nchi za Magharibi za karne ya ishirini bado zilizaa wahubiri waliofika ulimwenguni kote. Mtu mkuu kuliko wote wa uinjilisti wa umati alikuwa Billy Graham, ambaye mikutano yake mikuu ya injili (crusades) kuanzia mwishoni mwa miaka ya 1940 na kuendelea iliihubiri Injili ana kwa ana kwa watu wengi kuliko mtu mwingine yeyote katika historia — wanaokadiriwa kuwa milioni 215 katika nchi zaidi ya 185 — akiwaita kufanya uamuzi binafsi wa kumfuata Kristo. Uadilifu wa Graham, kukataa kwake kashfa, na utayari wake wa kuvuka mipaka ya rangi na ya madhehebu vilimfanya kuwa mtu wa Kiprotestanti aliyeaminiwa zaidi katika enzi yake.While the church shifted southward, the twentieth-century West still produced preachers of global reach. The towering figure of mass evangelism was Billy Graham, whose crusades from the late 1940s onward preached the gospel in person to more people than any other individual in history — an estimated 215 million across more than 185 countries — calling them to a personal decision for Christ. Graham's integrity, his refusal of scandal, and his willingness to cross racial and denominational lines made him the most trusted Protestant figure of his age.

Sambamba na uinjilisti wa umati kulikuja kurudishwa kwa fikra za kina za kibiblia. Huko London, Martyn Lloyd-Jones aliwavuta maelfu kwenye mahubiri ya ufafanuzi katika Westminster Chapel. Msomi wa Oxford C. S. Lewis akawa mtetezi wa imani ya Kikristo anayesomwa zaidi katika karne hiyo, akiipendekeza imani kwa wenye mashaka kupitia vitabu kama Mere Christianity (Ukristo Halisi). Kongamano la Lausanne la mwaka 1974, lililoitishwa na Graham na wengine, liliwaunganisha Wainjilisti kote duniani kuzunguka uinjilisti na wajibu kwa jamii pia, na likalipa vuguvugu la ulimwengu mzima sauti moja ya pamoja.Alongside mass evangelism came a recovery of serious biblical thought. In London, Martyn Lloyd-Jones drew thousands to expository preaching at Westminster Chapel. The Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis became the century's most-read Christian apologist, commending the faith to skeptics through books like Mere Christianity. The 1974 Lausanne Congress, convened by Graham and others, united evangelicals worldwide around both evangelism and social responsibility and gave the global movement a common voice.

Hata hivyo nchi za Magharibi kwa ujumla ziliendelea kuacha dini hatua kwa hatua. Mahudhurio ya kanisani huko Ulaya yalishuka sana, na mamlaka ya Ukristo katika utamaduni yalidhoofika kote katika nchi zilizoendelea. Hivyo kanisa la Magharibi la karne ya ishirini liliishi katika mvutano: likizaa baadhi ya wainjilisti na watetezi wa imani wakuu kuliko wote katika historia, huku likitazama utamaduni unaolizunguka ukiondoka mbali na misingi yake ya Kikristo. Eneo la umishonari, lililodhaniwa zamani kuwa liko "kule ng'ambo," lilikuwa limerudi nyumbani.Yet the broader West grew steadily more secular. Church attendance in Europe fell sharply and the cultural authority of Christianity weakened across the developed world. The twentieth-century Western church thus lived in tension: producing some of history's greatest evangelists and apologists, while watching its surrounding culture drift from its Christian foundations. The mission field, once thought of as "over there," had come home.

Maeneo machache yalibadilika kwa kasi kama Amerika ya Kusini. Kwa karne nne ilikuwa ya Kikatoliki ya Roma kwa kiasi kikubwa mno; mwishoni mwa karne ya ishirini wimbi la Waprotestanti — wengi mno wao wakiwa Wapentekoste — liliienea kote. Huko Brazili, Wakristo wa Kiinjili walikua kutoka kuwa wachache kidogo hadi takriban moja ya tano ya wakazi; huko Guatemala walikaribia au walipita asilimia arobaini. Mtindo huo ulijirudia kote Honduras, Nikaragua na kwingineko: makanisa ya Kipentekoste yenye uhai na yanayokua kwa kasi yakibadilisha mataifa ambayo kwa muda mrefu yalitambulishwa kwa Ukatoliki.Few regions changed as fast as Latin America. For four centuries it was overwhelmingly Roman Catholic; in the late twentieth century a Protestant — overwhelmingly Pentecostal — surge swept across it. In Brazil, evangelicals grew from a small minority to roughly a fifth of the population; in Guatemala they approached or passed forty percent. The pattern repeated across Honduras, Nicaragua, and beyond: vibrant, fast-growing Pentecostal churches reshaping nations long defined by Catholicism.

