The Christianization of African Traditional Religions

In studies of the historical growth and spread of Christianity in Africa, the focus has been too much on Christianizing African social and religious institutions and structures, and not enough on African traditional religion itself, which needs to be addressed by Christianity. This article addresses the core – that is, the theology and worldview – of the African traditional religion. It argues that this core needs to be Christianized and shows how this can be done. In order to achieve this task, the article uses a new theological method, a “systematic theology” of African traditional religion, as the basis for a theological method of engagement and interaction of religions and worldview. This new method explains in practical terms how Christianity can effectively Christianize African traditional religions and worldviews.     

Theological Education for a Religiously Radicalized World: An African Pentecostal Assist

The resurgence of Pentecostal Christianity at a time of increased religious radicalization in Africa is a disconcerting development. This problem is further compounded by the dearth of analytical research that explores the role theological education should play in preparing Pentecostalism to engage a religiously radicalized Africa. This paper offers a response in three ways: first, it reviews the legacy of missionary theological education and offers an overview of religion and state relations in Africa. Second, it discusses theological education and the implications of the rise of Pentecostalism in a context of religious radicalization. Third, it outlines how theological education could be reinvigorated to enable Pentecostalism to confront the challenges of religious radicalization in Africa. The paper concludes that theological education is a compelling stimulus that enables African Pentecostalism to promote peaceful coexistence and tolerance in ways that bear witness to the gospel of peace as well as reflect the African agency of faith. 1     

Unbinding Lazarus

This article proposes a Wesleyan theological rationale and practical recommendations for revitalized theological education, particularly in university‐based schools of theology. The approach integrates a rigorous life‐long learning system that includes curricular and co‐curricular programmes and contextual learning, with a strong foundation in missional ecclesiology and contemplative, kenotic spirituality. It takes seriously the formational needs of practitioners of emergence Christianity such as the new monasticism, missional communities, and the like, so as to reflect upon best practices of theological education to resource leaders of the inherited church while offering recommendations for empowering leaders of ancient/future expressions of church.     

Pan‐African Women's Voices across Borders

This article is structured from the epistemological vantage point of framing theological education within the context of Pan‐African women's experiences of migration, where theological education is defined in the widest sense of creating knowledge, ethos, and practices from within different versions of Christian tradition, as opposed to transmitting a static corpus of knowledge. It begins by examining the deconstructive potential of Pan‐African female migrants, particularly with regard to gendered patterns and projections of theological education. It then describes and analyzes the impact of Pan‐African female migrants on the project of contextual theological education as an act of birthing and bringing to life the dimensions of seeing and interpreting the one life‐giving story through the lenses of the lamenting, celebrating, and transforming stories of many. The article concludes by presenting Pan‐African female migration as an opportunity to revisit theological education as a creative, ecumenical, and intercultural enterprise, seeing the empirical location of Pan‐African female migrants as a paradigmatic lens for revisiting theological education as intercultural enterprise, and not (exclusively) as a contextual – and hence exceptional – historic experience.     

Missiological Context of the Eastern Orthodox Churches in Africa

This article focuses on the missiological context of the Eastern Orthodox Churches in Africa under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, which serves the Greek‐, Arabic‐, and Russian‐speaking communities as well as native African Orthodox communities in sub‐Saharan Africa. The apostolic mission to Africa started in the city of Alexandria by St Mark the evangelist around 62–63 AD. The gospel flourished in the Alexandrian church through its famous catechetical school, participation in the ecumenical councils, and monasticism. After Islamic invasion of northern Africa (640 AD), Christianity started to decline and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria extended its jurisdiction to sub‐Saharan Africa. First it served the Greek communities, but later in 1946 opened up to evangelize to native African communities. Orthodox Church mission engagement in sub‐Saharan African has resulted in different mission approaches, like the creation of new dioceses and archdioceses, theological education, and liturgical, incarnational, and reconciliation approaches. These approaches have prepared the missiological context of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Africa for an Africanized Christianity. Native Africans searched for ecclesial identity by affiliating with Greek Orthodoxy, consequently rekindling the mission of the Orthodox Church worldwide and creating a platform for dialogue between African cultural‐religious particularities and Orthodox theological ethos. This has resulted in a call for inculturation or incarnational process aiming for an “African local church.”     

