African theology

What composes an Evangelical demonology? This dissertation aims to provide a fresh Evangelical demonology, reflecting and systematizing the biblical material on the demonic.

To begin the process, Byang Kato’s background and demonology is examined, since Kato himself has a unique relationship to demonic practices by virtue of his upbringing. His demonological efforts are headlined by a booklet on the spirits, and throughout the rest of Kato’s theological output, Satan and his wicked comrades are frequently mentioned. Overall, Kato’s work presents timely contributions for our demonological goals, especially considering the multicultural context. In an increasingly intermingled world, with many backgrounds being represented in multicultural Christian communities, Kato’s demonology is a superior model. Human perceptions concerning the demonic are often inseparable from prevailing cultural attitudes, and the temptation to exalt one’s own culture must be avoided, especially due to the new norm of multicultural churches, para-church organizations, and seminaries. Kato’s demonology gravitates to the biblical material, and thus it delivers both challenges and affirmations to every party.

Furthermore, Kato’s writings on the demonic are inherently linked to soteriology. After discerning some of the major themes of Kato’s soteriology, his exclusivism (and how it relates to demonology) is specifically discussed. Since Kato views the world outside of Christ as the dominion of Satan and the demonic, he advocates that one must turn to Christ for redemption.

Then an Evangelical demonology itself is constructed. After highlighting particular contributions from Kato, criteria are outlined for the project before launching into the primary content. Demonic activity throughout the Bible is surveyed, and the argument is offered that demons do act as malevolent personal beings intent on instigating evil in the created order.

Through this study of the demonic, the assertion that “demonology matters” is presented, as the doctrine of the demonic relates to the reliability of the Bible and the quality of our salvation. A biblical, Evangelical demonology also rises to modern challenges, including skepticism and speculation. Christians are planted on the sure ground of the Scriptures, prepared for the spiritual realities of the world in which we live.

Is the demonic personal or impersonal? The question is rarely treated in depth. This thesis initially delves into the demonological offerings of a pair of twentieth century theologians, Karl Barth and Merrill Unger, in order to discern their particular positions upon the subject.

Personhood itself is a divisive issue between the two theologians. Barth’s perspective on personhood is not intrinsically linked to the physical nature. Persons are who they are because of their relationship with the divine. In reference to the demonic, Unger briefly assesses personhood by inseparably correlating it with ontological reality. Their disagreement continues into the definition of “demon.” Barth prefers to see the demonic as uncreated yet derived from God as a byproduct of His creative decree, and Unger opts for a famous classical construction that they are created beings who rebelled against their Maker.

Yet, Barth and Unger are both found to not only adhere to personal language concerning the demonic but also to posit demons as personal beings. According to Barth and Unger, demons are real, personal, and malevolent. This unusual unity, even with their distinct theological backgrounds, can only be properly understood as the result of their mutual profession to reflect the biblical material.

Considering the dated nature of Barth and Unger’s writings, recent biblical scholarship is examined in order to determine whether or not their attestation of a demonic personhood is borne out by current studies. While a few exceptions are noted, the majority of scholars indicate that the biblical material portrays personal intermediary players besides God and humanity, with the category of “demon” becoming progressively prevalent as one chronologically journeys through the divine revelation. Spurning a Bultmann-inspired demythologization, Barth and Unger simply attempt to reflect the biblical material.

But how does Barth and Unger’s idea of demonic personhood hold up in light of the multicultural context? As the globe hurriedly shrinks during our technologically connected age, the boundaries between cultures have fallen, resulting in numerous contexts which contain two or more cultures sharing the same space. How can Christianity navigate such turbulent times, except by emphasizing the centrality of the God’s Word! It coheres God’s people, while convicting and transforming every contacted culture. In the multicultural context, specifically through the Western and African worldviews, Barth and Unger’s personhood of the demonic speaks admonition and affirmation to the Christian masses. Unhealthy superstition is challenged, and dismissive skepticism is chastised. Caution is upheld, and the openness of the African worldview is vindicated. Thus, in light of the multicultural context, a biblical personhood of the demonic realm is plausible, and as a revelation-centric position, it surpasses current ethnocentric expressions of the topic.

As we turned toward constructing some conclusions, Barth and Unger’s strengths and weaknesses were assessed. Karl Barth claims that conveying the biblical testimony is his first concern, but on the subject of the demonic, he entertains a confusing philosophy which unpredictably maintains personhood. Merrill Unger paints with broad brush strokes, failing to discuss or respond to the progressive way in which the demonic is unveiled throughout the biblical text. One of the strengths of Barth’s demonological presentation, which includes demonic personhood, is that he highlights the activity of the demonic before the ontology of the demonic. Though interacting with scholars and theologians, Unger’s clear emphasis and strength is on recapitulating the biblical text, linking nearly every point to numerous texts.

Finally, if we accept the reality of a personal demonic, our response to the demonic should reflect it. Theologically, it should spur us onward toward a truly personal view of redemption. Practically, it means that we should critically analyze and carefully consider the constructive works of counselors, pastors, and deliverance practitioners that we may cautiously adapt our ecclesiological practices to reflect biblical realities.

There is an ongoing challenge in defining African theology because of two important reasons: (1) the quest for a definitive African theology is a fairly recent pursuit and (2) the vastness and diversity of the African continent. Given this, this article presents the complexity of defining African theology and its methodological approaches through a background sketch of the development of African theology. Regardless of many definitions of African theology and its purposes, the article acknowledges African Christian theology as theology that should be derived from the interplay between Scripture, Christian tradition and African cosmology. In deriving theology from the aforementioned aspects, African theology should also seek to develop contextual African theologies with global relevance. In this way, African theology can claim its space in the universal church. Although we are conscious of the values and challenges associated with the task of doing African theology, we argue for its necessity. We further argue that if the centrality of Scripture is maintained in the African theological endeavour, it will cause African theologies to have some shared reference point with other Christian theologies and hence engaging globally, while contributing unique African perspectives to global theological discourse.

