ISG 46: African Theology on the Way

Current Conversations

Diane B. Stinton

• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780281062515
• eBook ISBN: 9780281065363
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Stinton has edited the work of prominent African theologians, making their writings accessible at an introductory level. Some African scholars have written new pieces for the book, others have given permission for articles to be condensed and simplified in style. Kwame Bediako, Benezet Bujo, Philomena Mwara and Isabel Phiri are just four of the theologians featured.

Part 1

Methodological issues in African theology

1

Contextual theological methodologies

Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, SJ

Abstract

This chapter prioritizes context as the primary factor of theological reflection in African Christianity and presents theology as a discipline grounded in the ordinary experience of Christians and their faith communities. It argues that contextual theological methodologies draw on the incarnation as the key biblical foundation. Just as God enters completely into human reality, theology touches the depth of human experience in order to make sense of it. An example of this approach is inculturation, understood as a dynamic meeting of faith and culture that generates fresh and transforming syntheses of faith and its implication for everyday life. In light of this, theology becomes an ongoing effort to discover the faith dimension of the totality of human experience. This task involves specific methodological steps: personal immersion, openness to various fields of study, awareness of the historical development of faith and dialogue with the deeply rooted religious sensibilities of African Christians.

Introduction

St Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) once defined theology in very simple terms as ‘faith seeking understanding’. This definition, though simple, raises the further question of identifying how in fact this quest of faith functions in everyday life. The position that will be set forth in this chapter holds that ‘context’ is the key word that answers this question. As a discipline that strives to articulate in an explicit manner the various dimensions of an individual’s or a community’s faith in God, theology does not operate outside the boundaries of our ordinary human experience. The ‘raw ma­terial’ for theological reflection is our faith, that is, how God reveals God’s self to us, how we respond to this revelation, and what implications it has for daily living. In other words, our faith is grounded on the reality of our human experience.

Yet the understanding of our experience (of God, self and the world) varies from one particular situation to another. This awareness allows us to affirm that we cannot neglect the role of human experience in the theological enterprise. In the sixteenth century, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther (1483–1546), stated among other things that experientia sola facit theologum (‘experience alone makes a theologian’). Taking experi­ence into account in our theological reflection places us squarely in the domain of context.

The overall intention of this chapter is to demonstrate that paying attention to human experience and situation constitutes the foundation of contextual theological methodologies. The experience or situation may vary, but a contextual theological methodology neither circumvents nor ignores its importance in elaborating an appropriate theology – one that makes sense not only to the theologian, but also especially to his or her community.

The basic premise of this chapter can be formulated in the following terms: as faith seeking understanding, theology does not operate in a vacuum; every attempt to understand faith is grounded on our experience. The questions we raise about our relationship with God, others and the universe come from our everyday experience in life. You can hardly place a limit on the variety and extent of this experience: joy and sorrow, life and death, freedom and bondage, success and failure, comfort and deprivation, etc. Making sense of this experience in the light of faith is what makes theology contextual. Understood this way, what we call theology differs considerably from the exact sciences. Researchers engaged in the latter always strive to isolate their experience so that they can examine the data objectively, that is, without allowing their emotions, feelings and personal experience to influence the result of the experimentation. Theologians do not enjoy this luxury of bracketing or isolating their experience. Human experience appears as the primary data for the quest to understand, live and articulate faith.

Another way of putting this is to say that theology is about life. In more recent decades many theologians have creatively examined the reality called faith based on their experience of gender (feminist theology), racial discrimination (Black theology), or oppression and marginalization (liberation theology). This short list is only an example of the dynamic development of contextual theological methodologies in recent times. The important point to bear in mind is that the days are over when theology was simply exported wholesale from one context to another, without paying attention to the specificity of the host culture. Divorced from the local context in which we are situated, theology makes little or no sense at all. It is not an exaggeration to say that contemporary theological methodologies are all contextual. We can trace this imperative of contextual theological methodologies through the history of Christianity, especially in the Scriptures.

Many aspects of Christianity retain significant imprints of particular cultures where the religion grew. If we take the Scriptures, for example, we see how context affects the development of faith and belief. Elements like the treatment of women in Jewish cultures, the laws of inheritance, the institution of slavery, the experience of captivity, occupation and exile all feature as basic elements for developing the people’s understanding of God. How the people conceived the nature of God drew more on their experience than on their capacity for abstract thinking.

In light of the above considerations, we can identify some of the key elements of contextual theological methodologies.

Contextual theological methodology is incarnational

In the New Testament nothing describes the necessity of contextual theological methodology better than the notion of incarnation: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’ (John 1.14). Several attempts have been made to explain the meaning of this expression. However we understand it, we cannot avoid the basic fact that it presents to us a clear recognition of the importance of context in understanding the Christian faith. We can compare this faith to a seed: just as a seed cannot take root and grow without falling on a soil, faith cannot develop, let alone be understood, without situating it in context. Context is to faith what soil is to a seed. This analogy is mirrored in the notion of the incarnation: the word became flesh and pitched tent in our midst. Christian faith is based on the ‘stubborn’ fact that God fully became human without ceasing to be God. This process is so radical it defies belief.

To say that the incarnation is a radical fact of Christian faith forms part of the broader claim that it leaves no aspect of human experience untouched. It is neither superficial nor partial. In other words, because of the incarnation, no aspect of humanity is alien to God. The consequences for theological methodology are twofold. It means that for theology to be authentic, no aspect of our humanity may be excluded from the focus of its reflection. Methodologically speaking, it also implies that reality as we encounter it is already imbued with meaning; in fact, reality serves as a means for a privileged encounter with God. The Scriptures show a variety of ways by which people encounter God: natural phenomena, victory and defeat, sickness, dying and death, etc. Today human experience remains a valid space for ongoing divine self-revelation. Disclosing and understanding this meaning as it unfolds represents one of the principal tasks of theological reflection that prioritizes a contextual methodology.

Another implication of the incarnational dimension of contextual theological methodology concerns the nature of faith as an encounter: Word becomes flesh. What Christians embrace is not first and foremost a set of ideas. Faith is a personal encounter: a response by a human person to a loving invitation from a loving God. To say that faith is an encounter is to insist that any attempt to understand it must take seriously those elements that determine, condition, or influence this encounter. Here again we are in the realm of context. Whether an African Christian encounters God as the God who frees the people from the bondage of oppression and marginalization will be influenced by his or her actual experience of bondage and lack of freedom. Theology cannot simply affirm liberation as integral to God’s nature without at the same time seeking to understand and explore the mechanisms of oppression in human societies.

Contextual theological methodology in African theology

When we talk about African theology, we understand this to mean the ongoing attempt to make sense of the African reality in the light of Christian faith and revelation. As thousands of Africans daily embrace the Christian faith, they come with their joys and sorrow, their hopes and despair, seeking to make sense of them in the light of faith. Theology neither ignores nor undermines this ‘faith expectation’. It addresses it, aiming to point out the relevance of the Christian message to the experience of African Christians. Such a theology will necessarily be contextual. It does not float above human reality; rather, it is rooted firmly in it. This is the only way that theology can make sense as faith seeking understanding.

In African theology the best-known model of contextual theological me­thodology remains inculturation. Many definitions have been proposed for this model of contextual ...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Title page
• Imprint
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• Contributors
• The SPCK International Study Guides
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: methodological issues in African theology
• Part 2: contemporary issues in African theology
• Part 3: the Church in the world
• Copyright acknowledgements
• References and further reading
• Search items