Ludwig Krapf arrived in East Africa in 1844 as the first Protestant missionary to that region. He envisioned doing in Africa what Luther had done in Germany during the Reformation.[1] He began preaching the gospel and teaching literacy. Before he died in 1881, a church had been established, and he hoped that, “in ten or twenty years, in God’s providence, an extensive literature will be found for the promotion of Christianity…”[2]
Nearly a century later, in 1975, Byang Kato, a Nigerian theologian, identified a wider problem: the theological and biblical ignorance in the broader African Church. Kato believed this was because of an “inadequate emphasis on theological education on the part of missionaries … So a mammoth church has been established without the depth of theology that the church needs.”[3]
Much of rural Africa remains unreached by Reformed Christianity, while African traditional religion (ATR) is gaining renewed traction and the Prosperity Gospel has had a huge negative impact. Solid biblical and theological literature can help rural pastors understand the Scriptures more deeply and teach their congregations. History repeatedly shows us how good literature strengthens the Church.
During the Reformation in the 16th century, the printed word carried the theology of the Reformers across Europe. The effect of the printed word, says Alister McGrath, “cannot be overstated.”[4] The first French edition of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion appeared in 1541 and marked a turning point in the French Reformation. The printing presses of Geneva and Lausanne, among other places, were established especially to inundate France with Reformed literature, and to provide the “library-carriers” with books— “it was chiefly through them that the Bible penetrated into the manor of the nobles, and beneath the hut of the villager.”[5]
Again, in the mid-20th century, when the teaching of the Reformers and Puritans had fallen on hard times, it was a resurgence of Reformed literature that helped spark a revival of Reformed Christianity. In 1925, a lay Christian and businessman, Mr Geoffrey Williams, established what would become known as the Evangelical Library. In January 1939, Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones took an active interest in the library and helped bring the books to a wider readership. In 1955, Rev. Iain Murray produced the first issue of the Banner of Truth magazine and, a couple of years later, helped establish the Banner of Truth Trust, arguably the premier Reformed publishing house in the mid-to-late 20th century.
Lloyd-Jones observed that “most of the great men of God have been great readers.”[6] Iain Murray, in turn, spoke of what happens when the truth is preached; “it is when people hear the truth preached that hunger is inspired in them.”[7]
Through WhatsApp, an online library, and our printed magazine, The Pastor’s Study, the Krapf Project seeks to carry Reformation theology into rural Africa and support pastors as they seek to preach the truth.Will you help us put good theological and biblical literature into the hands of rural pastors in Africa?
[1] To get to the heart of Africa, Krapf believed that the Oromo people were the best suited to accomplish this end. He developed a strategy based on the Protestant Reformation in Germany. He often referred to this region as “Ormania” analogous, he thought, to “Germania.” “To my mind,” he said “Ormania is the Germany of Africa,” and at one time said, “give us the Oromo, and Central Africa is ours.” Aaron Dunlop, Johann Ludwig Krapf: His Life and Legacy (Joshua Press, 2022), 119.
[2] Eugene Stock, The missionary career of Dr. Krapf (London: Church Missionary Society, 1882), 29.
[3] Byang Kato, Theological Pitfalls in Africa, (Kisumu: Evangelic Publishing House, 1975), 15.
[4] McGrath, Alister E., Reformation Thought, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1988), 14.
[5] De Felice, G. The History of The Protestants in France, Trans; Philip Edward Barnes (London: George Routledge & Co., 1853), 53.
[6] Iain H. Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, vol. 2, The Fight of Faith, 1939–1981 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1990), 710.
[7] Iain Murray, “Editorial: Interview with Rev. Iain Murray,” interview by Aaron Dunlop, The Pastor’s Study 3, no. 4 (October–December 2023): 3–4.