Historical and Social Dimensions in African Christian Theology

A Contemporary Approach

Maina

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9781498275538
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

African Christian theology has been developing for the last four decades. The trend has been to focus on traditional African religions as a foundation for Christian theology. While acknowledging the importance of African traditional religions to Christian theology in Africa, this study argues that African history progressively changes, and it is these changed and changing circumstances that theology is to address. This work analyzes issues affecting Africa today and shows the social and political role that Christianity has to play in an African context.This study views enculturation as a dialogue among African Christians, their history and culture, and Christian teachings. Theological approaches such as anthropological, liberation, and historical are analyzed from the perspective of Small Christian Communities (SCCs), which are a recent development in African Christianity. SCCs are presented as a concrete hermeneutical tool in theological analyses. Further, this work acknowledges the indispensable need for an authentic African Christology in an African Christian theology. While critical of contemporary African Christology, the study also suggests issues to be considered in the development of African Christology.

1

The Area of African Theology Is an African Social and Historical Context

African theology has the task of showing the significance of the Christian gospel in an African historical and social context. However, African theology should not remain at that level of thought. It has to concern itself with the transformation of social situations of desperation to ones of hope and integral human well-being. One way African theology has responded to social issues is by appealing to methods of liberation and political theology. But one cannot avoid raising the question as to why African theologians are not coming up with a method that addresses social and political issues that are genuinely African other than appealing to foreign philosophical and theological systems of thought.

In this section, issues that shape an African theology are analyzed. The underlying issue is African history, through which all other issues are to be understood. Among the issues considered here are changed circumstances in different parts of Africa, which include religious diversity, transformation of the continent through modern education, conflicts due to civil wars and political instabilities, as well as poverty and related issues. All these issues mentioned here are considered as influencing or determining the task of an African theology. Toward the goal of an African Christian theology, the gospel in its entirety is viewed as offering a practical way of dealing with the issues affecting Africa today. Although African theologians refer to liberation theology as it is practiced in Latin America, the concept of liberation is viewed here as inherent in African history. Hence, some theologians and other writers or even leaders who have addressed issues of liberation in Africa are considered in this work. It is also important to analyze briefly the contribution of others outside the African context, and in this regard the contributions of Gustavo Gutiérrez in liberation theology as well as the political theology of Johann Metz are briefly evaluated later in this study. A suggestion is also made of the need to develop an African theological way of dealing with social issues.

Consequently, it is of great practical significance that the issues that concern Africa today be considered from an African approach. African theology has to have its foundation in concrete African setting. It should be a theology by the people and for the people of Africa. The strength of African theology, therefore, lies in accurate analyses of the African social and historical contexts today.

Part One

Issues Defining an African Historical Context and African Theology

Human living in contemporary Africa has been tremendously shaped by encounters with outside forces, such as the modern education, technology, industry, etc. Hence, in contemporary Africa, human life is no longer solely lived out in the fields—hunting, gathering fruits and edible roots, or looking after humped cows or camels. The majority of people are concerned with issues such as economic growth, free and fair markets, sustainable development, and other aspects of living found in any contemporary nation in the world. In so many places in contemporary Africa, people are concerned with careers and professional development. However, the incorporation of Africa into liberal capitalism and consumerism, as it has taken place in many African cities, is not a totally positive development, because it also leads to other ills found in any urban center such as homelessness, broken families, and chemical dependency, among others. As a result of the importation of foreign ways of life, many African people have experienced a cultural identity crisis. The preceding can explain the reason why many social-political and economic programs have failed, leading to a vicious circle where one problem is replaced by another problem, hence making the situation worse than it was before. For example, the International Monetary Fund’s Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPS) failed because they were an imposition from outside that paid little or no attention to the facts in an African socio-historical context.

It is reasonable to hold that a contemporary African context calls for a contemporary African theology. Christian faith has to address the changed cultural setting in Africa. It is to the changed times that theology should be conversing with. The relevance of Christian theology and faith should be seen by how well it is lived in a concrete African setting and how well it is a basis for religious, social, economic, and political transformation.

The continuous cultural changes in Africa call for a Christian theology that is always in flux yet faithful to the sources: the sacred Scriptures and the Christian traditions. The way human beings express themselves in cultural symbols, including language, points also to the necessity of cultural relevance and meaningful faith expressions. This is the task of African theology today. The issues that have shaped modern African history should be the raw materials for African theology. The introduction of modern education and with it new political, economic, and social-religious settings in Africa have brought about cultural and historical changes.

