A History of Catholicism in Wolaita from 1930 UP TO 1991
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Date
2023-02-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This thesis is a study of Catholic religion in Wolaita.It was mainly introduced to Wolaita
fromthe 1930s.Catholicism evolved in Wolaita during the period of 1930s to till now.
Catholicism in Ethiopia has along history. After the division of the Churches in the 5th century
following the Council of Chalcedon(451) the Ethiopian Church was doctrinally separated from
the Catholic Church in the West and also later largely isolated from contacts with it. The
attempt to win Ethiopia to Catholicism in the reign of Susenyos ended in disastrous failure and it
was not until the 19th century that Catholicism gained aratherprecarious foot hold in Ethiopia.
Starting from the 1930 s it was able to make progress and my thesis and studies tries to show
how it progressed from the 1920s in Wolaita. Inspite of this, however, it has so far received in
adequate scholarly attention. Even the small numbers of studies on Catholicism are limited and
fragmented.
My thesis tries to give acomprehensive coverage of Catholicism in Wolaita and as a major aim,
to put Catholicism from the 1930s to present in to the social and political context of Wolaita.
Social history, often called the new social history, (though it is no longer new) is a broad
branch of history that studies the experiences of ordinary people in the past. In its"golden
age"it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well
represented in history departments including religious history. “The spirit of the 1960s social
history responding in its own way to the „winds of change‟, was pre-eminently a modernizing
one, both chronologically, in the choice of historical subject matter, and methodologically, in
the adoption of multi-disciplinary perspectives.”Therefore, present social history themes vary
much more.
The history of religion refers to the record of human religious experiences and ideas. My study
therefore, is meant to fill the gap in the field of socio-cultural and religious history of Wolaita.
Inaddition, this thesis can also, hopefully, contribute to the study of southern peoples and
various Vicariates of Ethiopia, particularly the neighbors of Wolaita.
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A History of Catholicism in Wolaita