African Theology
African Theology is Christian theology or black theology from the perspective of the African cultural context. Although there are very old Christian traditions on the continent, in the last centuries Christianity in Africa has been determined to a large extent by western forms of Christianity, brought by colonization and mission. This also means that the theology in Africa was strongly influenced by Western theology.
This changed mid-20th century when African Theology as a theological discipline came into being. This movement began to protest against negative colonial and missionary interpretations of the religion and culture in Africa. Realizing that theology is a contextual phenomenon, African Christians began to read the Scriptures using their own cultural lens, which of course resulted in some interpretations that did not always agree with how Western theology interpreted things. As such, African Theology stands on the shoulders of the early African Independent Churches that broke away from missionary churches in the late 19th century or early 20th century. African theology is engaged to shape Christianity in an African way by adapting and using African concepts and ideas. Representatives are scholars such as Idowu and Mbiti, who gave an analysis and interpretation of the African traditional religion and point to its relation to the Christian faith. Others like Bediako and Pobee have developed an African Christology in terms of the ancestors.
There has been some debate among theologians about the relation of African Theology to Black Theology. During the 1970s Black Theology developed in South Africa, where the main concern was liberation from apartheid, while African Theology developed in other parts of the continent.
Exponents of African Theology include John Mbiti, Bolaji Idowu, Kwesi Dickson, John Pobee, Kwame Bediako, Lamin Sanneh and Gabriel Setiloane.
There is also a movement of African female theologians, organised in The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, inaugurated in 1989 by Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Ghana). Nowadays this is a movement of hundreds of women theologians from several African countries and with different religious backgrounds. General coordinator of the Circle have been Oduyoye, Musimbi Kanyoro and Isabel Phiri. Currently Fulata Moyo (from Malawi) is general coordinator.
In recent time, African evangelicals have also begun to wrestle with the quest of developing a Christian theology which has African context in mind. In this direction, African evangelicals have taken initiative to develop an African Bible commentary.[1] Even though this is not a critical commentary, it shows a quest by African evangelicals to engage traditional and contemporary issues in Africa from an evangelical perspective. Secondly, African evangelicals have also taken initiative in the development of Christian ethics and systematic texts which engage the various issues facing most African Christians. For example, Samuel Kunhiyop has engaged Christian ethics and systematic theology from an African evangelical perspective.[2] Similarly, Matthew Michael has engaged systematic theology from the vantage point of African traditions.[3] In spite of the strides registered by African evangelicals in the quest for an African theology, there is still need for African evangelicals to move pass their initial distrust of the quest for an African theology and to chart new perspectives or redirection of this quest.
See also
Further reading
- Evers, Georg. "African Theology." In The Encyclopedia of Christianity, edited by Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, 30-31. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999. ISBN 0802824137
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