This paper on gender and the Bible in African Christianity can only give broad highlights on phenomena that can be described in a million different ways in the whole continent, given the diversities of religion, ethnicity, race, sexuality, age and class in each country and how they construct social roles for their members.  Further, a paper on gender, bible and African Christianity underlines new cultural constructions that produce other complex categories of gender for three different reasons.  First, the Bible is a Jewish book that models different gender constructions, according to their cultural, religious, economic understanding.  Second, the Bible is a collection of sixty-six books written /compiled over two millennia, thus presenting conflicting gender constructions.  Third, African Christianity, especially the sub-Saharan one, is not uniform but a product of collision of modern European Christianities, brought by different denominations (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Methodist).  The European countries brought Christianity to Sub-Saharan Africa in a colonial context (laden with their own cultures) and planted it in different indigenous African cultures.    In the memories of African people, the Bible is thus tied together with colonial history. The Bible is linked with land, dispossession, but now claimed as a possession received through western colonialism.  The Bible is thus described as another set of wisdom, which co-exists with pre-existing collections of African oral wisdom.  In other words,  we do not have one African Christianity, but several African Christanities.  This  background informs three “windows” on Gender, Bible and African Christianity elaborated in this paper.  The windows are not definitive or uniform for all forms of African Christianity, given the complexity of gender constructions; the diversity of biblical books and their gender constructions; the diversity of African Christianities and their gender constructions, at different times and places. The three windows presented here are best seen as invitations to more research projects that are time and place-specific in the diverse contexts of the African continent.  The chapter thus defines and explores the intersection of gender, Christianity and colonialism in the African continent using several case studies.

The term 'inculturation' is becoming increasingly fashionable in church, and in particular Roman Catholic, mission circles. The popularity of the term is due to a heightened Christian self-understanding of the necessity of adapting the Christian message to its cultural environment. There is recognition that the implantation of European values in Africa, or in other parts of the world, is not necessarily desirous or successful as a mission strategy. African and other non-western criticisms of colonial hegemony, including a rejection of Christianity as currently taught and practised, have come from both within and outside the church, to the extent that some African Christian theologians are rejecting the 'Christ figure' alto­ gether.2 Christianity has failed to take root, often after centuries of evan­ gelisation, if one is to judge from phenomena such as the absence or scarcity of candidates for the priesthood, or the rejection of monogamy. A perceived threat to mission churches from African Independent and Western fundamentalist churches, as well as from Islam, also contribute to a sense of urgency in the search for new solutions. In this article I look first at some  of  the ways in which inculturation is being defined and at what have come to be regarded as some early experiments in inculturation, whether well received or finally rejected by church authorities and local Christians

This essay explores Jean Price-Mars’ reasonable arguments and propositions for the religious life and experience of African people. It seeks to demonstrate that religion pervades every aspect and dimension of the African experience. In rereading Price-Mars’ ideas on the faith of African people, this essay employs the comparative method used in religion, anthropology, and ethnology to evaluate the fundamental elements of religious life and experience; particular attention is given to African traditional religion. Using the pluralist approach to religion promoted by the philosopher of religion John Hick, this essay is also an attempt to bridge an important gap in the comparative study of religion, Africana Studies, Price-Mars’ scholarship, and Haitian studies. The basic argument of this essay suggests Price-Mars as one of the earliest pioneers who has offered a scientific study of African traditional religion in the Black Diaspora, and that he was one of the precursors who had laid the intellectual foundations for contemporary scholarship on African traditional religion as well as anticipated the academic study of African theology and theological ethics, by employing the comparative method.

The very first Small Christian Communities (SCCs)/Basic Christian Communities (BCCs) in Africa started in DRC in 1961.The very beginning of SCCs in Eastern Africa can be traced back to the parishes of the Luo-speaking Deanery (especially Nyarombo, Ingri and Masonga Parishes) in North Mara in Musoma Diocese in northwestern Tanzania in 1966. The AMECEA Study Conference on “Planning for the Church in Eastern Africa in the 1980s” in Nairobi, Kenya in December, 1973 stated: “We have to insist on building church life and work on Basic Christian Communities in both rural and urban areas. Church life must be based on the communities in which everyday life and work take place: those basic and manageable social groups whose members can experience real inter-personal relationships and feel a sense of communal belonging, both in living and working.”  This pastoral policy was in the context of the statement: “We are convinced that in these countries of Eastern Africa it is time for the Church to become truly local, that is, self-ministering, self-propagating and self-supporting.” This is rooted in the theology that SCCs are not optional, but are the basic unit/basic cell/basic building block/basic foundation/most local expression of the Catholic Church.

      The AMECEA Study Conference on “Building Small Christian Communities” took place in Nairobi, Kenya in 1976.  The key statement was: "Systematic formation of Small Christian Communities should be the key pastoral priority in the years to come in Eastern Africa.” This is the single most important statement made about SCCs. The meeting went on to affirm the essential ecclesial character and characteristics of Small Christian Communities by stating: “The [Small] Christian Communities we are trying to build are simply the most local incarnations of the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
A major step was the First African Synod in Rome in April, 1994 on the theme "The Church in Africa and Her Evangelizing Mission to the Year 2000” with five main topics: "Proclamation of the Good News of Salvation", "Inculturation," "Dialogue", "Justice and Peace" and the "Means of Social Communications."  Of the 211 interventions during the first two weeks of the First African Synod, there were 29 interventions on SCCs (the fourth highest number after the topics of justice, inculturation and laity). 

      The last 10 years has seen the increasing involvement of SCCs in promoting forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, justice and peace in Africa.  There is considerable documentation on how some of the 20,000 base communities (another name for SCCs) were involved in the reconciliation and healing ministry in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. Research in Kenya, Rwanda and Sudan indicates that women are better in peacemaking than men. Men tend to emphasize power and control while women emphasize personal relationships. The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) in Lusaka, Zambia produced guided reflection pamphlets on justice and peace topics for SCCs to generate faith-based action.  The various reflection methods in the Lumko Program especially related to social justice are used throughout Africa.

