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The Quest for African Christian Theologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Edward W. Fasholé-Luke
Edward W. Fasholé-Luke
Affiliation:
Fourah Bay CollegeSierra Leone
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Extract

In 1965, Prof. Bolaji Idowu, President of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, castigated African Christians for being content with imported western theologies which were imperfectly understood and meaningless in the African context. He also lamented the fact that after almost two hundred years of Christian experience in Africa, African Christians have neglected the fundamental task of relating the Gospel message to political, social, and cultural milieux of African peoples. Africans must, Idowu claimed, produce indigenous theologies which will satisfy the deepest, emotional and spiritual needs of Africans.1 When Idowu wrote in 1965, expressions like ‘African Theology’, ‘African Christian Theology’, ‘Theologia Africana’, were hardly, if ever used, though some attempts were made to relate the Gospel message to the diverse social, political, and cultural situations in Africa. In the political sphere, violent winds of change were blowing throughout the continent; the rapid growth of Independent churches was an indication that some African Christians were, at least, dissatisfied with the imported theologies, Church structures, patterns of ministry and liturgical forms, which had been introduced by western Christian missionaries into Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , April 1976 , pp. 159 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1976

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References

page 159 note 1 Idowu, E. Bolaji, Towards an Indigenous Church (Oxford, 1965), pp. 22ff.Google Scholar

page 159 note 2 Mbiti, John, ‘Some African Concepts of Christology’, in Vicedom, G. F. (Ed.), Christ and the Younger Churches (London, 1972), p. 51.Google Scholar

page 160 note 1 See further, E. B. Idowu, op. cit.; Sawyerr, Harry, Creative Evangelism (London, 1968)Google Scholar; Williamson, S. G., Akan Religion and the Christian Faith (Accra, 1965).Google Scholar

page 160 note 2 cf. Horton, Robin, ‘African Conversion’, Africa, XLI (1971), pp. 85–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fisher, Humphrey J., ‘Conversion Reconsidered: Some Historical Aspects of Religious Conversion in Black Africa’, Africa, XLIII (1973), pp. 27–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 161 note 1 cf. Agbeti, John K., ‘African Theology: what it is’, Presence, Vol. V, No. 3 (1972), PP. 5–8.Google Scholar

page 162 note 1 This is perhaps the major weakness of John Mbiti's popular book: African Religions and Philosophy (London, 1969).

page 162 note 2 cf. Moore, Basil (Ed.), Black Theology: The South African Voice (London, 1973).Google Scholar

page 162 note 3 ibid., p. IX.

page 162 note 4 Sawyerr, Harry, ‘What is African Theology?’ Africa Theological Journal, 4 (1971) pp. 1ff.Google Scholar

page 162 note 5 For the American perspective on Black Theology, which has to some extent influenced Black Theologians in the Republic of South Africa, see Cone, James, Black Theology and Black Power (New York, 1969)Google Scholar; A Black Theology of Liberation (New York, 1970).

page 163 note 1 Quoted by Shorter, A., in African Culture and the Christian Church (London, 1973). P. 219.Google Scholar

page 163 note 2 Beetham, T. E., Christianity and the New Africa (London, 1967), pp. 15f.Google Scholar

page 164 note 1 Sawyerr, art. cit., p. 14.

page 164 note 2 ibid., p. 19.

page 164 note 3 Quoted by Idowu, E. Bolaji, in Dickson, Kwesi and Ellingworth, Paul, Biblical Revelation and African Beliefs (London, 1969), p. 16Google Scholar. More recently at the Consultation of African theologians held at Makerere University, Uganda, John Mbiti said: ‘Theology is a universal treasure of the Christian faith. Ultimately it knows no designations. But when African theologians theologise as part of the universal Church responding to its situation in Africa, there we get a contribution to Christian theology which may rightly be termed African.’ (The papers read at this Consultation are to be published soon.)

