{"id":13863,"date":"2017-09-07T11:54:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T18:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13863"},"modified":"2017-09-07T11:54:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T18:54:43","slug":"how-african-is-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-african-is-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"How African is Egypt?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas C. Oden\u2019s book, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity<\/em> challenged me and how I have considered Christianity. It is true that many westerners and Europeans have viewed Africa Christianity with the same sort of mindset that the colonizers did. Many hold the attitude that every academic or spiritual nugget being exported out of Africa must have been imported there to begin with. Oden pointed out that not only has Africa been solidly Christian for hundreds of years, but even what we would consider \u201cearly Christianity\u201d was influenced by African thought. Oden points out that Christianity has been in Africa so long that it should be consider indigenous to the region.<\/p>\n

Oden writes persuasively, \u201cSome scholars of African culture have regrettably acquired a persistent habit of assuming that Christianity began in Africa only a couple centuries ago, strictly imported \u2018the west\u2019 or \u2018the north.\u2019 They appear to view Africa as only two or three centuries deep, not two or three millennia.\u201d[1]<\/a> Oden continues a few pages later, \u201cIf ancient Christianity is not yet indigenous, then the 17th<\/sup> century arrival of many Bantus in Zuzuland is not yet indigenous. If first-millennium Christianity is not yet traditional in Africa, then the seventh-century arrival of Arabic cultures to Africa is not yet traditional.\u201d[2]<\/a> These are powerful statements and true observations. I certainly think the mindset of Christianity in Africa needs to change, and we should recognize much more of the influence that came from that region.<\/p>\n

However\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

I did notice that the majority of Africa contributions that Oden listed seemed to come from Egypt. And so one question I would ask the author for more explanation would be \u201chow African is Egypt.\u201d And as soon as I asked this question in my head, Oden answered it in the next paragraph. But he answered it briefly and seemed to dismiss the whole question with one wave of his hand calling it prejudice to think so. But yet I believe this to be a significant question because the majority of this African Christian influence Oden was pointing to took place in Egypt, and so a large portion of his argument rests on it. So my follow-up and more precise question would be \u201chow African do Egyptians consider themselves?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I was wrecked by this thought, and so I sought out to personally investigate further and to get as close to real information as I could get by asking people who have actually lived in Egypt.<\/p>\n