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INTRODUCTION Since the mid-1950s, African theologians like John Mbiti, Edward Fashole-Luke, Desmond Tutu, Vincent Mulago and Harry Sawyerr, Bolaji Idowu, Byang Kato and others have made it their mission to fetch the gospel to bear on Africans’ lives and thought-worlds — to make Christianity indigenous on a continent that initial heard the gospel in New Testament times. It would hence be a misleading oversimplification to state that Germany, America, Britain and Africa respectively formulated corrupted, corrected and copied theology. Africa has something significant to offer. This provides supportive proof for a realistic assessment of the issues and trends of the Church in Africa. CONTEXTUALIZATION The term contextualization could be specified as simplifying, clarifying and giving ownership to the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a specific community of faith. If the scheme for doing so is accordingly only understood by the stranger or alien, then one has closed the channels for incarnation of the Word. The researcher was impressed when he visited various churches in Lagos, Nigeria for the duration of a field study and noted areas of contextualization. The Anglican and Aladura churches have numerous programmes in the native language. Even the Catholic church is no longer conducting the service in Latin but English. African instruments were applied and African choruses were ministered. Dancing and clapping are not uncommon. An assessment of Christianity from the Portuguese explorations in the fifteenth century to the middle of the seventh century reveals that there was a relative failure on the share of the missionaries in the making something publicly available of the gospel. They did not take the culture of the humans into consideration. The Roman Catholics demanded monogamy from their converts, but they did not show how the not wanted wives could be resettled. Christianity was portrayed as a European invention. Usry and Keener (1996) provocatively titled their text Black man’s religion: may Christianity be Afrocentric? It is so titled, not of course to infer that non-Blacks are excluded, but to point out that biblical Christianity is a Black religion as much as a white one. The issue of slavishly accepting or rather adopting any thing from the west will have to be treated with caution. The article, Halloween in a cross-cultural perspective, is a enthusiasti account of the vulnerability of children which the Harry Porter series is taking vantage of. The new repacking of witchcraft in a fictitious novel is beautiful to children (and adults) since it is user friendly. Schreiter (1985) presents an magnificent and very applicable text that without doubt or question teaches how one may grasp culture so that the gospel message takes root. Ownership of the Bible must be given to a community of faith in a given place. For instance, an Igbo and by extension, an African, will distinctly grasp the humiliation Christ went through since the writer distinctly expresses that to humiliate someone who is either usual or rich is worse than to kill him, a message which the African understands. The cultural sensitivity of Dan Wooding in Blind faith in cross-cultural perspective, Part 1, enabled him to reasonably establish intercultural rapport in the men’s breakfast meeting at the Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene. In responding to this invitation and willingly giving generously, an person at last received five fold plainly out of his blind faith rather than a display of supernatural acts like speaking in tongues. ISSUES Corruption Boer (2003) identifies two major issues which are affecting the Nigerian church; “the introductory is corruption which has penetrated each level of society…” (Boer 2003, 31). One will have to notwithstanding note that corruption is an issue facing both constructing and developed nations. The church proceeds to be guilty of numerous of the kinds of corruption which characterize the society as a whole, an issue that shocked Dr. Eze as he observes in his article Worldview issues on corruption…. He realistically argues nevertheless that “the survey of CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) on the levels of corruption in countries they researched is not based on hard empirical data… (but) on the experience and perceptions of those who are most directly confronted with the realities of corruption” (Eze 2004, 1). Islam The second issue facing Christian spirituality according to Boer is Islam. The subject of his book Nigeria’s decade of blood, vol.1 is Christian-Muslim relations. “If corruption has demonized Nigeria”, Boer argues “Christian-Muslim relations have bedeviled it” (Boer 2003, 1). He steers Christianity and Islam into positive channels for national building and suspects that there is a outstanding danger that Nigerians will grow tired of religious riots and either return to a sanitized form of established religion or to an African version of secularism. Every Christian ought to read his text and note that Christians in western nations are now fighting the very secularism they formulated through their infighting. African Traditional Religion Any realistic try to do theology in Africa must take into thoughtfulness the influence of African Traditional Religion in the lives of the people. Dr. Eze did a very applicable study of assorted manifestations of God amidst the tribes of Lardin Garbes. The assumption that God was introduced to Africa by the Europeans is a misleading oversimplification. In addition to the family and village deities, the Kamwe people believe in a transcendent and universal God. Dr. Eze (2004) argues that Africans knew when it comes to the Creator or the Supreme God inspite of their polytheistic understanding and used his grandfather, Mr. Muogbo Eze as supportive evidence. Even even though