Christian higher education is growing briskly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It exists at the intersection of two of the most dynamic social trends on the continent: the rapid rise of Christian adherence and the volatile growth of higher education. A century ago, only nine million Christians resided in all of Africa, and most were in Egypt’s and Ethiopia’s ancient churches. By 1950, this number had tripled, to about 30 million. By 1970, there were 114 million Christians in Africa. Today there are an estimated 555 million African Christians – Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal and African-instituted. African higher education’s growth has also been rapid. In the early 1960s, there were only 41 higher education institutions and 16,500 students in all of Africa. As of 2010, Sub-Saharan Africa enrolled 5.2 million students in 668 higher education institutions, and these enrolments were more than double those in 2000. African universities today are emerging from a turbulent half-century. The immediate postcolonial era brought high hopes with supportive governments and massive international investments. But by the 1980s, African universities were suffering deep financial cuts as falling commodity prices and inflated energy prices crippled national budgets. World Bank and International Monetary Fund advisors pushed debtor nations to reallocate educational spending toward primary and secondary schools. Meanwhile, authoritarian regimes suspected flagship universities of subversion and slashed their budgets. By the 1990s, even the finest African universities were in crisis. To compound these problems, the growth of secondary education drove a relentless demand for tertiary enrolments. Governments mandated their flagship universities to enrol far beyond their carrying capacities. New regional institutions were founded and tertiary technical colleges were granted university status. Nigeria, for example, had founded 86 federal and state universities by 2015. Even with increases in funding, African higher