page 165 note 1 In Glasswell, M. E. and Fasholé-Luke, E. W., New Testament Christianity for Africa and the World (London, 1974), pp. 175f.Google Scholar

page 165 note 2 Thompson, Prince, ‘Creative Evangelism’, Evangelism in Modern Sierra Leone (Aureol Pamphlet), Ed. Fasholé-Luke, E. W. (Freetown 1974), p. 26.Google Scholar

page 166 note 1 cf. Pheko, S. E. M., Christianity Through African Eyes (Lusaka, 1969).Google Scholar

page 166 note 2 cf. Barrett, D. B., African Initiatives in Religion (Nairobi, 1971).Google Scholar

page 167 note 1 Kibicho, Samuel G., ‘African Traditional Religion and Christianity’, A New Look at Christianity in Africa (W.S.C.F. Books Vol. II, No. 2) Geneva, 1970Google Scholar. Dr Kibicho makes this point more forcefully and gives cogent arguments for his views in his doctoral thesis, which he is at present revising for publication.

page 167 note 2 cf. Oosthuizen, G. C., Post-Christianity in Africa: A Theological and Anthropological Study (London, 1968). (See particularly chapters 6 and 11.)Google Scholar

page 168 note 1 cf. Pelikan, J., The Christian Tradition: A History of the development of Doctrine (London, 1971)Google Scholar. Burkhill, T. A., The Evolution of Christian Thought (London, 1971)Google Scholar. (See specially chapters I and III). de Labriolle, P., The History and Literature of Christianity from Tertullian to Boethius (London), 1968 Edition, pp. 50–105; 131–68; 389–432.Google Scholar

page 168 note 2 P'Bitek, O., African Religions in Western Scholarship (Nairobi, 1971). (See especially chapters 1, 3, 6, 10, 11 and 12.)Google Scholar

page 169 note 1 ibid., pp. 80–100.

page 169 note 2 For example, little mention is made of the significant writings of Anthropologists like Evans-Pritchard, Banton, and Meyer Fortes. I give some examples of these writers' works, which are of fundamental importance in the Study of African Traditional Religions: Evans-Pritchard, E. E., Theories of Primitive Religions (Oxford, 1965)Google Scholar; New Religion (Oxford, New Edition), 1970); Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford, 1937). Fortes, Meyer, Oedipus and Job in West African Religion (Cambridge, 1959)Google Scholar. Wilson, Monica, Religion and the Transformation of Society: A Study in Social Change in Africa (Cambridge, 1971)Google Scholar; Banton, M., Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (London, 1968).Google Scholar

page 169 note 3 cf. Ranger, T. O. and Kamambo, I. (Eds.), The Historical Study of African Religion (London, 1972).Google Scholar

page 170 note 1 cf. Dickson, Kwesi, ‘Towards a Theologia Africana’, in Glasswell, & Fasholé-Luke, (Eds.), New Testament Christianity for Africa and the World, pp. 124ff.Google Scholar

page 171 note 1 Mbiti, art. cit., pp. 51–62. For similar strictures on Mbiti's New Testament Eschatology in an African Background, see Thomas, J. C., ‘What is African Theology?’, The Ghana Bulletin of Theology, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1973), pp. 21–25.Google Scholar

page 172 note 1 G. F. Vicedom, “Introduction”, in op. cit., p. 18.

page 172 note 2 ibid., p. 19.

page 172 note 3 cf. Harry Sawyerr, Creative Evangelism, pp. 72–112.

page 173 note 1 cf. Moore, Basil (Ed.), Black Theology: The South African Voice (London, 1973).Google Scholar

page 174 note 1 Quoted by D. B. Foss, ‘Evangelism or Dialogue’, Evangelism in Modem Sierra Leone, p. 40.

page 174 note 2 Hastings, Adrian, Christian Marriage in Africa (London, 1973)Google Scholar. The Pastoral Institute, Gaba, Uganda, is doing some exciting work on various aspects of African theology. See also, A. Shorter, African Culture and the Christian Church, a solid and useful piece of work. Another useful work by Adrian Hastings is Church and Mission in Modern Africa (London, 1967).

page 174 note 3 See E. W. Fasholé-Luke, ‘The Ancestors and the Communion of Saints’, in Glasswell & Fasholé-Luke, op. cit., pp. 209ff.

page 175 note 1 Orita: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies, VI/1 and 2 (December 1972).