Considerations for an Inclusive Global Theological Education

This article considers the role of theological education in developing the ministry of the church and the need for it to be relevant to the realities and needs of the people it is to serve. The article considers three factors – racism, imperialism, and tribalism – that influence theological education in different ways. It then turns to a consideration of African‐American womanist theology and African women's theology – as reflected in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians – and the similarities between these two approaches as expressions of liberation theology and their relevance for inclusive global theological education.     

Wrestling with a Wounding Word: Reading the Disjointed Lines of African American Spirituality

This essay examines African American spirituality as a complex web of arguments constituted by and shaped around a struggle with Christianity. With these arguments, this essay examines the dominant way in which Afro-American spirituality is defined, along the lines of an essential African reality. This definition is shown to be a part of the struggle against Christianity. The positing of this essentialist definition is also a form of spiritual practice which points to a deep longing for freedom from the continuing power of the colonialist's theologically derogatory vision of the African. However the effect of this definition is to render all Christian articulation and expression of the African transparent, pointing always and only to their blackness. Thus Afro-spirituality as it is commonly articulated re-establishes the colonialist vision of the African as always presenting a theological alterity, an inauthentic Christian.     

Christian‐Muslim relations in the African context

Abstract

The course of Islam and Christianity in Africa as well as statistical figures suggest a wide variety within, as well as considerable divergence between, both religions in the many African contexts. Though the majority of African Muslims still stick to a ‘traditional African Islam’, we observe a resurgence of Islam reflecting a growing religious awareness, on the one hand, and tendencies towards an ideological re‐interpretation (Islamism), on the other. Trends in resurgent Islam are highlighted by the examples of Islamic internationalism and da'wa, the modernisation of Islamic education, and the proliferation of Islamic political groups all over the continent. Various dimensions of Christian—Muslim relations in Africa today show areas of conflict as well as of cooperation and exchange. Against the background of the economic and social disintegration of many African societies, there is no alternative to inter‐religious dialogue which must be based on an authentic African theological foundation, being rooted in the African heritage shared by Muslim and Christian communities alike.     

Why and how can religions and traditions be plausible and credible in public ethics today?

This article presents and discusses the meaning of a possible foundation of ethics, both from a philosophical perspective and with regard to religious representations. It proposes to enlarge the conception of rationality in order to take into account the critical contribution of cultures, traditions and religions to an ethics of reconstruction. This also entails rethinking the role of theological ethics and seeking to make more explicit the cultural plausibility and the practical credibility of Christianity in public ethics today.     

Missional Discipleship

Most communities of the world, and particularly in the continent of Africa, are multi‐faith and multicultural. Christianity is a major religion in the continent that has succeeded in persuading adherents of African traditional religions to switch off from their indigenous belief and switch on to Christian belief. 1 Christianity is not the only religious faith in Africa. It has other sibling monotheistic religions and other religious expressions. Christianity, being a mission‐oriented religious faith, has a mandate to bring about transformation as reflected in its sacred text, the Bible. This article will explore how the transformation is stimulated and sustained. Meanwhile, it is necessary to state that African people were religious people even before the advent of Christianity and Islam. As a result, religion plays a critical role in their public engagements. Nevertheless, what may be investigated further would be whether religion, and Christian faith in particular, influences the people to be good citizens/disciples as they engage in the socio‐political and economic life of the society. The article seeks to use the notion of missional discipleship as a compelling stimulus for inclusive transformation in African societies.     

