{"id":13290,"date":"2017-06-15T22:51:54","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T05:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13290"},"modified":"2017-06-15T23:08:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T06:08:20","slug":"a-prefabricated-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-prefabricated-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prefabricated Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Christianity has \u201ca prefabricated theology, a book theology . . . what she reads in books written by European theologians. . .\u201d and \u201cwhat she is told by Europeans is accepted uncritically and given out undigested in preaching or teaching.\u201dSimilarly, the theological discourse of those times is characterized by unhealthy reactionary to Western misrepresentations of African cultures and traditions, which normally failed to engage positively the African traditions in creative theological reconstructions to the biblical or classical Christian teachings<\/em>.”[1]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It has been common practice in the Christian faith to identify with western traditions and worship practices. For hundreds of years, we believed a “prefabricated theology” that rewrote the history of Christianity to tell a new story one that attempted to eradicate the traditions and culture of our faiths true African orgin. This term we read \u00a0Thomas Oden’s book How Africa Shaped The Christian Mind. <\/em>His book\u00a0told an “Epic Story” of our Christian heritage and challenged all of us to be accountable to tell the truth. The dominance of the western influence on Christianity has shaped the culture, traditions and worship practices that currently exist within our worldview of Christianity. Because of this, Christians from western culture i.e. Americans, Europeans, etc. have a false sense of spiritual elitism in our world view and role in shaping Christianity. It is no secret that many of us grew up with an understanding that the missionaries were seen as heroes who evangilized the gospel to those who were lost and unable to find God without Christianity being brought to them particularly the people in the continent of Africa. Even though we knew that some scriptural accounts took place in Africa, our understanding of the roots of our history still rest heavily on a westernized construct of Christian theology. \u00a0In his book Christian Theology and African Traditions, Matthew Michael also affirms the truths of our Christian origin\u00a0\u201cChristianity in Africa is so old that it can rightly be described as an indigenous, traditional and African religion.<\/em>\u201d[2]\u00a0Like Oden, he provides a solid basis for his arguement as to why this prefabriacted theology has permeated throughout Christianity and\u00a0the implications of it on our Christian Faith today. As such, Michael in his introduction wrote what I felt was an open rebuke to the church today :<\/p>\n

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The modern church has been so concerned to extol the virtue of love that it has ignored the claims of truth, and conservatives too have fallen into this trap. Our churches can proclaim a gospel which often is grounded in personal experience and is only vaguely related to theological principle. . . . Conservative Christians cannot escape from the charge that they have replaced instruction in the things of God with religious entertainment, and that the doctrinal backbone to their preaching is decidedly weak. Many have no idea that creeds and confessions are an essential aid to Christian growth, and that the quality of our spiritual life is directly dependent on our understanding of spiritual truth.[3]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The current state of affairs in the Church is daunting (but yet exciting\/thriving in some regard). In reading this, I asked myself the a series of questions: What does this mean for how we learn and understand our African Origin? What are the implications for the church as a whole? What are the implications specifically as it relates to the African church? Michael asserts that “[t]he formidable task before the African church is the task to Christianize the African people. This Christianizing agenda has unfortunately taken place without adequate understanding of the African worldview. The church has merely taken interest in the external issues surrounding the African people, however, it has not adequately engaged the African worldview in terms of close dialogue<\/em>.”[4] \u00a0How do we engage the African worldview in close dialogue?<\/p>\n

Michael in his thesis speaks to the human context within Christian theology and argues for the proper positioning\u00a0of African traditions and Biblical Scripture. He asserts that a theology that does not speak to humanity and particularly the problems and issues of the human context displaces\u00a0God and “only fit for \u201cangelsand not human beings<\/em>.”[5] \u00a0He discusses what needs to take place in our understanding of how we engage in Christian theology. He writes ” first and foremost, Christian theology must seek to understand the defining issues on the pages of the Bible and the attending conflicts and tensions in the practice and description of these issues. Secondly, it must also relate these theological issues to contemporary life, hence it must never remain as a mere theological reflection on the pages of the Bible, but it must be able to transport itself to contemporary life<\/em>.”[6] Within each chapter of his book he dives deeper in to discussing African tradition, practices and culture as it relates to Scripture, Angels, Demons, Revelation, God, Christ, The Holy Spirit and The Church. While the western influence is very present in African culture today, he warns that Christianinity will need to shift and engage in this close dialogue to include African traditions or it will be seen as just another religion or cult that is practiced within the continent. The people will not choose their faith over their traditions because who their are is ingrained in the fabric of their culture and heritage. He concludes by admonishing all of us towards the reshaping of\u00a0\u00a0Christian theology to include African tradition when he states “[t]he contention of this work is that Christian theology should encourage taking on the positive elements of the African traditions and positioning these elements in dialogue with the teaching of the scriptures. Through such dialogue between the traditions of the Bible and the African traditions it will result in a new identity for the African Christian that is biblically founded, but distinctively African.<\/em>” [7]<\/p>\n

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[1]\u00a0Matthew Michael, Christian theology and African traditions<\/i> (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2013), 2.<\/p>\n

[2] Ibid.,4.<\/p>\n

[3] Ibid.,6.<\/p>\n

[4] Ibid.,13.<\/p>\n

[5] Ibid.,105.<\/p>\n

[6] Ibid.,110.<\/p>\n

[7]\u00a0Ibid.,224.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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