{"id":13884,"date":"2017-09-07T21:02:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T04:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13884"},"modified":"2017-09-07T21:08:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T04:08:03","slug":"an-exposed-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/an-exposed-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"An Exposed Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Oden conveys passion for historical accuracy and spiritual justice in his book How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind:\u00a0 Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity.\u00a0 \u201cOrdinary African Christian believers deserve to have a much more accessible way of understanding early African Christianity:\u00a0 its faith, courage, tenacity and remarkable intellectual strength<\/em>.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Oden\u2019s intent is not to prove Africa\u2019s role in the beginnings of Christianity (however he presents plenty of evidence), but to challenge African scholars to seek truth, discover their contributions, and write and defend the \u201cconciliar tradition of the African church\u201d.<\/p>\n

The undercurrent of Oden\u2019s writings highlight a history of bias, racism and oppression towards Africa and their contributions to early Christianity.\u00a0 \u201cThe generalization took hold that wherever there might have been any modest African influences, they are likely to be viewed as inferior and backward in relation to the unfolding positive developments of reason in history that flowed from Europe\u201d.. \u201cIf good ideas appeared in Africa, they must be attributed to Europeans\u201d<\/em>[2]<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>Oden also explores the \u201cheartbreaking African history of martyrdom\u201d[3]<\/a> \u201cAfrican blood on African soil\u201d. [4]<\/a> He tells of centuries of persecution of Africans \u2013 by the Romans, Arabs, colonial powers, jihadis, Nigeria and Somalia \u2013 and further questions the concept of orthodoxy which \u201chas nothing to do with truth but only with power\u201d which is simply a \u201cpowerful majority that has manipulated its way into durable power\u201d.<\/p>\n

I have never acclimated to our disturbing Christian history (violence, slavery, persecution, oppression, etc.) and I can\u2019t help but bridge an analogy to the present racial tensions in the United States.\u00a0 \u00a0I would venture to say that mainstream Christians have spent centuries perpetuating our faith as \u201cthe White man\u2019s religion\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cThe Christian faith occupies a complicated, often racialized place in the history of Blacks all over the globe because of how it was abused by White colonists and slave traders to subjugate Blacks.\u201d<\/em>[5]<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>Because Oden courageously exposed the truth of our Christian heritage, and we\u2019ve digested his writings, we are now responsible to challenge and educate the \u201cestablishment\u201d.\u00a0 Who is the establishment?\u00a0 Our schools of theology, our churches, historians, scholars, theologians, students and fellow Christians.\u00a0 Biblically, our directive to expose truth is clear:\u00a0 \u201c<\/sup><\/strong>This is the verdict: Light\u00a0has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.\u00a0Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.\u00a0But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.\u201d\u00a0 John 3:19 (NIV) Therefore, it is each of our duties to raise these disparities in our understanding of Christianity \u2013 as much as it is our responsibility as Christians to denounce racism and advocate for historical accuracy to our own Christian story in the United States.<\/p>\n

If you have never been oppressed, it may be challenging to recognize the significance of an altered truth (history).\u00a0 However, that is a function of privilege \u2013 to have a safe and comfortable historical reality that feels very connected to whom you are.<\/p>\n

My prayer is that Africa will seek the truth, and teach the truth.\u00a0 The willingness to receive the truth will be on us.<\/p>\n

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[1]\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/a>Oden, Thomas C.\u00a0How africa shaped the christian mind: rediscovering the african seedbed of western christianity<\/i>. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2010. ebook location64<\/p>\n

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[2]<\/a> Oden, How africa shaped<\/p>\n

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[3]<\/a> Oden, How africa shaped, ebook location975<\/p>\n

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[4]<\/a> Oden, How africa shaped, ebook location 975<\/p>\n

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[5]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Lincoln, Charles Eric., and Lawrence H. Mamiya.\u00a0The Black church in the African American experience<\/i>. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Oden conveys passion for historical accuracy and spiritual justice in his book How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind:\u00a0 Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity.\u00a0 \u201cOrdinary African Christian believers deserve to have a much more accessible way of understanding early African Christianity:\u00a0 its faith, courage, tenacity and remarkable intellectual strength.[1]\u00a0 Oden\u2019s intent is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"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":[],"class_list":["post-13884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13884","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\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13884"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13890,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13884\/revisions\/13890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}