ABSTRACT
In the burgeoning academic scholarship on religion and development, most specifically that section concerned with the nexus between religion and development in African society, the potential and actual development role of African Initiated Churches (AICs) is receiving increasing attention. In this respect, a theoretical claim or thesis that has come in vogue in the literature to capture the essential contribution that these churches are making in the sphere of development, is that of development from below. This chapter, contributing to the academic debate about AICs and development, seeks to subject the development-from-below thesis to closer scrutiny. Through a closer study of a selected corpus of literature, within an explorative framework that incorporates both the familiar African Independent-type Churches and the new African-founded Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches, the discussion proceeds to identify and discuss five dimensions that can be said to define the development-from-below thesis. This finally leads the chapter to conclude with a positive but also qualifying statement about the continuation of a research exploration of AICs and development along the lines of the development-from-below thesis.