Meksiko, hata hivyo, kwa muda mrefu ilikuwa ndiyo hali kuu ya pekee. Hata majirani zake walipokuwa wakibadilika, Meksiko ilibaki ya Kikatoliki kwa ukaidi, na wataalamu wa elimu ya umishonari wanataja sababu fulani mahususi: Bikira Maria wa Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe). Sanamu hiyo si ibada ya kidini tu bali ni alama ya utambulisho wa taifa la Meksiko lenyewe, iliyofumwa ndani ya habari ya kuanzishwa kwa taifa hilo. Kuliacha Kanisa Katoliki kungeweza kuonekana kama kuuacha Umeksiko nyuma, jambo lililoufanya uongofu wa Kiinjili kuwa na gharama kubwa kijamii kwa namna ambayo haikuwa hivyo mahali pengine katika eneo hilo.Mexico, however, was long the great exception. Even as its neighbors shifted, Mexico remained stubbornly Catholic, and missiologists point to a particular reason: Our Lady of Guadalupe. The image is not merely a religious devotion but a symbol of Mexican national identity itself, woven into the founding story of the nation. To leave the Catholic Church could feel like leaving Mexican-ness behind, which made evangelical conversion socially costly in a way it was not elsewhere in the region.

Hata hivyo hata hali hiyo ya pekee ya Meksiko sasa inamomonyoka. Kati ya mwaka 2010 na 2020 sehemu ya Wameksiko wanaojitambulisha kuwa Waprotestanti au Wakristo wa Kiinjili ilipanda kutoka takriban asilimia 7.5 hadi asilimia 11.2 — ukuaji wa karibu asilimia hamsini katika mwongo mmoja tu — huku sehemu ya Wakatoliki ikishuka chini ya asilimia 78 kwa mara ya kwanza katika historia ya taifa hilo. Upentekoste unaongoza wimbi hilo, na hata madhehebu ya kihistoria ya Meksiko yamepokea ibada ya Kikarismatiki. Ukuta uliojengwa na Guadalupe na utambulisho wa taifa ni mfupi kuliko ulivyokuwa, na hatimaye Meksiko inajiunga na habari ya Amerika ya Kusini ambayo majirani zake waliianza miongo kadhaa iliyopita.Yet even the Mexican exception is now eroding. Between 2010 and 2020 the share of Mexicans identifying as Protestant or evangelical rose from about 7.5 percent to 11.2 percent — nearly fifty percent growth in a single decade — while the Catholic share fell below 78 percent for the first time in the nation's history. Pentecostalism leads the surge, and even historic Mexican denominations have absorbed charismatic worship. The wall that Guadalupe and national identity built is lower than it was, and Mexico is at last joining the Latin American story its neighbors began decades earlier.

Katika maeneo yake ya zamani ya msingi huko Magharibi, kanisa la karne ya ishirini na moja linakabiliwa na mashinikizo mawili makuu: kupungua kwa idadi na mgawanyiko wa ndani. Kupungua huko ni kukubwa. Kote Ulaya, mahudhurio ya kanisani ya kila wiki yameshuka hadi chini ya asilimia kumi katika mataifa mengi, makanisa makuu yaliyojengwa kuwapokea maelfu sasa yanapokea makumi tu, na nchini Marekani kundi la kidini linalokua kwa kasi zaidi limekuwa wale wanaoitwa "nones" — wale wasiodai dini yoyote kabisa. Ukristo wa kitamaduni uliowahi kujaza viti vya makanisa ya Magharibi unaporomoka ndani ya muda wa maisha ya mtu mmoja.In its old Western heartlands, the twenty-first-century church faces two great pressures: numerical decline and internal division. The decline is steep. Across Europe, weekly church attendance has fallen to single digits in many nations, cathedrals built to hold thousands now host dozens, and in the United States the fastest-growing religious category has become the "nones" — those who claim no religion at all. The cultural Christianity that once filled the pews of the West is collapsing within a single lifetime.