      Today there are over 180,000 Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in the Catholic Church in the nine AMECEA countries. Tanzania has over 60,000 SCCs and Kenya has over 45,000 SCCs. Since 1973 they have been a key pastoral priority in Eastern Africa as a “New Way of Being (Becoming) Church” and a “New Pastoral Model of Church.”  The rich experience of the church in Eastern Africa especially pastoral, parish-based SCCs is contributing to the other parts of Africa and to the World Church. SCCs is a pastoral model of church integrally connected to the structures, ministries and activities of the parish. This helps local Catholics feel that “they are the church” and more responsible (“ownership”) for church life and decision making. SCCs are becoming more involved in justice and peace issues.

      What is the future? Many African SCCs have emerged from reading the contemporary signs of the times in Africa and responding to today’s reality. Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the former President of SECAM, calls SCCs “a special or privileged instrument of evangelization.” Tanzanian theologian Laurenti Magesa emphasizes:  “For the future of Christian mission, specifically in Africa, we can say without hesitation that the development of small faith communities is an indispensable requirement.” They can play a major role in the New Evangelization. Already as a new way of being church and a new model of church (closely related to the Church as Family and the Communion of Communities Models of Church) African SCCs are influencing the World Church. SCCs in Africa will continue to develop in the spirit of the Spanish proverb popular with the Base or Basic Christian Communities in Latin America: "We create the path by walking."

The answer to the question “who am I?” is of fundamental importance to being human.  Answers to this question are sought from various disciplines and sources, these include empirical sources such as biology and sociology, and phenomenological sources such as psychology and religion.  However, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, and the possibility of effective consciousness emulating technologies, the answer “I am…” is no longer that easy to construct.  This chapter discusses the impasse that this technological development presents with regard to the study of individual consciousness and identity.  It then goes on to present an integrative framework for individual consciousness that is based on the groundbreaking work of Ken Wilber and Eugene de Quincey.  The African philosophy of ubuntu is applied to this integral framework to show how the ethics of this indigenous knowledge system can contribute towards overcoming the impasse of validating individual identity and consciousness.

The study examined the roles of the clergy, the religious, and the laity in Christian mission work in Nigeria. It used the model of the Church as family to describe the collaboration and cohesion that should characterise the missionary enterprise. The Church-as-family ecclesiology was employed as recommended by Pope John Paul II in Ecclesia in Africa for evangelization of Africa of which Nigerian is a significant part. The paper also recognised that Church-family, just as biological families, is sometimes not without some conflicts among its members. This article therefore analysed some of these conflicts and recommended inclusion, genuine collaboration and co-responsibility as the panacea for the way forward.

Yaliyomo ni kazi za Jim Harries alizoandikwa tangu mwaka wa 2006 mpaka 2019. Maandishi yake yanaangalia sana utumizi wa lugha kwa huduma ya Ukristo kwa bara la Afrika. Anataja mada mengine pia; utume, mafunzo ya Bi-blia, utamaduni wa Kiafrika, maendeleo, uchawi, nk. Alipendelea ayaweke ma-andishi yake pamoja ndani ya kitabu kimoja. Jim anatumaini maandishi yake yatakuwa himizo kwa wenyeji wa Afrika ya Mashariki kuandika maono ambayo wamepewa na Bwana, na yale waliojifunza kulingana na huduma yao.. Jim hajaoa, lakini watoto yatima wanaishi pamoja naye kwa nyumba anayokodesha kijijini. Jim alipata shahada ya PhD Uingereza mwaka wa 2007. Hiki ni kitabu chake cha kumi kuchapishwa. Maandishi yake mengi yanahusika na jinsi inafaa kufanya kazi ya Bwana kwa bara la Afrika. Jim anafanya huduma yake akiwa chini ya Kanisa Orthodox la Koptiki. Kutoka Uingereza anatumwa na Kanisa la Baptisti.

An essay that treats:

1. Historical Development of Small Christian Communities/Basic Ecclesial Communities in Africa
2. Themes of Small Christian Communities in Africa
    a. Relationships and Community
    b. Biblical
    c. Ecclesiastical
    d. Pastoral
    e. Contextual
    f.  Synodality
    g. Mission
3. Development of Small Christian Communities in Africa
4. Challenges of Small Christian Communities in Africa
5. Bibliography

Historically there are four perspectives to the interpretation of Revelation 20: 1-10 and the understanding of the millennial reign of Christ. This paper reports the findings of a research carried out in 2005 to discover millennial trends among Nigerian Christians. The respondents were mainly Baptists but drawn from across the country. The findings revealed the dispensational millennial view to be the popular perspective among an overwhelming majority of Nigerian Christians. It was further discovered that dispensational millennialism is the only millennial perspective known to an equally overwhelming majority of Nigerian believers. Thus, the adoption of this perspective was not arrived at after critical reflection on the options. Since such decisions are better made after careful examination of biblical and theological data, the paper recommends that the church needs to be more proactive in educating her members on the subject of eschatology.

In carrying the Gospel to mission lands, the missionaries equally carried with them the division that came out of the 16 th century Reformation. Both the Gospel and the division were planted in these mission territories with detrimental effects till date. In the light of this problem, this article discusses Christian division in Southeastern Nigeria, otherwise known as the Lower Niger Region. In other words, it traces the division from the period of the missionary enterprise in the Lower Niger and links the division to the bitter consequences of the Reformation. The article however seeks an ecumenical option as a remedy to the situation today and thus argues that the ecumenical key to resolving the division can only be located within the traditional African structure of community rather than in the doctrinal discussions that often take the centre stage in contemporary ecumenical dialogue. In offering this ecumenical solution, it is suggested that the starting point of dialogue should be the question of African identity.

