Change and Continuity in AIC Church Life and Their Scholarship: A Question of Maturation?

During the twentieth century the acronym AIC became a well-known and widely accepted designation for a large swath of African Christianity perceived to have originated and grown independently of overseas missionary agency. More recently the relevancy of the term has been questioned as an explanatory category. This chapter considers both the ways in which scholarship has developed in consideration of AIC in recent times as well as illuminating certain developments in the church life in forms of Christianity that might have been so designated by prior scholarship. It also considers a more general question regarding the ongoing usage of AIC in respect to the term’s reception within the adherents of churches that had been labelled thus. In reference to the developing context of African Christianity beyond the geographical confines of the continent itself, this chapter suggests that AIC is perhaps acquiring new currency from within a burgeoning African Christian scholarship that is also reflecting on the growing global migration experience in African Christianity.