Part VIII - The African Jesus

Summary

Since the 1990s, there has been a great deal of discussion on the “new African theology.” This refers to a theology that tried to bridge the gap often indicated in the 1970s and 1980s between African inculturation theology and African liberation theology. To do so, an image of Jesus is being used in which social concern and prophetic social critique is founded not only on the New Testament but also on the millennia-old religious culture of Africa itself. While certainly aware of the great cultural and religious differences on this continent, theologians are also daring to speak – after this had been declared taboo for decades – of what is common to all of Africa.

As far as content is concerned, this has to do with the belief in a supreme God with whom people come into contact, preferably through mediators. In the search for appropriate African images for Jesus, comparison with the mediating role of ancestors and healers is obvious. In this chapter we will also discuss the effect of this kind of comparison from the perspective of double transformation. Concretely, this means that, when applied to Jesus, the traditional African images of ancestors and healers change; but so does the image of Jesus. The key question in this process of change is what role is attributed to the cross of Jesus and to his ethics – which transcends family and tribal relationships – against the background of the “cross” of the African people.