The fragile identity of being Lutheran and African : the vulnerability of confessional Lutheran seminaries in Africa today

Abstract

The Hermannsburg Mission Society (HMS) missionaries who were first sent in the mid-1850s by Louis Harms from Hermannsburg were revived in confessional Lutheranism. Their independent foundations were disturbed when the Kingdom of Hannover was cemented into the Kingdom of Prussia that insisted that the HMS was to abide by the rules that governed the united state church in Prussia and Hannover in 1866. Ever since, a small number of Lutherans have maintained their adherence to the Lutheran Reformation confessions despite the global call for ecumenism, open opposition to state injustices, women ordination and opposition to duplication of institutions. This article intends to show how fragile in Africa the confessional Lutheran identity is today. The challenges facing the African Lutheran confessionalism in seminaries are manifold. For instance there is increased global Christian cooperation, dwindling financial support for Third World countries and a free expression of African religious identity.