This essay argues that an important task of theology is the construction of piety. It draws from a few critical moments in the development of Christianity, such as the development of the doctrine of God and Christology in the early church and the rejection of materialistic Christianity in early modern Europe, to argue that these moments reflect the theological struggle to shape Christian piety. The idea that theology is concerned with the shaping of piety is then used to evaluate African theology of inculturation, which has now flowered in the Pentecostalization of African Christianity. It argues that although the theology of incul-turation may be helpful in constructing a viable African theology, uncritically embracing the spiritualized cosmology of African traditional societies in salvific discourses promotes a form of piety that is ill-equipped to overcome the marginalization of the continent in the modern world.

The last 3 years have witnessed a period of substantial volatility in Cameroon. In 2016, protests within the minority Anglophone regions against the obligatory use of French in schools triggered a period of considerable unrest, in which hundreds of people have been incarcerated and killed. Following an increased security presence in the English-speaking regions, armed groups have surfaced calling for secession – the creation of an independent nation of Ambazonia. In view of this escalating crisis, this article will investigate how the ‘Anglophone problem’ in Cameroon might be brought to bear upon the African theological debate by examining issues of violence, marginalisation and fragmentation within the two English-speaking areas of Cameroon.

It is argued in this paper that the Holy Spirit is an agent of an inaugurated eschatology, the tight tension of the kingdom today and the kingdom to come. The Holy Spirit comes offering much more than the charismata, he comes as the eschatological Spirit bringing gifts of change and renewal for an eschatological reality (of which the charismata are a part). Such a reality finds its home primarily in the eschatological community, the church. Pentecostalisation has enjoyed considerable influence in Africa, a continent that is traditionally enchanted. Consequently, Africa is giving way to the emergence of an enchanted Christian society where traditional worldviews and a new form of Christianity synthesise. The effects are significant, sometimes laudable and encouraging, but at times troubling, especially when we consider pentecostalism’s elevation of capitalism, the growing theology of prosperity, and syncretism with African Traditional Religion (ATR). This article explores a theology of the coming Spirit of the resurrected Christ as an agent of inaugurated eschatology whose function is to shape and sanctify the ethos of such a Christian society. The renewal of the Spirit’s work in this re-envisioned enchanted community is to work in and through his people in the spirit of koinonia and social transformation, freeing Africans from misplaced desires and religious demands, bringing peace, working with them in nurturing the disenfranchised, and caring for his creation. It is argued that through the coming of the Holy Spirit, the enchanting of Africa will flourish.

This article reviews the gendered Pentecostal Bible as documented by various researchers. It assesses how the prophetic-spirit framework encounters and functions within the framework of the inerrant but patriarchal written word. The Spirit framework is an oral canon that opens spaces of gender empowerment. Yet Pentecostal scholars problematise the supposedly liberating Spirit, highlighting that it sometimes denies the materiality of human existence and inhabits the constraining parameters of patriarchal church structures. The article suggests that in addition to the Spirit-Word framework, new Pentecostal theological categories, such as healing and deliverance and the prosperity gospel need to be investigated for the new spaces they open for gender justice. 'The authority of the Bible as the word of God, and the experience of the Holy Spirit form two of the most important sources of Pentecostal theology' (Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 2004:390).

This article is a contribution towards the development of queer theologies in contemporary African contexts. Based on fieldwork in the gay community in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, the article explores the significance of the theological notion of the Imago Dei, the Image of God, in the self-understanding of Zambian gay men as being gay and Christian. Bringing this incipient grassroots theology into conversation with broader theological discourses, in particular African theology (including African women's theology) and queer theology, we interrogate current understandings of the Imago Dei that either ignore sexuality or exclude same-sex loving people (in African theology) or that conceptualize queerness from white Western privileged perspectives (in queer theology). Hence we develop the notion of the Imago Dei as a stepping stone towards an African queer theology.

African oratures  consist of a significant corpus of trickster stories. This article investigates indigenous frameworks of reading texts by exploring the philosophical stance of Mmutle, the trickster of Southern Africa, by analyzing eight stories. The analysis of the Mmutle trickster discourse highlights four postures of reading for liberation. First, the vulnerable and oppressed should keep a permanent vigil towards the powerful and always watch out for their interests without fail. Second, the vulnerable and oppressed should be willing to be in solidarity with other vulnerable and oppressed members of the society and to use teamwork. Third, sharp and transgressive thinking skills are vital weapons of resistance, survival and liberation.  Fourth, the Mmutle trickster philosophical framework demands skills of rewriting and redirecting a story towards new and unexpected ends in the service of resistance, survival and liberation.

Christian theology will be poised to play a constructive role in the current social transition in South Africa only insofar as it is capable of patiently listening to and being shaped by people's anger. The article aims at mapping a renewed prophetic theology in South Africa focusing on the significance of anger, and based on the theological framework inherent in the Kairos Document (1985). I refer to the three-tier distinction between state, church and prophetic theology to describe the economically-based alliance of politics and ecclesia in today's South Africa. This is followed by a reflection on the significance of anger in the emerging of people's (incipient) theologies which are then articulated as prophetic theology.

Understanding the Spirit as Creator Spiritus Sanctus by means of perichoresis privileges the triune intraconnectedness of Father, Son, and Spirit. This is the more adequate framework that holds the two in a healthy tension as it provides scope for a constructive pneuma-theology understood within a cosmic ontological interrelatedness of the Spirit and creation. The Spirit understood in cosmic view is also an avenue for interdisciplinary and interfaith dialogue that has implications for the development of an ethics of responsibility toward the earth from a pneuma-theological perspective.

