Theological messages varied from place to place, but a common core of beliefs included the struggle against sorcery, the purification of society, and the existence of a black God. Denominations include Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 20% and Kimbanguist 10%.

Structurally, the church organization has been changed to parallel the administrative division of the state into regions, subregions, zones, and collectivities. The article examines the relation between Church and the State in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to what extent those relations conflict with the right to freedom of religion or with secularism principle. The organ and its powers are hereditary. The faith has a significant impact on the economy, political and social life of the Congolese nation. The church's penetration of the country at large is a product of the colonial era. Adherents of Roman Catholicism account for about one-third of the country’s Christians. 1, pp. According to the US State Department, approximately 45 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, 40 percent Protestant, 5 percent Church of Jesus Christ on Earth through the Prophet Simon Kimbangu, and 5 percent Muslim. The church's head, Simon Kimbangu's son, regularly exchanges public praise with Mobutu and has become one of the state's main ideological supports. During the existence of the Situated outside of the governing colonial trinity of state, Catholic church, and companies, Protestant missions did not enjoy the same degree of official confidence as that accorded their Catholic counterparts. Protestant churches, and particularly the Church of Christ leadership, have been consistently supportive of Mobutu, making them an attractive potential partner. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. In the event of illness, or of crop failure, or of misfortune in some other sphere of life, the stricken party may consult a From an outsider's perspective, the most striking aspect of indigenous belief and practice is its referenced by the European Christian orientalist Timothy Insoll. In the search for spiritual resources, the Congolese have frequently displayed a marked openness and pragmatism. According to the CIA World Factbook, the people of the Republic of the Congo are largely a mix of Catholics (33.3%), Awakening/Revival churches (22.3%) and other Protestants (19.9%). 64, No. 139–40, 150–51H. The movement's anticolonial message was so strong that the Jehovah's Witnesses had to make it very clear that they never had anything to do with that religion. The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa: The Making of Malawi and Zambia, 1873-1944.

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Republic of the Congo - Republic of the Congo - Religion: Some three-fourths of the population is Christian. The state of Belgiumalso subsidized Roman Catholic missions that would establish schools as well as hospitals throughout the country. 64, No.

Early relations with the state were not warm. Oral Literature and Moral Education among the Lakeside Tonga of Northern Malawi, Oxford, African Books Collective, pp. In return, these 8 had become Christian".

The new indigenous leadership has succeeded in expanding its churches in Africa's largest Protestant churches are valued, as are their Catholic counterparts, not only for the medical and educational services they provide, but also for serving as islands of integrity in a sea of corruption. The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa: The Making of Malawi and Zambia, 1873-1944.

Some have been founded by figures known as prophets, individuals who respond to situations of popular dissatisfaction with existing spiritual agents and organizations by creating new religious movements. An insistence on absolute obedience to the leader and a ban on doctrinal disputes also are shared by both institutions. Witches can bring death and illness to crops, animals, and people, and their actions can be voluntary or involuntary. A sorcerer might be consulted and paid to provide a medicine or object that strengthens the client in the hunt (or, in contemporary life, in taking an exam) or that brings misfortune on an enemy. The church's reversal of its role in relation to the state since independence has been striking. After a few years the population in Congo was reduced from more than 30 million to only 8. At independence in 1960, some forty-six Protestant missionary groups were at work, the majority of them North American, British, or Scandinavian in origin. 16–17, 20Rotberg, R I (1965). And Congolese practicing traditional African religions may also go to both established Christian clergy and breakaway Christian sects in search of spiritual assistance. 'A Very Antagonistic Spirit': Elliot Kamwana: Christianity and the World in Nyasaland, the Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. Witches are individuals who possess an internal organ giving them extraordinary power, generally malevolent power. In spite of state prohibitions, new churches outside the three officially recognized in the DRC have sprung up and, so long as they remain small and nonthreatening, have usually been left alone by authorities. The writer Jens Bjørneboe wrote in "Frihetens Øyeblikk" (Moments of Freedom) that "The Belgians worked hard with missionary activities among the black.

Far more significant are ancestors, who are believed to continue to play a part in community life long after their death.



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