The Writings and Influence of Edward W. Blyden

This chapter explores the significance and legacy of the contributions made by Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832–1912), to the history and historiography of African Christianity. During an era that routinely embraced the prevailing late nineteenth-century interpretations of the origins and developmental history of Christianity and inevitably affirmed the agency of Europe and Europeans, while ignoring and denigrating Africa and Africans, Blyden audaciously presented and published groundbreaking scholarship that challenged both popular and academic versions of this Eurocentric narrative. Illuminated by this article is his bold interrogation and selective appropriation of the era’s new and controversial critical hermeneutical and historical methodology in order to emphasize and valorize instead the role of Africa and her descendants in the formative process and dissemination of Christianity. By way of his pioneering hermeneutical and historiographical scholarship, this repatriate son of Africa bequeathed a valuable legacy to subsequent generations of scholars of African Christianity.