The current study contributes to the development of a discourse surrounding the ways in which Pentecostal and Charismatic attitudes have been shaped and reshaped by issues at the core of Zambia’s civic concerns. Tracing the historical development of Pentecostalism in Zambia and exploring the nation's history of civic engagement, the primary areas of examination will include both political activism and various attempts at addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Attempts at Pentecostal civic engagement are traced in post-colonial Zambia, from independence in 1964 during the Kaunda era, until 2012. Between June 2009 and September 2013, the author engaged inter alia on both intensive and extensive ethnographic research in Lusaka, conducted over 50 interviews with major church leaders, distributed 300 questionnaires (with a response of 265), attended 20 gatherings of her focus group, and visited 3 HIV/AIDS clinics in Lusaka over a 4 year period. This research focused on leaders and members of mainly Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, and also on workers in integrated health care centres as well as in other institutions set up by some of these churches. To date, no comprehensive research has been conducted in the area of Pentecostal and Charismatic civic engagement in the Republic of Zambia.

This thesis explores how Kenyan Christians perceive Islam and Muslims. The thesis approaches the problem by examining various Christian writings. Substantial and representative Christian literature was found in the form of scholarly writing, produced by Kenyan mainline Christians, and in the form of popular literature, produced by Kenyan Neo-Pentecostals. The historiography of Islam entering into Kenya; and a historical look at Christian-Muslim relations in Kenya, with particularly an examination of the recent debate over the inclusion of kadhi courts in the constitution, were also examined. The combination of the historical and the literary approach provides breadth into the examination of how Christians in Kenya perceive Islam and Muslims. After an analysis of the history and the texts, several themes that emerge from this analysis are examined from two perspectives. One, politically oriented themes are examined to understand how Kenyan Christians symbolically contest with Muslims over public space. It is seen that the symbolic contestation concerns the legitimacy to occupy roles in the nation-building project. Two, emerging theologies of religion are teased out of the writings to gain insight into the deeper theological structures from which Kenyan Christians operate as they seek to understand and interact with the religious Other (Islam). The thesis claims that the Kenyan cultural/religious context contributes significantly, more so than traditional Christian-Muslim dynamics from outside of Africa.