RECENT TRENDS IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF CHRISTIANITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

During the last decade there has been a notable upsurge in publication s about religion in African history. The trend is also noticeable in w riting specifically concerned with Southern Africa though it is not sp read evenly across regions and disciplines. Male writers with religiou s connections still predominate. There have been some important studie s of mission Christianity and African evangelism, although inordinate attention is still paid to nineteenth-century origins and biography. W riting about the relationship between colonialism and Christianity is still permeated by disputes about the role of organised religion in su staining white supremacy, despite an emerging consensus among historia ns that Christianity was a two-edged sword that could undercut as well as sustain domination. Understanding the position taken on these issu es by active clergy and departments of religious studies requires some knowledge of the debates provoked by the advent of 'African Theology' , 'Black Theology' and 'Liberation Theology'. One of the most interest ing trends in historical studies of religion is renewed attention to t he question of religious conversion, an inner process of mental/spirit ual transformation often considered to be inaccessible to normal proce sses of investigation. The writings of Lamin Sanneh on 'translation' s uggest interesting new lines of research. Up to this point there has b een very little historical work on Southern African religion employing techniques of post-structural or discourse analysis. Other neglected areas include missionary medicine, the work of non-Anglophone missions and the gendered nature of religious experience.