THE DECLINE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE 7TH CENTURY NORTH AFRICA: LESSONS FOR THE CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN CHURCH

摘要

The decline of Christianity in North Africa is a fact of history that is better imagined than explained. Many people hold the view that Christianity is a white man’s religion and thus view Christianity as a religion that is foreign to Africa. However, from the available literature, this is not true. Christianity thrived considerably in North Africa such that one would have expected it to grow steadily and eventually take over the entire region and become the major religion. The paper uses qualitative and historical approaches based on descriptive and content analysis. However, from the analysis, it is found that this is not the case. Several reasons account for the decline of Christianity in North Africa such as paganised Christianity, ecclesiastical corruption, the corruption of church leaders, imperial Christianity, and Vandal persecution among others. This paper analyzed the reasons for the decline of Christianity in the North African Church, in the seventh century. It recommends that the church in Nigeria should avoid the temptation of joining issues of the church with political issues thereby allowing itself to be influenced by the political leaders against God’s word. The church should seek to influence political leaders to play politics following the word of God.