ABSTRACT
How was it that an avowedly counter-cultural religious movement came to exercise a profound influence on Protestant Christianity in East Africa? In this chapter I argue that, although the Revival repudiated many African customs that it deemed incompatible with gospel teaching, such as polygamy, sexually provocative dances and payment of bride price, it could not extricate itself fully from its own cultural environment. Like African culture itself, the Revival was dynamic, pragmatic and eclectic. In fact the movement’s genius lay in its ability to create a synthesis of biblical teachings and indigenous cultural and religious practices that was uniquely its own. 1 Nowhere was this synthesis more evident than in the Revival practice of public confession of sins.
