Open links in new tab
  1. Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Shembe

    Isaiah Shembe - Wikipedia

    • Isaiah Mloyiswa Mdliwamafa Shembe (c. 1865 – 2 May 1935), was a prophet and the founder of the Ibandla lamaNazaretha, South Africa, which was the largest African-initiated church in Africa during his lifetime. Shembe started his religious career as an itinerant evangelist and faith healer in 1910. Within ten years, he had built up a large following in Natal w… See more

    Birth and early life

    He was born in 1865, at Ntabamhlophe (Estcourt Area), in the Drakensberg region of Natal. He had Zulu and … See more

    Early years as an evangelist

    Between 1906 and 1910, Shembe was a minor evangelist in Leshega's church. The latter visited him in Harrismith in 1906 and baptized him there (by immersion). For the following two years he worked as an itinerant ev… See more

    See more images of Isaiah Shembe
    See more images of Isaiah Shembe
    All images
    BornShembe Mudliwamafa Mloyiswa · April 3, 1865 · Ntabamhlophe (Estcourt Area), South Africa
    DiedMay 2, 1935 (aged 70) · KwaZulu Natal
    EducationNo Formal Education
    ChildrenJohannes Galilee Shembe (1904-1976), Amos Kula Shembe (1906-1995)
    Leader of the Church of Nazareth, 1910–1935

    By all accounts, Shembe had an electric effect and was able to rapidly build congregations in a number of areas. He formed the Ibandla lamaNazaretha (the Nazaretha Baptist Church) in 1913, with his converts co… See more

    Bibliography

    • H.L. Pretorius (1995) Historiography and historical sources regarding African indigenous churches, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press
    • Oosthuizen, G.C., ed. (1986) Religion Alive: Studies in New Movement… See more

    Wikipedia text under CC-BY-SA license
    Feedback
    Table of Contents
    Birth and early life
    Early years as an evangelist
    Quick Facts
    Leader of the Church of Nazareth, 1910–1935
    Bibliography
     
  1. JSTOR
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/40283280
    [PDF]

    Isaiah Shembe's Theological Nationalism, 1920s-1935 - JSTOR

  2. Boston University
    https://www.bu.edu/missiology/2017/08/15/shembe...

    Shembe, Isaiah Mdliwamafa (1869-1935) | History of Missiology

  3. Springer
    https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_145

    The Bible, the Hymns and Identity: The Prophet Isaiah Shembe and …

  4. ResearchGate
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32…

    'Now we know that the enemy is from within': …

    In 1911, Isaiah Shembe (1865-1935) founded the Nazareth Baptist Church popularly known as KwaShembe (Dube 1936: 29). The church became the first amongst the Zulus to be founded 'with the quest...

  5. Dictionary of African Christian Biography
    https://dacb.org/stories/southafrica/she…

    Shembe, Isaiah Mdliwamafa (A) - Dictionary of African …

    Oct 25, 2024 · Others, led by Lutheran scholar Bengt Sundkler, argued that Shembe’s theology was an Africanized form of Christianity. After Shembe’s death a succession conflict occurred before leadership passed to his third …

  6. People also ask
    What was Shembe's theology of the Zulu Nation?
    Shembe' s theology of the Zulu nation presented the king as a morally ambiguous figure, even depicting the monarchy as the cause of Zulus' downfall at the hands of 'other nations'. Failing to co-opt Solomon into the Nazaretha church, Shembe identified himself, rather than the king, as the true heir to the Zulu nation.

    Isaiah Shembe's Theological Nationalism, 1920s-1935 - JSTOR

    jstor.org
    How did Shembe use the Bible?
    Shembe composed a number of hymns for himself and his followers and in many he appropriated the Bible and used it for his own purposes. He did what Gerald West has called ‘re-membering’ the Bible. This is a reading of the Bible that involves ‘deconstructing’ and ‘reconstructing’ it, to make it serve the purposes of the reader or ‘re-memberer.’

    The Bible, the Hymns and Identity: The Prophet Isaiah Shembe and the

    link.springer.com
    Who is Shembe in the Bible?
    Shembe is Moses, Paul, of the faithful in a context of social struggle and constant temptation. But Shembe is also himself a product and an agent of the South African context of the late 1800 and early 1900s, and as such he is more than an imitator of the Bible. He uses the Bible, re-membering it, for his purposes. Appiah-Kubi, K. 1977.

    READING SHEMBE 'RE-MEMBERING' THE BIBLE: ISAIAH SHEMBE'S ... - J…

    jstor.org
    How did Isaiah Shembe form his church?
    Isaiah Shembe forged his church by blending Christian and African forms, many of the latter being downgraded and prohibited in mainstream churches (Fig. 145.2). As Kunene argues, “Whilst keeping the Christian principles the Shembites have retained some of the traditional customs and practices” (1961: 197–198).

    The Bible, the Hymns and Identity: The Prophet Isaiah Shembe and the

    link.springer.com
    Why did Shembe leave the church?
    His desire for prayer led him to the Wesleyan church. Over a period, Shembe found himself dissatisfied with the Wesleyans and he decided to leave the church.

    Isaiah Mdliwamafa Shembe - South African History Online

    sahistory.org.za
    What were Shembe's early religious influences?
    3 Shembe's early religious influences included Methodist and Baptist denominations: E. Gunner, The Man of Heaven and the Beautiful Ones of God: Writings from Ibandla lamaNazaretha, a South African Church (Leiden, Brill, 2002), pp. 17–22. 4 J. Guy, The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom: The Civil War in Zululand, 1879–1884 (London, Longman, 1979).

    Isaiah Shembe's Theological Nationalism, 1920s–1935

    tandfonline.com
    Feedback
  7. JSTOR
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/43049230
    [PDF]

    READING SHEMBE 'RE-MEMBERING' THE BIBLE: ISAIAH …

  8. ResearchGate
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27…

    The Bible, the Hymns and Identity: The Prophet Isaiah …

    Apr 1, 2015 · This article examines Shembe's use of the Bible in his construction of a particular form of African Christianity. The focus of the article is Shembe's teaching on adultery.

  9. Taylor & Francis Online
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057070903101847

    Isaiah Shembe's Theological Nationalism, 1920s–1935

  10. South African History Online
    https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/isai…

    Isaiah Mdliwamafa Shembe - South African History …

    Critics of the movement claim that Shembe’s followers regarded him as an incarnation of God. However, others, led by Lutheran scholar Bengt Sundkler, argued that Shembe's theology was an Africanized form of Christianity.

  11. Images of Shembe's Theology

    bing.com/images
    See all images
  13. Some results have been removed