Sambamba na kupungua kunakuja mipangilio mipya mikuu juu ya maswali ya kimaadili na ya kimafundisho. Maswali kuhusu wanawake katika huduma yamewagawa Wakristo ambao hata hivyo wanashiriki mtazamo wa juu kuhusu Maandiko. Wale wanaoiwekea mipaka ofisi ya mchungaji au ya mzee wa kanisa kwa wanaume waliohitimu hutegemea hasa maagizo ya Paulo katika 1 Timotheo 2:11–12, 1 Timotheo 3:1–7, Tito 1:5–9, na 1 Wakorintho 14:34–35. Wakristo wengine huvisoma vifungu hivyo kwa kuzingatia mifano ya kibiblia ya wanawake waliofanya huduma kubwa: Debora alitumika kama mwamuzi na nabii mke (Waamuzi 4–5); Hulda alinena kinabii kwa viongozi wa taifa na wa dini (2 Wafalme 22); Prisila, pamoja na Akila, walisaidia kumfundisha Apolo kwa usahihi zaidi (Matendo 18:26); Fibi anaitwa diakonos (mtumishi) katika Warumi 16:1; binti wanne wa Filipo walitabiri (Matendo 21:9); na 1 Wakorintho 11:5 inachukulia kwamba wanawake waliomba na kutabiri. Wagalatia 3:28 inatangaza kwamba katika Kristo hakuna mume wala mke, ingawa Wakristo hutofautiana kuhusu iwapo usawa huo katika Kristo unaondoa tofauti katika ofisi za kanisa. CTS inatambua jambo hili kuwa eneo ambalo Wakristo waliojitoa kwa mamlaka ya Biblia hufikia hitimisho tofauti; lengo hapa ni kuzielewa hoja za kibiblia kwa haki, si kulifanya msimamo wa dhehebu moja kuwa sharti la kusoma.Alongside decline come major realignments over moral and doctrinal questions. Questions about women in ministry have divided Christians who nevertheless share a high view of Scripture. Those who restrict the pastoral or elder office to qualified men appeal especially to Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 2:11–12, 1 Timothy 3:1–7, Titus 1:5–9, and 1 Corinthians 14:34–35. Other Christians read those passages in light of biblical examples of women exercising significant ministry: Deborah served as judge and prophetess (Judges 4–5); Huldah spoke prophetically to national and religious leaders (2 Kings 22); Priscilla, with Aquila, helped instruct Apollos more accurately (Acts 18:26); Phoebe is called a diakonos in Romans 16:1; Philip’s four daughters prophesied (Acts 21:9); and 1 Corinthians 11:5 assumes women prayed and prophesied. Galatians 3:28 declares that in Christ there is neither male nor female, though Christians disagree over whether that equality in Christ removes distinctions in church office. CTS recognizes this as an area in which Christians committed to biblical authority reach differing conclusions; the purpose here is to understand the biblical arguments fairly rather than make one denominational position a condition of study.

Mabishano mengine ya kimaadili, ikiwemo yale yanayohusu ujinsia, nayo yamesababisha migawanyiko mikubwa ya madhehebu. Historia ya kanisa inapaswa kuiandika mipasuko hiyo kwa usahihi bila kugeuza kila swali la sasa linalobishaniwa kuwa mpaka wa kimadhehebu wa CTS.Other moral controversies, including sexuality, have also produced major denominational divisions. Church history should record those fractures accurately without turning every disputed contemporary question into a CTS denominational boundary.

Kumbukumbu za madhehebu ziko wazi. Madhehebu makongwe ya "mainline" yalitangulia: Kanisa la Episkopali, Kanisa la Presbiteri (USA), na Kanisa la Kiinjili la Kilutheri katika Amerika yalifungua uwekaji wakfu wa wachungaji na ndoa kwa washiriki wa LGBTQ, na kila moja lilipoteza chini ya asilimia kumi ya makusanyiko yake kwa madhehebu ya kihafidhina zaidi. Kanisa la United Methodist liligawanyika kwa kiwango kikubwa zaidi — takriban makusanyiko 7,600 yalijiondoa kufikia mwisho wa mwaka 2023, mgawanyiko mkubwa zaidi wa dhehebu nchini Marekani tangu Vita vya Wenyewe kwa Wenyewe, na mengi yao yakajiunga na Global Methodist Church (Kanisa la Kimethodisti la Kimataifa) lililoundwa mwaka 2022. Southern Baptist Convention (Muungano wa Wabaptisti wa Kusini), dhehebu kubwa zaidi la Kiprotestanti nchini humo, sasa liko chini ya shinikizo kama hilo kuhusu wanawake kutumika kama wachungaji, likiyaondoa makanisa kwa sababu ya swali hilo, huku washiriki wakiondoka pande zote mbili. (Utaifa wa Kikristo, shinikizo linalohusiana nalo katika karne ya ishirini na moja, unashughulikiwa katika kozi ya Teolojia ya Kimfumo.)The denominational record is plain. Mainline bodies moved first: the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America opened ordination and marriage to LGBTQ members, and each lost under ten percent of its congregations to more conservative bodies. The United Methodist Church split far more dramatically — roughly 7,600 congregations disaffiliated by the end of 2023, the largest denominational divide in the United States since the Civil War, with most joining the new Global Methodist Church formed in 2022. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant body, is now under similar strain over women serving as pastors, disaffiliating churches over the question, with members departing on both sides. (Christian nationalism, a related twenty-first-century pressure, is addressed in the Systematic Theology course.)

