ABSTRACT
Christianity in Ethiopia is a multidimensional symbolic universe where the cross is one of the most central symbols. It is all-present as an item in religious practice, liturgy, religious architecture, and in the daily life of Christians. Its prominence is perhaps only surpassed by the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian veneration of the tabot, the container with the stone ‘replica’ of the Tablet (ts’elat) with the Ten Commandments that is present in every church and figures as the defining material symbol of the ‘covenant’ between God and (Christian) Ethiopia. Christianity is the oldest monotheistic religion in Ethiopia and in the twenty-
first century it is still widespread and deep-rooted, but also highly pluralist. Its historical core is an indigenous Orthodox Christianity derived from the first Church in Egypt and its Patriarchate in Alexandria, on which Ethiopia remained formally dependent for the appointment of its own Patriarch until 1958. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Lutheranism, Catholicism, and many Evangelical churches were introduced by foreigners. In the past two or three decades especially, the Pentecostal and charismatic-Evangelical churches have grown rapidly, so that by the time of the last official Ethiopian population census in 2007 the Protestants-Evangelicals counted around 18.5% of the total population, with the Orthodox Christians down to 43.5%.1
