Memorializing the Unsung
By the time the Capuchins arrived in the seventeenth century, Kongo had been Catholic for nearly two hundred years. The European mission could not be conversion, then, but reinforcement; the Capuchins sought to establish the sacraments and a line to Rome in a lay-led church already suffused with an...
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| Format: | Online |
| Idioma: | anglès |
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Penn State University Press
2025
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| Accés en línia: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/104247 |
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| author | Uzukwu, Elochukwu C.S.Sp. |
| author_browse | Uzukwu, Elochukwu C.S.Sp. |
| author_facet | Uzukwu, Elochukwu C.S.Sp. |
| author_sort | Uzukwu, Elochukwu C.S.Sp. |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | By the time the Capuchins arrived in the seventeenth century, Kongo had been Catholic for nearly two hundred years. The European mission could not be conversion, then, but reinforcement; the Capuchins sought to establish the sacraments and a line to Rome in a lay-led church already suffused with an enduring, creative, and complex theological culture. In Memorializing the Unsung,ElochukwuUzukwu uses the framework of this “ancient” Kongo Catholicism to explore European dependence on enslaved Kongo Catholics and the unconscionable Capuchin and Spiritan participation in the slave trade at large—a practice denounced by the lone voices of Capuchin Epifanio de Moirans and Spiritan Alexandre Monnet.
Reconstructing the church that missionaries and Kongo Catholics built together on the foundations of local religion, Memorializing the Unsung contrasts the dignity denied the Kongo Catholics with the freedom they nonetheless performed. Uzukwu is particularly deft in tracing the agency of Kongo elites and laypeople from the fifteenth century through the nineteenth, carefully evaluating their deliberate engagements with southern Europeans, the role of the maestri (translator-catechists) in guiding the faithful, and the ultimate development of a unique theological vocabulary endorsed by the Kikongo catechism.
Without the support and creativity of these unsung lay Catholics across west-central and eastern Africa, Uzukwu shows, the European missions in the region would have failed. Even while enslaved, the Kongo Slaves of the Church and the eastern African Slaves of the Mission served as mediators, co-creators, and reinventors of their world. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-162914 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Penn State University Press |
| publisherStr | Penn State University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1629142025-07-17T05:07:22Z Memorializing the Unsung Uzukwu, Elochukwu C.S.Sp. Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church;Slavery and abolition of slavery;African history;Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups::QRMB1 Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTS Slavery and abolition of slavery thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVS Religious institutions and organizations::QRVS4 Religious mission and Religious Conversion By the time the Capuchins arrived in the seventeenth century, Kongo had been Catholic for nearly two hundred years. The European mission could not be conversion, then, but reinforcement; the Capuchins sought to establish the sacraments and a line to Rome in a lay-led church already suffused with an enduring, creative, and complex theological culture. In Memorializing the Unsung,ElochukwuUzukwu uses the framework of this “ancient” Kongo Catholicism to explore European dependence on enslaved Kongo Catholics and the unconscionable Capuchin and Spiritan participation in the slave trade at large—a practice denounced by the lone voices of Capuchin Epifanio de Moirans and Spiritan Alexandre Monnet. Reconstructing the church that missionaries and Kongo Catholics built together on the foundations of local religion, Memorializing the Unsung contrasts the dignity denied the Kongo Catholics with the freedom they nonetheless performed. Uzukwu is particularly deft in tracing the agency of Kongo elites and laypeople from the fifteenth century through the nineteenth, carefully evaluating their deliberate engagements with southern Europeans, the role of the maestri (translator-catechists) in guiding the faithful, and the ultimate development of a unique theological vocabulary endorsed by the Kikongo catechism. Without the support and creativity of these unsung lay Catholics across west-central and eastern Africa, Uzukwu shows, the European missions in the region would have failed. Even while enslaved, the Kongo Slaves of the Church and the eastern African Slaves of the Mission served as mediators, co-creators, and reinventors of their world. 2025-07-17T05:07:21Z 2025-07-17T05:07:21Z 2025-07-16T09:24:54Z 2024 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/104247 9780271096988 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/162914 eng World Christianity open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/104247/1/9780271098661.pdf Penn State University Press 10.5325/b.20249482 10.5325/b.20249482 e4e05b94-0f85-49a1-ba66-543b1dd40087 9780271096988 245 open access |
| spellingShingle | Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church;Slavery and abolition of slavery;African history;Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups::QRMB1 Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTS Slavery and abolition of slavery thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVS Religious institutions and organizations::QRVS4 Religious mission and Religious Conversion Uzukwu, Elochukwu C.S.Sp. Memorializing the Unsung |
| title | Memorializing the Unsung |
| title_full | Memorializing the Unsung |
| title_fullStr | Memorializing the Unsung |
| title_full_unstemmed | Memorializing the Unsung |
| title_short | Memorializing the Unsung |
| title_sort | memorializing the unsung |
| topic | Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church;Slavery and abolition of slavery;African history;Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups::QRMB1 Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTS Slavery and abolition of slavery thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVS Religious institutions and organizations::QRVS4 Religious mission and Religious Conversion |
| topic_facet | Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church;Slavery and abolition of slavery;African history;Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups::QRMB1 Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTS Slavery and abolition of slavery thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVS Religious institutions and organizations::QRVS4 Religious mission and Religious Conversion |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/104247 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT uzukwuelochukwucssp memorializingtheunsung |