The renown evangelical theologian and academic, Matthew Michael, has produced a quasi-systematic theology work which seeks to understand Christian theology through close dialogue with the Bible, especially in the context of African worldviews and traditions.\u00a0 He sees the necessity of Christian theology engaging the worldviews of the African people in terms of their beliefs, values, and traditional orientations.\u00a0 Additionally, Christian theology must be faithful to the Scriptures in seeking to understand the correlations between biblical issues with the conflicts and tension of contemporary life. Michael stresses that the responsibility rests with Christian theology to engage the religious, social, cultural, and political aspects of the African context. \u00a0In sum, the book addresses the significance of the interaction, engagement, and dialogue between Christian theology and African traditions with the objective in mind of transforming the African mind, worldviews, and traditions as a necessary condition for a biblical transformation of Africa.<\/p>\n
Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n Michael\u2019s thorough and compelling book has greatly enhanced my understanding of African belief systems and worldviews in three areas: worldview\/identity; occult practices; and salvation perceptions.<\/p>\n Worldview\/Identity<\/em><\/p>\n The author informs us that the way Africans look at the world is \u201coften the force behind their existence, the architect of their identity and way of life.\u201d [1] Despite the Westernization of the African people, in their thinking or worldview Africans have remained African. \u201cAfrican identity is not about the externalities of traditions such as tribal marks, language, unique tribal clothing, festivity or location,\u201d [2] but about worldview. \u00a0Michael intimates that Christianity only impacted the African way of life superficially because of a failure to engage the African people at the level of their worldview.<\/p>\n Solution <\/em><\/p>\n The author believes that the Christian faith has not had a significant impact in Africa despite its longstanding interaction with the continent because of its failure to engage the African people at the level of their worldview which defines them. \u00a0\u201cSince both the African and biblical worldviews acknowledge the existence of God, angels, demons or evil spirits, these shared worldviews can facilitate engaging and transforming the African worldview in light of biblical revelation.\u201d [3] This transformation is necessary for the true meaning of the Christian faith to be known and experienced by the African people.<\/p>\n Occult Practices<\/em><\/p>\n Michael relates that in traditional African societies, African people have sought out witch doctors, herbalists, medicine men, and diviners for guidance and consultation, believing them to be clairvoyant and to have supernatural powers. \u00a0Many Christians in African churches continue to patronize them for spiritual guidance, viewing them as legitimate means of divine guidance. \u00a0Evangelical churches persistently denounced \u201cthese traditional institutions as a medium of guidance for Christians since it is syncretic and un-Christian.\u201d [4] Michael states the problem could be averted if the discipleship programs of the African church address the issues of the traditional African worldview and teach the biblical worldview for Christian believers which entails relying on the Scriptures and the inward leading of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n Solution<\/em><\/p>\n He feels it is incumbent upon the African church to strive to discourage its members from seeking traditional avenues of spiritual guidance. Discipleship programs must inculcate the authority of divine guidance exemplified in the Bible and teach the availability of guidance for Christian believer through the believing community. Otherwise the \u201cChristian converts become immature and nominal Christians because their pre-Christian worldview has not been transformed.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n Salvation Perceptions<\/em><\/p>\n According to Michael, myths or \u201cfall stories\u201d abound throughout the continent of Africa which address the estrangement of God and creation, but they are not used for theological purposes to interpret, engage, or define its religious world.\u00a0 He affirms that \u201cThere are no cult practices, festivities, ritual observances or ethical motivations in Africa that seriously use these \u201cfall stories\u201d as a framework to understand the past, present, or future.\u201d [6] He observes that this complicates the communication of the biblical teaching of salvation relative to the fall for the vast majority of African people. From the African perspective, salvation is understood in physical, social, economic, and political dimensions without the dominant spiritual emphasis that we find in the Christian faith.<\/p>\n In the African religious worldview, salvation basically entails a good harvest, victory over an enemy, good health, security or protection from evil spirits. \u201cThis concept of salvation underscores a fundamentally \u2018this world\u2019 orientation of traditional African religion rather than \u2018other world\u2019 nature of salvation in heaven. This understanding of salvation is largely driven by the temporal and existential concerns of the world of now rather than later.\u201d [7] After conversion, many African Christians continue to comprehend their new faith within the worldview of their pre-Christian understanding of salvation.\u00a0 \u201cThe compulsion to explore the materialistic dimensions of salvation by African Christians is the result of ongoing poverty, disease, instability, famine, and other economic and social ills of the African continent. These problems often drive Africans to seek physical salvation more than pure spiritual salvation.\u201d [8]<\/p>\n Solution<\/em><\/p>\n Michael explains that in the absence of the theological conception of \u201cthe fall,\u201d Africans tend to blame the forces of evil for sabotaging their well-being. \u00a0African understanding of salvation in the here and now must be coupled with the spiritual dimension of salvation described in the Bible. The person and work of Jesus Christ, the Savior, is central in the Bible narrative. \u201cThe African materialistic and temporal quest for salvation in the here and now must be transformed\u00a0to embrace the divine plan for salvation now in Christ which will have a dominant spiritual realization at the end of time.\u201d [9]<\/p>\n Michael has helped me to reconcile how Africa can be the locus of so much non-Christian activity, as part of the global South which has been termed the \u201cNext Christendom\u201d due to its exponential growth in Christian converts.\u00a0 In my research on child-headed households in Africa I discovered that Africa is the epicenter of HIV\/AIDS in the world and HIV\/AIDS is the major cause for the prevalence of orphans and the emergence of child-headed households in Africa. \u00a0Others causes are war, civil unrest, poverty, and abandonment. I now have a better understanding of some of the spiritual dynamics going on in Africa conceptualizations that inform my research and future interactions on the continent.<\/p>\n Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The renown evangelical theologian and academic, Matthew Michael, has produced a quasi-systematic theology work which seeks to understand Christian theology through close dialogue with the Bible, especially in the context of African worldviews and traditions.\u00a0 He sees the necessity of Christian theology engaging the worldviews of the African people in terms of their beliefs, values, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[676,992],"class_list":["post-13277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp6","tag-matthew-michael","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13278,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13277\/revisions\/13278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n