Religionless Christianity and the Political Implications of Theological Speech: What Bonhoeffer's Theology Yields to a World of Fundamentalisms

This article seeks to utilize Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity in a formative and constructive way to aid theological speech in the complexly secular and multi-faith setting of the twenty-first century. It will begin by seeking to highlight trends in unhelpful contemporary theo-politics, and to locate these in the interconnection of secular and religious forms of fundamentalism. It will then consider how a theological interpretation of Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity might assist in undermining such fundamentalisms. A further section identifies a threefold positive benefit that Bonhoeffer's thought offers in the contemporary situation: a distinction between God and religion; a genuine understanding of the sovereignty of God; and an inability to separate secular–religious concerns from inter-faith concerns.     

Sacrifice for Nothing: The Movement of Kenosis in Jan Patočka's Thought

This article focuses on the idea of sacrifice in the work of the Czech phenomenologist Jan Pato?ka. It presents and examines this philosopher from a theological perspective against the background of the theological turn in contemporary philosophy. First, the article focuses on Pato?ka's reflections on the kenotic sacrifice, which he defines as the sacrifice for nothing. Second, Pato?ka's thought is put into dialog with Jean‐Luc Marion's phenomenological sketch of sacrifice embedded in his phenomenology of the gift. Although both Pato?ka and Marion share an interest in sacrifice, a phenomenon of high theological importance, only the latter enjoys reception on the part of theology. Yet, the article argues, on the basis of further inquiry into Pato?ka's writings, Pato?ka presents a complementary and alternative perspective that not only precedes the theological turn but also challenges and opens new ways for theology. The conclusion thus portrays a kenotic form of Christianity after the end of Christianity, drawn from Pato?ka, as a specific spiritual being‐in‐the‐world.     

The Future of Theological Education in Central and Eastern Europe: Challenges for Ecumenical Learning in the 21st Century1

The article focuses on the context of Central and Eastern Europe. The introduction surveys earlier references to this context in the activities of the WCC programmes on theological education. It then characterizes the situation regarding theological education in this region, especially after the changes of 1989/90. The central section summarizes the earlier discussions on ecumenical learning, especially in the WCC, and applies the insights gained to the field of theological education. The concluding part spells out some of the consequences for the future of theological education in Central and Eastern Europe looking especially at the situation in the Orthodox churches, the Protestant minority churches and the evangelical communities.     

Paradigm Shift in Theological Education in Southern and Central Africa and its Relevance to Ministerial Formation

Theological education is of crucial importance in the mission of the Church in Southern and Central Africa. This paper discusses the changes that have taken place in theological education in post‐independence Africa. The author argues that theological education during the colonial period was Euro‐centric. As a result, it did not respond adequately to the pressing problems faced by the African people such as colonial oppression, poverty, patriarchy and others. However, the situation has changed dramatically in modern times. Theological educators have realized the significance and importance of context in theological education. They are, thus, seriously taking into account the political, social, economic and religious context in which the African people live today. This has led to the creation of different theologies that are in line with modern and post‐modern challenges facing the African people thereby making the church both relevant and necessary.     

Assessing Christianity in Africa's Transforming Context

The dramatic shift in the demographics of African Christianity in the last century necessitates new analysis of its present shape, multivalent relationship to its colonial past, relationship to the African Indigenous Churches, and likely major contribution to the shape and leadership of Christianity in the future.     

Euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and Christianity's positive relationship to the world.

