Abstract
This fascinating study analyses engagement between European Protestants and Ethiopian Orthodoxy from the era of Reformation to the early twentieth century. Drawing from an impressive array of archival and textual sources across a range of languages, Paulau skilfully presents the reader with episodes of entanglement mostly between German-speaking Lutherans and the Orthodox church of Ethiopia. Paulau highlights connections and interactions to illuminate varied themes about early modern and modern religious cultures from both European and Ethiopian perspectives.
The study begins with a 1534 meeting between Martin Luther and an Ethiopian monk and it ends with a 1905 diplomatic delegation sent by Emperor Wilhelm II to Emperor Menilek II. Luther’s interest in dialogue with his Ethiopian guest at Wittenberg came in the context of polemic attacks against the legitimacy of his efforts to promote religious reform. To contest Roman claims of historic continuity and universal authority, Lutherans constructed their own narrative of the history of the true Church. Lutherans marshalled Hussites among others as proto-Protestants (the details on what Hussites actually believed got a little lost along the way). Protestants were also interested in investigating whether or not other Christians who rejected the authority of the bishop of Rome could be viewed as possible allies. Most Protestants (and particularly those who lived in Central Europe) concluded that Orthodox churches in Europe were in urgent need of reform. Understanding of the church in Ethiopia relied on very limited information. This allowed Luther and other Protestants to imagine an Ethiopian church to their liking. The Ethiopian church was both beyond Roman authority and could claim a Biblical heritage from the encounter between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba to Philip the Apostle’s baptism of an Ethiopian court official. The scene was set for a productive encounter at Wittenberg between Luther and his Ethiopian visitor (who likely belonged to a small monastic community in Rome). Following dialogue over various points of doctrine, Luther concluded that the Ethiopians could be regarded as brethren. As a result of this meeting (recalled by Luther in his Table Talk) and thanks to some available textual sources, Martin Bucer among others then deployed the Ethiopian church in the cause of opposing Roman claims of authority. For David Chytraeus, the Ethiopian church also demonstrated that the true Church was not limited to Europe and that God’s Word had spread to the ends of the earth.
Paulau then analyses later phases of contact as European Protestants travelled to Ethiopia and witnessed first-hand the rituals of the Orthodox church. The Scottish writer James Bruce concluded in his 1790 Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile that the Ethiopians were ‘in every respect to the full as great heretics as ever the Jesuits represented them’ (115). The older pattern of Protestant imagination about the Ethiopian church as brethren was replaced as visitors to the country spoke of the need for reform of the practice of religion. Agents of the Church Missionary Society who were sent to the region identified themselves with the Apostle Philip. Meanwhile, as Paulau explains, Ethiopians quickly identified the Protestants who sustained mission stations from the 1830s as heretics. Paulau then investigates a final moment of diplomatic and political exchange in February 1905. Menilek II led his armies to victory over the Italians in 1896 and concluded treaties with neighbouring colonial powers. Later efforts to develop relations between Germany and Ethiopia were accompanied by interest from the German side in Ethiopia’s religious history and culture. On 27 February 1905 Wilhelm II’s vision of Berlin as the centre of global Protestantism was marked by the inauguration of the new cathedral in the city. On the same day Wilhelm’s diplomatic delegation met with Menilek II in Addis Ababa. Paulau explores how the events of that day in Germany and Ethiopia connected back to Luther and his interest in the Ethiopian church. Declarations of Christian unity between the two states served the interests of both sides. German curiosity about the origins of the Ethiopian church led to archaeological efforts to uncover Solomonic legacies in Ethiopia. This offered the prospect of adding scientific legitimacy to the Ethiopian emperor’s claims to authority. Paulau’s expert treatment of diverse sources and historiography across a range of periods in this book draws out fascinating themes of broad interest about the complexities of engagement between European and non-European Christianity.