Below is an analysis of the changing African historical context. I consider the extent of change and issues inherent and contributing to the changing circumstances.

African History and Theological Analysis

When African history is mentioned, one cannot avoid thinking of colonialism and early missionary endeavors. Although there are many developments in African history, we cannot ignore the impact of colonialism and missionary work and all the other contacts Africa has had with the rest of the world. The African continent has been changing over time. Post-independence Africa has its share of problems as well as some developments, such as the recently ended civil war in Angola and unfortunately, the civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Evidently, Africa is responsible for the shaping of its destiny. History does not mean being stuck in the past. It is dynamic. It is the people who engage life every day and its events who thereby make history. In the same dynamism of history, African theology should not be held captive in the events of long ago but should engage history as it happens, flowing from the past to the present and the future. African Christian theology is the study of the reality of African events, and through analyses of events, it engages life as it happens, thereby keeping the Christian faith relevant.

African theology has an inescapable task of critically and analytically responding to historical events as they happen. Through critical analysis of human living as it unfolds in various political, social, and economic situations in different places in Africa, African theology would show its significance and provide practical solutions to concrete issues affecting people. The concern with events as they happen in African theology does not mean that the past is irrelevant. Through the study of the past, we understand the people’s strengths and weaknesses. African theology uses the African historical context as its foundation. This can be said of any theological study. For example, James Cone has addressed, in his theology, the black experience of oppression and segregation in the United States of America. Cone cites his experience as a child in Bearden, Arkansas. He states:

I remember Bearden because it is the place where I first discovered myself—as black and Christian. There, the meaning of black was defined primarily by the menacing presence of whites, which no African-American could escape. I grew up during the age of Jim Crow (1940s and early 1950s). I attended segregated schools, drank water from “colored” fountains, saw movies from balconies, and when absolutely necessary greeted white adults at the back of their homes. I also observed the contempt and brutality that white law meted out to the blacks who transgressed their racial mores or who dared to question their authority.1

Consequently, theology calls for a critical evaluation and analysis of history. Since theology studies God and people, the message of hope and fulfillment should always nourish the community in which it is done. The strong points of the past are upheld and the weaknesses done away with. As noted before, theology should not exclusively deal with the past and forget the present and the future. However, it is my view that African theology has concentrated on African traditional religions as they were in the past and not paid enough attention to contemporary African context. Unfortunately, some African theologians have laid a claim that Africans have no sense of future time.2 Do cultures and customs not change over time?

African nations for the last forty years after independence have had to deal with issues of nation building as well as situations of political dictatorships, political mismanagement, and social and religious identity crises. What James Cone says of black theology in the United States of America can be said of contemporary Africa. Making an observation on the history and development of black theology in the United States of America, Cone states:

New times require new concepts and methods. To dream is not enough. We must come down from the mountaintop and experience the hurts and pain of the people in the valley. Our dreams need to be socially analyzed, for without scientific analysis they will vanish into the night. Furthermore, social analysis will test the nature of our commitment to the dreams we preach and sing about. This is one of the important principles we learned from Martin King and many black preachers who worked with him. Real substantial change in societal structures requires scientific analysis. King’s commitment to social analysis not only characterized his involvement in the Civil Rights movement but also led him to take a radical stand against war in Vietnam. Through, scientific analysis, King saw the connection between the oppression of blacks in the U.S. and America’s involvement in Vietnam. It is to his credit that he never allowed a pietistic faith in the other world to become a substitute for good judgment in this world. He not only preached sermons about the promised land but concretized his vision with a political attempt to actualize his hope.3

Just as the black experience in the United States has shaped Cone’s theology, so also African history and experience provides a tool for theological study that is socially responsible. It is the best way to be grounded in theological study. While the sacred Scriptures and the church tradition are the basic sources of theology, theological study is tremendously shaped by the community of the theologian. African theology is a response to an African historical context. African history is usually broadly categorized as colonial and post-colonial. Some pertinent issues in colonial and post-colonial Africa are considered below.

African History as a Struggle for Liberation (or Independence)

The concept of liberation is not foreign to Afr...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Chapter 1: The Area of African Theology Is an African Social and Historical Context
• Chapter 2: The Social Nature of the Christian Faith and the African Historical Context
• Chapter 3: Method in African Theology
• Chapter 4: The Christological Foundation in African Inculturation Christian Theology
• Bibliography