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9781611461473

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Historian Houle (Fairleigh Dickinson Univ.) explores the process by which Zulu congregants of the American Zulu Mission (AZM) in Britain's Southern African Natal Colony in the late 19th and early 20th centuries naturalized Christianity and made it a local religion. The stripping away of the US cultural traits of the AZM -a Congregationalist mission affiliated with the American Board of Commissioners- was achieved, ironically, via a characteristically US tool for conversion: the revival meeting. Zulu emotionalism made white missionaries uncomfortable, but like colonizers everywhere, they eventually conceded that while they could deliver the message, they could not control its reception and application. Underlying Houle's analysis is his desire to explain why a majority of Zulu converts stayed with the AZM rather than joining African Independent Churches that would allow them greater freedom of religious expression. To answer, Houle moves away from the political and economic explanations offered by Jean and John Comaroff, Elizabeth Elbourne, Paul Landau, and J. D. Y. Peel, and follows Benedict Carton by explaining how Zulu converts transformed AZM theology from within by incorporating Zulu beliefs. This transformation, Houle argues, helped ensure the survival of Christianity in rural Southern Africa. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. CHOICE

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Robert J. Houle is associate professor of history at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

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