Salvation is an essential doctrine in Christian theology. The different facets of the doctrine are sometimes arranged in a temporal format to describe the past, present and future dimensions of the believer’s experience of salvation. Put in this chronological sense, salvation is spoken off as past – what God has already achieved for the believer through Christ, present – what God is doing now in the life of the believer through his or her living relationship with Christ and the Holy Spirit, and what God will do in the eschaton to consummate the believer’s salvation experience. The doctrine of salvation is thus related to many other doctrines in Christian theology such as the doctrines of God, Christ, Holy Spirit, humanity, Church and eschatology. Salvation is the intersection in Christian theology where other doctrines converge and also that point at which Christian theology engages the present of human experience here and now. The believer’s union with Christ mentioned above as one of the aspects of this vital doctrine, which also is the main focus of this piece, has not been prominent in soteriological discussions. However, not many will debate the prominence of this concept in the Bible. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, different words and ideas are used to convey this truth especially the popular en Christo passages in Paul. Biblical theologians, especially Pauline interpreters are well aware of this concept. Not many systematic theologians, however, give prominence to this concept in their formulations. This paper is an attempt to examine the concept of the believer’s union with Christ in relation to the controversial topic of perseverance of the saints. The perseverance of the saints itself is a thorny theological discussion to broach. It is our conviction that the idea of the believer’s living union with Christ provides a perspective and an entry point into the discussion of perseverance that casts light on the subject.

This paper is primarily based on fieldwork research, carried out by different researchers over the last ten years.  It will explore the position of women in the church of Botswana, by examining:
a. women from different church backgrounds, that is, Mainline churches, African Independent Churches, and evangelical/pentecostal  churches
b. How and why they became leaders and their experiences in church and society
c. models of gender empowerment that emerge from the studies.
Collected fieldwork  data , therefore, sought to  analyse stories of Batswana women in church leadership in order to identify strategies employed to assume church leadership. The conclusion maps out  several strategies used by women to subvert  gender-based exclusions , such as the use of an oral canon, instead of relying on the written word.

Identifying the most creative edges in an emerging post-cold war and post-apartheid paradigm of African theology, this article proposes that theology retains a unique role in acknowledging, valorising, interpreting and enhancing the agency of African Christians in their daily struggles against the cultural, religious and economic forces. Around the central rediscovery of the agency of Africans, African theologians are attempting to construct a less embittered and less schizophrenic relationship between Africa and Christianity on the one hand, and between Africans and their painful Christian past on the other. Although many of the basic assumptions of the past continue to be influential, there is a search for theoretical tools and perspectives that will enable to understand and account for the mythical, the socio-cultural and the popular in religion and society, highlighting the socio-political importance of popular religious movements and the need to develop adequate and relevant theoretical tools for understanding them. This search is related to the criticism of the fraudulent project of the postcolonial nationalist bourgeoisie and the grand narratives of Africa, African culture and the political liberation projects with its worn-out metaphors. While African women's theology has been by far the most prolific and challenging in the past decade and half, Mosala's and Petersen's work is discussed in more detail.

This article argues that in Africa, the nature and advent of racism has to be traced back to the earliest encounters between Africans and Europeans, including the first seven centuries but especially during the slavery and colonial eras. Religion (notably Islam and Christianity), trade, education, culture, and "science" were important incubators and justifiers of racism, in earlier as well as recent times. The paper concludes by proposing some ways in which African theology can stay agile and keep pace with the resilient and adaptive forms of racism in contemporary Africa.

Keywords:
racism en route, racism and slavery, racism and colonialism, racism and Christianity, racism and gender, racism and xenophobia.

What is the basic structure of African Indigenous Religions (AIR/s)? How is it gendered?  How did colonialism affect AIR/s?  Is the academic study of AIR/s among Africanists and feminists decolonized?  Using the context of Southern Africa, this paper will address the above questions by exploring the construction of gender in AIR/s’ concepts of community, ancestorhood and the Divine.  The paper will investigate the academic frameworks of Africanists and feminist scholars of AIR/s by investigating the naming of AIR/s and the frameworks of gender analysis within the postcolonial history.  It will further make some proposals on decolonized frameworks of studying AIR/s.

ABSTRACT The narrative that does justice is an oppositional discourse re-enacted in the liminal spaces as a dynamic cultural form termed as 'narrative of resistance.' Describing public religious speech acts as liminal discourse highlights the symbolic and ideological dimensions that can enable African Christians, Zambians in particular, to take an oppositional stance against heterosexist narrative rampant among religious leaders. The article demonstrates how public religious speech acts as liminal discourse within African Christianity might function as a tool of resistance to heterosexist narratives and help change the worldviews, behaviours and attitudes entrenched with prejudice against sexual minorities. The article concludes by giving an example of ubuntu Biblical hermeneutics as a framework for doing public religious speech to resist heterosexism.

There is a dialogue taking place in the area of African Theology; " do we call it African Christian theology or African Theology and how it relates to the African culture " ? Depending on where one sits, any name will carry the day as long as it fulfills the academic desire intended. What is important is the dialogue that is taking place between the Bible and the African culture. Here, we shall take the name " African Theology " as the norm. It is evident in almost all ways that from a walk which is based on the mapping of African theology or from the wide variety of current understandings of its nature and task, there are several priorities in African Theology. A number of theologians today argue that the priorities of African theology are many. These include providing a clear and comprehensive dialogue between African culture and the Bible in relation to the African faith. They argue that the Bible has also been translated into local languages in order to enable the African cultures to become intelligible in the way they relate to the scriptures. On the other hand, others have prioritized the definition of African Theology so that they can deal with it from their perspective of African Traditional Religions. Also, others want to prioritize African Theology as a reflection of the praxis of Christian faith within a relatively deprived community. Therefore, this article seeks to briefly provide some priorities in African Theology, such as liberation, reconstruction, and poverty reduction theologies. In this study, we will proceed to explore the need for a definition of African Theology, how it relates to African Christian faith, and the challenges posed by African Theology to the Christian faith. We will conclude with the general guidelines on formulating the priorities of African theology.

