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Philippe Denis. 2022. The Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the Rwandan Church: Between Grief and Denial. Woodbridge: James Currey. 342 pp.
Churches were involved at multiple levels with the Rwandan Genocide, also known as the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Since European colonization and up to the genocide, Christianity has played a significant role in shaping Rwanda's ethnic divisions and violence. Many churches became epicenters for the genocidal killings. The Church's relationship with post-colonial governments from 1962 to 1994 significantly spread the division between Rwanda's Hutu population against Tutsis. Anti-Tutsi beliefs were endowed with religious acceptance and praise. The significance of the churches' role in public policy and genocide ideology led many researchers to focus on this critical topic. Denis's contribution to this field of research will benefit our understanding of the role, particularly of the Catholic Church, of Christianity in the lead-up to the genocide, and Rwanda's post-genocide reconstruction.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first section comprising the first three chapters is a relatively standard examination of the church's role in Rwandan history, whether Presbyterian or Catholic. While the author...