Early Christianity in East Africa and Red Sea/Indian Ocean Commerce

What is it about?

The kingdom of Aksum adopted Christianity from the fourth-century reign of Ezana onwards. This article argues that Christianity was present before this, and that the new religion should be situated within the context of early Red Sea commerce. Trade was the carrier of impulses from communities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean worlds and created the social infrastructure that expatriate believers, early converts, and later, church officials and local elites could draw upon.

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Why is it important?

The article makes use of social network perspectives in order to understand how religions spread into new regions, and how the process of conversion might have taken place. This reconciles our literary and archaeological sources with modern sociological models of conversion, and show how networks of ideology, trade and political power interact.