This article explores and seeks to appropriate theologically the African notion of vital force as a relational, non-reductionist ecological concept that would enrich the Christian doctrine of pneumatheology. The understanding that relational and pneumatological categories are viable within the theology–science dialogue is the broader framework within which this article is conceived. The relationship between natural theology and revelation provides an epistemological standpoint that does not divorce Spirit and reality.

The present disposition of atonement theology has been turbulent in light of recent disputes and criticisms. This dissertation seeks to acknowledge two seemingly distinct atonement theories, the penal substitution and Christus Victor motifs, and then explore how they harmoniously complement one another as a synthesis. This atonement synthesis is then applied to African metaphysics to demonstrate its efficacy in a very different cultural context from that of the West.

The research begins with a study of the interplay between atonement theology and socio-historical contexts and the influences that helped develop the theological concepts of atonement. Here the notable presence of atonement synthesis is highlighted throughout Church history. Atonement synthesis in biblical narrative is then examined. It is argued that a theology of penal substitution without Christus Victor, or vice versa, is inadequate, as both the Church’s theology and biblical narrative present them as harmonious and complementary.

The implications of atonement synthesis are then explored in light of African metaphysics, in which the atonement best finds its expression among Africans. An overview of African philosophy and spirituality and a study of African atonement prepare the way for exploring the implications of atonement synthesis in African socio-cosmology, socio-disharmony, socio-ontology as well as socio-renewal and cosmic harmony. These implications demonstrate that Christ’s atonement is more than capable in dealing with African metaphysic realities. This dissertation suggests that atonement synthesis ultimately offers the African liberty and hope. It fulfils a profound need in African philosophy and spirituality which, without Christ’s penal substitution and Christ as Victor, there would be no hope of redemption.

Taxonomies of Salvation Discourses on salvation in African Christian theology have often focused on the various understandings of salvation in sub-Saharan Africa, as African theology is often understood as sub-Saharan African theology. Thus, in his insightful classification of perspectives of salvation in African theology, the South African theologian, Gerrit Brand, focuses on sub-Saharan African theology to argue that, from an African perspective, Western discourses on salvation have mostly paid attention to the means and how of salvation rather than on the content of salvation. The focus on the means and how of salvation has led Western Christian theology to emphasize the various theories of atonement and debates on the question of who is saved. In Africa, however, the focus on the content of salvation has led many to seek to see evidence of salvation. They seek to see evidence of salvation not in the Calvinistic or puritanical sense of transformed morality and church life but in the sense of the overall transformation of human life-spiritual, personal, social, political, economic, ecological. This focus on the evidence of salvation has led some to see the Christian view of salvation as elusive. To them, the Christian understanding of salvation is like "a fabulous ghost," which constantly evades people as they try to grasp it. The typology of African theology of salvation which Brand presents therefore focuses on the content or nature of salvation and thus suggests an African Christian contribution to the idea of salvation in world Christianity. In other words, for Brand, an African contribution to the understanding of salvation in world Christian theology is the view that salvation must be made tangible and verifiable in this life rather than perpetually remaining an unfulfilled dream or postponed. Brand classifies African theology of salvation into five types: anthropological, social, cultural, ontological, and vitalistic.1 Anthropological understandings of salvation are those that see salvation as the restoration of the person to full humanity. In this case, the loss of full humanity is not often orchestrated by individual sins but rather by the sins of others and other impediments, such as sickness and lack of opportunity. Examples of this view of salvation include the understanding of salvation in black theology, the concepts of ubuntu and ujamaa, the view of salvation in African religions as including elements such as healing, and the prosperity gospel. These views of salvation aim to see the overall transformation of the human person (individual) for the better. The social vision of salvation sees salvation as communal good, that is, salvation is not just about the betterment of the individual person but that of the community. This view of salvation is connected to the first in that it includes the concepts of ubuntu and ujamaa but the focus is on the community rather than the individual. The goal is therefore to seek communal well-being rather than mainly the well-being of the individual. An example of this view of salvation is the understanding of salvation as societal reconciliation, especially seen in countries like South Africa and Rwanda, and represented in the recent theology of Desmond Tutu and Emmanuel Katongole, among

Tinyiko Sam Maluleke is a prolific South African theologian whose work mounts a thoroughgoing critique 6 of the status of Christianity in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. Situating his work within its archival 7 context, this article argues that the work of Maluleke emphasizes the vocation of the theologian as critic. 8 The essay looks at some key themes in his work and suggests that Maluleke’s critique of African 9 Christianity is soteriological in nature, that is, he questions the role the Christian faith may play in the sal- 10 vation of (South) Africa.

