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The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706. By John K. Thornton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. viii + 228 pp. $49.95 cloth; $15.95 paper.
John Thornton is an established authority on the Christian history of the early African Kingdom of Kongo. It shows. The Kongolese Saint Anthony, his latest work, reflects a superb mastery of the rich multilayered texture of the Kongolese Christian experience, here perceptively interwoven with the sociopolitical dimension. The book focuses on the Christian religious movement led by Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita in the Kingdom of Kongo from 1704 to 1706 and sets its emergence and impact firmly within the context of the kingdom's chaotic political landscape in the late seventeenth century.
Thornton was among the first to depart from a prevalent interpretation that sees the movement as a nationalist reaction to nascent colonialism. Here he examines its strong roots in the (civil-war-stained) soil of widespread and massive social discontent and probes fascinating linkages between the movement's Christian ideology and Kongo cosmology. The result is immensely pleasing. The Kingdom of Kongo's religious worldview, traditional life, and convoluted politics are treated in abundant and refreshing detail, providing the reader with valuable insights into the multiple impulses that molded the book's central character.
Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was born about 1684 into a noble family and, like the vast majority of Kongolese, was baptized into the Christian faith. Two major influences shaped her life. The first was the political chaos, instability, and violence of the times in which she lived-epitomized...