Mipasuko hii inaumiza, lakini historia ya kanisa inaiweka katika mtazamo sahihi. Madhehebu yamegawanyika kabla — juu ya utumwa katika karne ya kumi na tisa, juu ya usasa (modernism) katika karne ya ishirini — na kanisa limeendelea mbele. Kupungua kwa Magharibi ni halisi na ni jambo zito, lakini ni nusu tu ya picha ya ulimwengu mzima: wakati Magharibi inabishana na makanisa yake yanabaki matupu, Kusini inaamini na makanisa yake yanajaa. Kitovu cha Ukristo kimehama tu.These fractures are painful, but church history puts them in perspective. Denominations have split before — over slavery in the nineteenth century, over modernism in the twentieth — and the church has gone on. The Western decline is real and sobering, yet it is only half the global picture: while the West argues and empties, the South believes and fills. The center of Christianity has simply moved.

Ukweli unaoutambulisha Ukristo leo ni kwamba ni imani ya ulimwengu mzima ambayo wafuasi wake wengi si wa Magharibi. Mwaka 1900, takriban asilimia 80 ya Wakristo wa dunia waliishi Ulaya na Amerika Kaskazini. Leo takriban theluthi mbili wanaishi Afrika, Asia na Amerika ya Kusini — maeneo ambayo wasomi huyaita Kusini mwa dunia. Afrika peke yake ilitoka kuwa na Wakristo takriban milioni 10 mwaka 1900 hadi zaidi sana ya milioni 600 leo. Mkristo wa kawaida wa karne ya ishirini na moja si tena mwanamume wa Ulaya bali zaidi uwezekano ni mwanamke wa Afrika au wa Amerika ya Kusini.The defining fact of Christianity today is that it is a global, majority non-Western faith. In 1900, about 80 percent of the world's Christians lived in Europe and North America. Today roughly two-thirds live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America — the regions scholars call the global South. Africa alone went from about 10 million Christians in 1900 to well over 600 million today. The typical Christian of the twenty-first century is no longer a European man but more likely an African or Latin American woman.

Mabadiliko haya yanabadilisha kitovu cha nguvu za imani hii. Mavuguvugu ya umishonari yenye uhai zaidi leo mara nyingi hutuma watendakazi kutoka Kusini mwa dunia kwenda Magharibi isiyojali dini — wamishonari wa Korea kwenda Ulaya, wapanda makanisa wa Nigeria na wa Brazili huko Amerika Kaskazini. Kwa mara ya kwanza tangu karne za mwanzo, ukingo unaokua wa kanisa kwa kiasi kikubwa uko nje ya Magharibi, na maswali yanayoyashughulisha madhehebu ya Magharibi yanaonekana tofauti sana na yale yanayoyahamasisha makanisa yanayostawi ya Lagos, Seoul na São Paulo.This shift is reshaping the faith's center of energy. The most vibrant missionary movements today often send workers from the global South to the secular West — Korean missionaries to Europe, Nigerian and Brazilian church planters in North America. For the first time since the early centuries, the church's growing edge is largely outside the West, and the questions that consume Western denominations look very different from those that animate the booming churches of Lagos, Seoul, and São Paulo.

Kozi hii ilianza na Ahadi: "Nami nitalijenga kanisa langu; wala milango ya kuzimu haitalishinda." Tumetazama karne ishirini zikitupa kila kitu zilichokuwa nacho dhidi ya Ahadi hiyo — mateso, uzushi, ufisadi, mafarakano, ukimya wa waoga, na kutojali kwa walio katika starehe — na tumeliona kanisa likinusurika kila mojawapo. Leo kanisa hilo ni kubwa zaidi, la ulimwengu mzima zaidi, na lenye utofauti zaidi kuliko wakati wowote katika historia yake, likiwa na waumini wengi zaidi katika mataifa na lugha nyingi zaidi kuliko mitume wangeweza kuwazia. Himaya zilizojaribu kuliponda zimetoweka; kanisa ambalo Yesu alisema angelijenga lingalipo. Huo si propaganda. Ni kumbukumbu ya kihistoria ya karne ishirini. Na hapo ndipo kozi hii inakuacha — si mwishoni, bali katikati ya habari ambayo sura yake ya mwisho Kristo Mwenyewe ameshaahidi kuiandika.This course began with a Promise: "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." We have watched twenty centuries throw everything they had at that Promise — persecution, heresy, corruption, schism, the silence of cowards, and the indifference of the comfortable — and we have watched the church survive every one of them. Today that church is larger, more global, and more diverse than at any moment in its history, with more believers across more nations and languages than the apostles could have imagined. The empires that tried to crush it are gone; the church Jesus said He would build remains. That is not propaganda. It is the historical record of twenty centuries. And it is where this course leaves you — not at an ending, but in the middle of a story whose final chapter Christ Himself has already promised to write.