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| Title: | The Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Politics in the Twentieth Century: Part One |
| Author: | Larebo, Haile Mariam |
| Year: | 1987 |
| Periodical: | Northeast African Studies |
| Volume: | 9 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 1-17 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
| Subjects: | Ethiopian Church Church and State Religion and Witchcraft Politics and Government |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/43660244 |
| Abstract: | The 'Kebra Nagast' (The Glory of Kings) represents the Ethiopian Orthodox Church's own image of its role in the Ethiopian nation and State, according to which the Ethiopian nation, the Orthodoxy, and the monarchy are indissolubly linked. Its ideals, however, have failed to materialize, with the exception perhaps of the brief period of religious revival which accompanied the surge of Abyssinian power abroad (1270-1468). The weakness of the church lies in its internal structures, with a weak central authority confronted by a strong periphery. Beginning in the early 20th century the State tried to reverse the weakening position of the church through a programme of centralization and modernization, focusing in particular on the issues of autocephaly and internal reform. However, despite the Ethiopianization of the episcopacy in 1948, and despite all the reform measures undertaken by Haile Selassie, church organization remained quite amorphous, the quality of its leadership poor, and its clergy, as in the past, remained devoid of any missionary zeal. At the time of the 1974 revolution, Orthodoxy was a source of ethnic, religious, and class antagonisms rather than being a viable unifying force. The revolution has tried to control and transform the church and has actively promoted the gap between church and State. Notes, ref. |
