Pragmatic Faith and the Tanzanian Lutheran Church

This is an illuminating and intricately woven study that draws from the life of a significant Tanzanian Evangelical Lutheran churchman, Bishop Erasto Kweka, to tell the complex story of a mainline church and advance a theory of churchly social action as political and economic action that does not displace the state or fill a void left by a failed state. It demonstrates a central African and Christian impulse that religion should have salutary, practical consequences. It goes beyond the view of church and state as somehow entangled in a competitive struggle for power, seeing them instead as having different but sometimes complementary visions of power. Students of African Christianity will gain new and significant insights from this text. -- David Tonghou Ngong, Stillman College
This timely book addresses head-on the contentious question regarding the separation of the church and the state. While aptly stressing the need for the church to maintain independence and integrity, it showcases how this is not incongruent with its mission to hold the state accountable in matters of injustice and inequality. Its authors do so through a biographical sketch of the life and work of arguably the most illustrious leader of the Lutheran church in Tanzania, Bishop Erasto N. Kweka. As we grapple with figuring out the role of religion in these tumultuous times, this book offers a refreshing reappraisal of how “pragmatic faith” can be exercised to empower the people, especially in contexts of increasing state authoritarianism. A must read for scholars of politics and religion. -- Chambi Chachage, Princeton University