This essay addresses the problem of communication between Christianity and the secular world in an area where the latter tends to oppose the moral norms endorsed by the former. How, in the interest of missionary outreach (and with which understandings of what such outreach involves) can the language barriers be bridged? Whereas the Roman Catholic natural law tradition posits a neutral common ground of (traditional or hermeneutical) rationality between Christianity and the world, an Ebeling- and Barth-modified Lutheranism engages in an argument ad hominem by seizing upon an admitted deficiency within that world, and by recommending Christianity for mending that deficiency. Both positions differ from the Evangelical claim that since that which the world politically values is derived from Christianity, it must remain subject to Christianity's moral legislation. An entirely different approach to the communication- and outreach-problem is taken by Orthodox Christianity: The gulf which separates it from the world is acknowledged, and the possibility of trans-gulf-traffic is referred to God's grace. It is only this latter model, however, which preserves Christianity's theological terms (such as "Scripture", "law", and "holiness") from common-ground-securing, deficiency-mending, or authority-imposing secularizing, and thus from compromising that very theological context into which communicative outreach endeavors were to invite.     

Luther and China

Abstract : Luther, a founding father of Protestant Christianity, has a promising future in Chinese theology and in the study of Christianity in China, both in the theological seminaries and in the secular universities. As a theologian, he has the potential to greatly impact Chinese Christian thought and he remains a model of social reform. He can be a source of inspiration for Chinese theologians and scholars who are creating in their own cultural contexts new ways of constructing an authentic Chinese Christian theology     

Towards an African Theology of Reconciliation: A Missiological Reflection on the Instrumentum Laboris of the Second African Synod

This essay is a critical theological and pastoral study of the Working Document of the Second African Synod. The article engages the articles in the document which deal with the theme of reconciliation. This essay begins by exploring the Christological and ecclesiological foundations for an African theology of reconciliation as found in the working document. While engaging the significant aspects of the working document which relate to articulating an African theology of reconciliation, this essay shows the limitations of the document in its historical and cultural analysis of the situation in Africa. Drawing from a phenomenological hermeneutical engagement with African history, cultural grammar, and Christ‐centered African Christian imagination, the essay widens the scope of theological engagement with the task of reconciliation in Africa. It does a theological aesthetics of reconciliation in Africa, by integrating diverse cultural, ontological, and Christological symbols within the African world on vital participation and vital union. Through the inculturation of vital participation as analogous to Trinitarian Communion, the essay shows how the Church in Africa can deal with the ever‐revolving cycle of violence, conflicts, and divisions in the churches and political institutions which have all hampered the mission of building relationship and God's kingdom in Africa. The essay concludes by recommending four pastoral approaches through which the Catholic Church in Africa can be both a reconciled community and an instrument for reconciliation in Africa.     

The Legacy,Leadership, and Hope of Pan‐African Women as a Missional Focus for Theological Education

This article analyzes the experience and self‐understanding of Pan‐African women of faith, who have often been viewed at the margins of church history and in the larger context of this history. This article challenges this marginal location. It argues that through the theological lens of the ecumenical Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace—and under the tenets of via positiva, via negativa, and via transformativa—the historical, present, and future pilgrimage of Pan‐African women of faith and their vision of hope needs to be further examined for a more inclusive embrace and accompaniment of the ecumenical community. Theological education should be a priority in preparing leaders for advancing the agenda of justice and peace. The article concludes by detailing the past, recent, and future work of the Pan‐African Women's Ecumenical Empowerment Network (PAWEEN) and its partners.     

Problems and Possibilities of Theological Models: Responding to David Klemm and William Klink

This essay is a response to the proposals of David Klemm and William Klink concerning the construction and testing of theological models. A number of issues are raised for critical attention. (1) The exclusive attention to Christian theology, with no discussion of other religions, poses some significant problems, not the least of which is that cognitive claims of religious thinking are not universal but rather are defined by the particularities of the religious context in which they are made. (2) Although the authors wish to transcend confessionalism, their focus on Christianity and on the concept of God as a basic assumption can be construed as a kind of confessionalism. (3) The argument that theological and scientific models stand in analogy to each other requires more critical examination, particularly with respect to the issues of explanation, prediction, falsification, nesting, and openness. (4) While the argument is persuasive when referred to certain theologians, such as Paul Tillich, it requires some adjustment if it is to apply to other theological systems, such as Process theology.