The history of Kimbanguism

For the first time, the Spiritual Head of the Kimbanguist Church, His Eminence Diangienda Kuntima, Prophet Simon Kimbangu's son, tells his father's story: his preaching and healing ministry in the Bas - Zaïre, in 1921 and his sentencing to death by a Belgian colonial Court, a sentence commuted to life imprisonment and circumstances surrounding the passing away of the Prophet, in Lubumbashi, thirty years later. His Em. Diangienda describes how contemporary people reacted to Simon Kimbangu's ministry. He evokes the clandestine life Kimbanguists led, whose 37 000 families were deported between 1921 and 1959. He gives details hitherto unpublished about the struggle for the official recognition of the Church. He reveals how, afterwards, she succeeded to build up a web of relations with other churches and how in 1969, she joined the Ecumenical Council. The last chapter is devoted to the account of Kimbanguist theology. What is the Church official stand on the origin of life, God, salvation, the Community of Saints, the Kingdom of Heavens? What her sacraments are? The chapter is with texts of liturgy and catechism. The book will mark a milestone in the history of the Kimbanguist Church.