La lecture de la Bible en Afrique est marquée par un double souci : celui d'établir un lien entre la « Parole de Dieu » et le vécu africain et celui de la lire afin d'en tirer suffisamment profit dans l'espoir de survivre dans l'au-delà. Ce qui vaut pour la Bible vaut pour l'Apocalypse johannique. La lecture de l'Apocalypse en contexte africain prend souvent appui sur les circonstances de l'existence. En d'autres termes, le contexte culturel, politique et socio-économique de l'Afrique amène souvent le lecteur africain à privilégier des thèmes inhérents à ses attentes au sujet de la vie ou de la mort. Ce souci existentiel est la marque de la lecture de l'Apocalypse en Afrique. On s'en doute, les grilles de lecture de l'Apocalypse sont nombreuses. Nous n'en retiendrons que quelques-unes. Dans un premier temps, nous évoquerons la manière dont l'Apocalypse johannique fait l'objet d'une pluralité de lectures. Nous mettrons l'accent sur deux lectures : celle du déterminisme et celle de l'articulation entre rapport au monde et attente de la délivrance. Dans un second temps, nous analyserons certains motifs de lecture de l'Apocalypse où sont repérables quelques thèmes théologiques essentiels pour la culture africaine : sa dimension prophétique et son message d'espérance. 1. L'Apocalypse, une lecture plurielle La lecture africaine de l'Apocalypse de Jean se décline au pluriel. Cela est lié, d'une part à la multiplicité d'interprétations que l'on trouve au niveau contextuel, d'autre part aux différentes écoles d'interprétation selon les options doctrinales des églises. Nous évoquerons à titre d'exemples deux façons de lire l'Apocalypse johannique, réminiscences de l'héritage missionnaire. L'Apocalypse est souvent lu dans une attitude de fatalisme et de passivité. La façon dont l'Apocalypse présente le jugement des nations, la victoire de Dieu sur les puissances du mal, la venue du Christ, le jugement dernier (Ap 20) conduit le chrétien africain à considérer tous les drames vécus en Afrique comme ayant été prévus en tant que signes avant-coureurs de la fin des temps. Pour paraphraser l'évangile, « il y aura des guerres, des famines, des épidémies et autres désastres », l'Eglise sera persécutée par des puissances mondiales qui feront des chrétiens des martyrs. Ainsi, censés vivre actuellement la fin du monde, attendant simplement le retour de Jésus qui inaugurera le glorieux règne final (Ap 7,16-17) et une période de mille ans où Satan sera lié (Ap 20,1-5), le chrétien se voit dans une situation où presque rien de son existence ne peut être modifié. Ce qui est fait est fait. Il ressort, de cette lecture, que Dieu a déjà écrit l'Histoire : quoi qu'il arrive, son plan est sûr, on peut lui faire confiance. De cette manière de lire l'Apocalypse découle la compréhension du problème du mal et particulièrement du mal subi. Dieu nous enjoint de ne pas nous venger, mais de remettre la vengeance entre ses mains. Tel est le leitmotiv de la plupart des chrétiens africains. Car, le cri des victimes est entendu, leur dignité sera rétablie, leur exigence de réparation sera satisfaite par un effet de mémoire de Dieu. C'est dire que l'intégralité de notre vécu est enregistrée et conservée de manière infaillible dans l'attente du jugement de Dieu. Ainsi, Dieu ne laisse rien

To celebrate the intellectually interruptive life and work of James Cone, the founder of Black Theology, we have chosen, in this article, to interrupt the hasty and uncritical reception and extolling of the alleged virtues and largely positive meanings attached to the currently vogue metaphors of travel, hybridity and mobility. The central argument of this article is that the overwhelming majority of Africans have been and remain largely excluded from the 'joys' of travelling, the freedom of putting on or asserting hybrid identities and the privilege of having untrammeled mobility. Many hybrid African communities and nations continue to inhabit the human dumping spaces that lie between/outside the borders of state and nation as well as the intellectual dumping spaces supposed to lie outside the Western canons. This article is an invitation to pause and think about the ways in which Africans continue to be alienated, inside and outside of themselves, inside and outside of their countries, and inside and outside of the African continent. A scholarly and thoughtful approach to questions of marginality, mobility and hybridity, will greatly assist us in contextualizing and understanding the impact and the meanings of the insults and the violence that Africans continue to endure at home and abroad. To outline the many layers of African marginality even at a time when global travel and mobility have supposedly become easier, we have set out brief reflections under the sub-themes of Africans and/ in Europe, Africans in/and America, Africans and the global politics of vulgarity, as well as Africans in/and Africa.

This study is prompted by the persisting, provoking and lingering representation of Africans as “radical others” through intellectual and artistic media. Historically, images of the people of African descent through the powerful medium of conventional cinema have been disfiguring, dehumanizing and alienating. Eurocentric and Afro-pessimistic conventional cinema as an expression of neocolonialism, has also perpetuated the stereotyping of images and stories of Africa. An African independent filmmaker and storyteller, Haile Gerima, through his cinematic-intellectual corpus known for resisting invisibility, decolonising filmic minds and offers a counternarrative
and counter-images. He has been a prolific filmmaker since
the 1970’s.
Haile Gerima’s films are visually innovative translations of African folkloric orality, masks, art of weavers and Ethiopian Orthodox iconography. Orality and iconography are essential for theologizing in African contexts. Critical exploration of an iconoclastic stance contributes towards human flourishing. False or idolatrous representations deserve an iconoclastic response of demystification or “breaking toys”. The agency of the self in its dialogical modes and the practices of image-making, image-gazing and image-breaking, opens possibilities towards enabling a more God-glorifying view and practices of human-dignity.
In light of Gerima’s cinematic storytelling, this study bridges
theology and cinema, doctrine and social actions as praxis, a unity and reflection of theory blended with practical actions, incarnation with social justice, divine and human iconography, worship and activism.

The Kifaayat'l-Muhtadeen is a treatise on tawheed composed by Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye` during the early period of his reform movement (circa 1776-1780). The SIIASI has combined the Arabic and English with the Spanish translation by Alymah Ramos and the French translation by Dylia Camara.

The issue of Afriean identity is one that has not only interested African Christian theologians but also Africans from all walks of life (politics, philosophy, the arts, and others) who have endeavored to grapplewhla Africa’s encounter with non-African cultures and religions.

The chapter explores the Lord's Prayer in the context of neo liberal economy. It exegesis the vision provided by the Lord's prayer and it s implications for the Christian mission and relationality. It is argues that hallowing God's name is working in partnership with God for the realization of God's will in heaven as it is on Earth. The article proposes a new understanding of mission, where believers are invited to partnership with God for the realization of God's will on Earth as it is heaven.  Such ethical mission does not embrace colonialism, patriarchy, poverty and the creation of exploitative  economic structures.

