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African Christianity: An African Story
This book is designed as a textbook for use in seminaries, Bible colleges and universities that have sprouted with vigor in Africa. It is ideologically driven to build a group of church historians who will tell the story of African Christianity, not Christianity in Africa, as an African story, by intentionally privileging the patterns of African agency without neglecting the noble roles played by missionaries. The effort has been to identify the major themes or story lines in African encounters and in the appropriation of the gospel. The project has enabled these historians to work together, in an ecumenical spirit, from across many faith, region, gender, and ancestral race. They have bequeathed to future generations to tell more of the story of where the rain of the gospel met Africans before the deluge that appears on the horizon. Afe Adogame David A. Kpobi Akintunde E. Akinade Tinyiko Sam Maluleke William B. Anderson P.J. Maritz J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu J.N.K. Mugambi Graham Duncan Philomena Njeri Mwaura Paul H. Gundani Chukwudi A.. Njoku Jehu Hanciles Nyambura J. Njoroge J.W. Hofmeyr Kenneth Sawyer Lizo Jafta Youhana Youssef Ogbu U. Kalu "Kalu and an accomplished team of collaborators bring off in this book what has never been accomplished before a thorough, carefully researched, interpretatively rich history of Christianity in Africa written by Africans. The depth of insights is as pervasive as the coverage is complete. This is a picture of a Christianity that shares much with other Christianities around the world but also is distinctly African." -Christian Century, October 17, 2006
- GenresHistory
524 pages, Paperback
First published August 16, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 15, 2021
The readings from many different authors in this book range from fantastic to not very good at all. I enjoyed going through it, however.
January 14, 2021
African Christianity: An African Story is a collection of essays by various African theologians that give a fascinating account of church history in Africa that both dispels myths perpetuated by Western Christianity and gives an edifying image of the current state of Christianity in Africa. Overall, the effort throughout the book is to make a sharp distinction between between African Christianity and Christianity in Africa.
The book is largely a reaction against the latter, Christianity in Africa, which can be described as the Western colonial and imperial invasion of Africa. Such Western efforts have been historically insensitive toward genuine African cultural expression and regarding all traditional African cultural expressions as “pagan” and “heathen.” As a result, African cultural expressions throughout history have been entirely deposed, forcing African Christianity not to be uniquely African but in accordance with Western ideologies that are entirely alien to African culture and socio-economics. In short, Christianity in Africa can be characterised as the Western imperialistic demand, “You must look and sound like us in order to be Christian.”
African Christianity, on the other hand, is that expression of Christianity that is uniquely African in identity and agency. Much of scholarship on historic Christian missions has been focused on Western missionaries in Africa. However, as this book shows in its beginning chapters, missionaries who are African in origin are also largely responsible for evangelism and mission in Africa, including famous early Church Fathers such as Tertullian, Origen, and Augustine! African Christianity consists of an African people whose hearts and minds have been transformed by Christ (Romans 12:1-2) to be unquestionably Christian but also uniquely African through decolonisation efforts and a rediscovery of African cultural identity (i.e. contextualisation).
As the essays throughout this book deal with these matters, many of them have a habit of both underplaying and over-appreciating heresies and false doctrines. It is for this reason that I give the book a 3-star rating; otherwise, from a purely historical perspective, the book is beneficially edifying. On a much smaller note, Kalu, as the editor of the book, did a terrible job editing as there are numerous spelling and grammatical errors. It doesn't seem like he did any editing and rather simply threw these essays into a single book.
The book is largely a reaction against the latter, Christianity in Africa, which can be described as the Western colonial and imperial invasion of Africa. Such Western efforts have been historically insensitive toward genuine African cultural expression and regarding all traditional African cultural expressions as “pagan” and “heathen.” As a result, African cultural expressions throughout history have been entirely deposed, forcing African Christianity not to be uniquely African but in accordance with Western ideologies that are entirely alien to African culture and socio-economics. In short, Christianity in Africa can be characterised as the Western imperialistic demand, “You must look and sound like us in order to be Christian.”
African Christianity, on the other hand, is that expression of Christianity that is uniquely African in identity and agency. Much of scholarship on historic Christian missions has been focused on Western missionaries in Africa. However, as this book shows in its beginning chapters, missionaries who are African in origin are also largely responsible for evangelism and mission in Africa, including famous early Church Fathers such as Tertullian, Origen, and Augustine! African Christianity consists of an African people whose hearts and minds have been transformed by Christ (Romans 12:1-2) to be unquestionably Christian but also uniquely African through decolonisation efforts and a rediscovery of African cultural identity (i.e. contextualisation).
As the essays throughout this book deal with these matters, many of them have a habit of both underplaying and over-appreciating heresies and false doctrines. It is for this reason that I give the book a 3-star rating; otherwise, from a purely historical perspective, the book is beneficially edifying. On a much smaller note, Kalu, as the editor of the book, did a terrible job editing as there are numerous spelling and grammatical errors. It doesn't seem like he did any editing and rather simply threw these essays into a single book.
December 12, 2018
Best book I've read giving a broad overview of African Christianity (much more up-to-date than Isichei's). Gives an excellent introduction to Christian worldviews in Africa, as well, as it is written by Africans.
April 24, 2011
I enjoyed the writing style of this book; short chapters and shorter sub-headings that keep you interested and turning the pages.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews