In Venerable Bede’s Northumbria, and later in Iceland, Christianity arrived sporting a reputation for delivering people from misfortune, for preserving the country against invasion and attack, restoring to the people the good things of the past, safeguarding them from the designs of their enemies, and granting them peace and abundance in the land of their forebears. The new religion brought good fortune, provided wise counsel, and gave instructions for the conduct of personal and social affairs. Here was a religion equipped with what people needed, whether as victims of economic and social deprivation, dislocation, personal isolation, fear and insecurity, or as rulers and elites facing a swift and harsh reversal of fortune. “Accept the Faith and keep the commands of Him who delivered you from all your earthly troubles and raised you to the glory of an earthly kingdom,” the troubled King Edwin was told. For Edwin and his people, Christianity offered the healing and cleansing needed to remove all offenses in their midst and to repay their faith and labors with supernatural signs, miracles, and blessings.1 It is a promise with familiar resonance for Africans, too, for the desire for supernatural blessing and protection against evil spirits is as old as the African race. It was not just mere curiosity that drew Africans to religion but a fundamental need for an answer to the endemic riddle of life and to the pressure of historical experience.