The chapter explores the social. economic and political context that nurtured  African Christianity in modern times.  African social and political contexts have been a rocking boat and an experiment, given that it is widely acknowledged that nationalism describes “imagined communities.”  Since the foundation and boundaries of contemporary African nations were not even initiated by those who found themselves within the particular borders, owning such a collective identity has been a process, an experiment.  The struggle for independence was the first stage of building a shared vision of living together.  But such a vision was rudely challenged for daring to proceed without healing the colonial wounds and sufficiently struggling with ways of living peacefully with ethnic, religious, racial and gender differences.  Those countries that have taken to truth and reconciliation seem to have created a helpful bridge for crossing, although it recognised that it does not necessarily address structural inequalities established by decades and centuries of dispossession of indigenous populations, especially dispossession of their lands. The vision of being independent African countries has also been challenged by the realisation that western countries’ programs, policies and interventions have not always midwifed positive social and political contexts. As much as African countries are, and will always remain, part and parcel of the international community, they will also need to be guarded towards imposed developmental policies, programs, aid and partnerships that are manufactured from western contexts and assumed to be a one size-fits all garment. The active participation of national, regional and continental civil societies, regional and collective economic bodies, unions and associations have already become crucial partners on the road to creating empowering social and political contexts in the African continent.

Modern scholars of Christianity such as Andrew Walls, Philip Jenkins, Patrick Johnstone, Lamin Sanneh, Joel Carpenter, Kwame Bediako and others, have convincingly argued that the Christian center of gravity has shifted from the global West and North (Europe and North America) to the global South and East (Africa, Latin America, and Asia). This shift has resulted from the explosion of Christianity in the global south and the recession of Christianity in the West. Thus Christianity is currently post-Western and the West is post-Christian. However, millions of people from the vibrant churches of the global South and East (the Majority World)  who migrate to the West every year provide fresh opportunities for the rejuvenation of the Christian faith in the West. However, since immigrants to the West do not abandon their particular religious, cultural, and ethnic identities when they move to the West, it is paramount for Western theologians to reorient their theology to incorporate questions from immigrants. If indeed the Western society has been transformed from being culturally homogenous to multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multi-religious, Western theology must take this current reality seriously. Thus using African immigrants as a case in point, this paper will address the relevance of African Christianity to the West. It proceeds forward in four sections. The first section gives a brief overview of the recent growth of Christianity in the Majority World. The second section deals with the immigration factor stressing the current demographic transformation of the North American religious landscape. The third section examines the religious presuppositions (worldview) that African immigrants bring with them to the West. The fourth section suggests four proposals on how Western Christianity can draw from the African worldview.

Theological institutions are the "seed bed where seeds and then young plants are nurtured into bloom and usefulness" 1 for the service of church and society. This view of a theological institution is as profound as it is humbling. It is a profound thought that seminaries provide the context for ministerial formation of those whom God calls. It is humbling because failure on the part of seminaries to play well their parts does have far reaching implications of eternal proportions. This paper examines the challenge facing seminaries from the perspective of the importance of graduate profile. A graduate profile is a portrait of the person a graduate of an institution is expected to be at the point of graduation. This portrait needs to be clear in the minds of institutional administrators, teachers and the students themselves if the expectations will be met. I shall attempt to explore the relevance of graduate profile in the spiritual formation of the theological student. In this paper, I emphasize integration as the effective way of developing properly formed ministers for the church and provide a model for assessment that will achieve the desired results.

Churches need to engage with men in order to transform dangerous ideas about manhood in Africa. The HIV epidemic calls for the immediate action on attitudes to sex and sexual violence (Chitando 2007: 46). In the age of HIV and AIDS, masculinity and manhood roles, tendencies and attitudes have become matters of life and death (Maluleke 2007). Defining the Problem: Violent Youth Masculinities in one HIV&AIDS Context In the past twenty-eight years of living with HIV&AIDS and the effort to contain its spread, Botswana has undertaken an intense promotion of the sexual ethics of abstinence from premarital sex for adolescents and young adults; consistent and correct condom use for the sexually active and faithfulness among those in committed relationships. This promotion has been marked by a parallel male discourse of resistance that took three different forms over time. 1 The first stage of resistance was characterized by counter-myth and sayings. One saying, counteracting the promotion of condom use, held that " ga o kake wa ja nekere e phuthetswe, " that is, one cannot eat a wrapped candy (Shaibu & Dube 2002:7). It is not an exaggeration that in an HIV&AIDS context a penis could be as good as a deadly shot of HIV infected sperms, hence the promotion of condoms. Be that as it may, the masculinities of resistance insisted on unprotected sex by constructing the penis as a candy-a sweet candy-one that must be fully enjoyed, unwrapped. This is but one saying among a whole host of sayings of the counter discourse that sought to resist the promotion of condom use, including " mythologies such as condoms have worms " (7). In a research that we carried, focusing on high school-going adolescents on Gender, Sexuality, HIV/AIDS and Life Skills in Education, the boys said they, " never admit to a fear of HIV/AIDS: " We brag when with friends, claiming to be kings of AIDS " " (Chilisa, Dube, Tsheko & Mazile 2002:112). One that I found memorable was when we asked them what they have heard about HIV&AIDS. One of their answers was that some people say, " let us have sex now, for in the future HIV will be airborne! " (105). Obviously, this saying is a powerful counter statement against the promotion of abstinence that constructs HIV as less dangerous in its current transmission form. 1 Although I discuss three forms of male resistance, I believe they can be five: the strategy of HIV positive male partners who insisted, against the will of their female partners and during the times when HIV Prevention of Mother to Child Programs were not available, to have children; and the rise of multiple concurrent partners. The latter are quite different from the traditional practice of the so-called small house, which allowed a married man to be involved with another woman who was not his wife but who was officially reported to his wife, family and children and was known to the wider society. The so-called small houses were some form of polygamy; although the man could choose not to marry the second woman it was a known and lifetime relationship. In the HIV and AIDS context, small houses have evolved into the multiple concurrent partners, counteracting the HIV messages. Consequently, the National Campaign Plan: Multiple Concurrent Partnership of Botswana was launched March 2009.