they have the defective notion that He is far away therefore justifying appeasing the lesser deities to reach him, the conception of the way to the Creator is still present amid them. Paul uses the faith in the unknown God to minister to his audience. Christians will have to likewise use this conception of the way to the Creator already present in the worldview of the Kamwe to present Jesus to them. God amazingly works within humane cultures (irrespective of dissimilar language, race or ethnicity) to unfold His plans. This is in consonance with the system of belief behind the phrase ‘redemptive analogy’ which is so-called because it facilitates humane understanding of salvation within humane culture. Its God-given intention is to precondition the mind in a culturally significant way to recognize Jesus as Messiah. Outside of Scripture, it appears that God’s standard revelation is the source of redemptive analogies worldwide. It is comparatively requiring little effort for one to use the supernatural orientation of the African to win him to Christ. Growth of cities Perhaps the most urgent issue facing the church in Africa today is the rapid growth of cities. The clash of cultures, and religions, desperate poverty, AIDS, horrific numbers of street children, pressures on conventional morality, difficulties of temporary and unstable work, and the lack of training for what few jobs there are brought home to the reader in moving and perceptive accounts of the humans with whom Shorter has direct contact. A case in point is the city of Lagos whose population of over twelve million is more than that of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia combined. Numerical growth of the church At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was approximated that when it comes to three percent of the humans on the African continent professed to be Christians and that this number significantly increased to in regards to fifty percent towards the end of the century. There is each reason to believe that the church will carry on to record substantial growth. Ajah (1996) even traits this ‘swollen membership’ to the church’s wise use of music which is seen as an outstanding highway into the hearts of most Africans. All the churches visited by the researcher for the duration of the field exploration were packed full. During the researcher’s stay in Nigeria (2002-2005), it was observed that churches withh more musical instruments and skilled instruments in general attracted more worshipers than those with few. Prosperity A contemporary trend to keep away from suffering at all cost has led to the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ which stresses faith in claiming blessings as they name them. At the peril of oversimplification and distortion, this gospel teaches, amidst other things that: 1. Every Christian is invented to be materially and financially buoyant. 2. Christians who are in a state of prolonged financial predicament are ignorant of God’s design. 3. For the manifestation of the reversal of breakthrough, the aspirant ought to demonstrate his expectancy by benediction the ‘man of God’ first. Christians are consequently encouraged not to receive suffering as their portion. Anyone who is suffering is either living in sin or is not standing on the promises of God for his showers of blessing. This instructing was reflected in the Pentecostal church visited for the duration of the field study. The number of offerings raised in the Pentecostal and Anglican churches was astonishing. Training of church leaders The church in Africa has made astounding progress for the duration of the twentieth-century. It has grown from just a handful of training originations to hundreds of seminaries. This is an indication that the African church in the twenty-first century is going to be much more educated church. In the churches covered in the field study, the researcher observed that the pastors of the Aladura and Pentecostal Churches visited, Superior Evangelist E.M. Babatunde and Rev. Mike Ohiorenoya, are doctorate holders. It is indubitable that Catholic and Anglican priests are academically trained. The role of women The central message of the Christian mission is that of salvation, and by implication, liberation. With this message, the church must take knowingness of the ‘imbalance’ in the male-dominated African culture. In the second portion of The intense feelings of suffering of the ‘passion’ in cultural lenses, Dr. Eze (2004) analyses the conception of a theology that is culturally driven. He realistically argues that any effigy of manhood outside the Messiah is culturally driven and misleading. The church must learn the African conception of muntu, that is, person. Societal changes demand that the church make numerous modifications in women’s role. The dynamics which women now exhibit in the wider society and in the Aladura church visited in queer have challenged the subordinate roles offered by some other churches. The researcher observes the role of women at West Africa Theological Seminary where they serve in very important capacities such as Registrar, Missions Director, Ag. Director of Spiritual Formation and lecturers. More and more women are going to become pastors as more seminaries are opening doors to more female students and lecturers. With the ascension of women into leadership positions, perhaps the church will see a gentler and softer style of church leadership. TRENDS Mediocre spiritual growth Indubitably, a visible trend is a ceaseless and explosive growth of the African church. However, there is a very huge challenge related with it. This has already started manifesting itself in contemporary Christianity. The problem is numerical without a corresponding spiritual growth. For instance, the dressing of church members, if not checked, would lead to severe problem in the church. In the Pentecostal church visited, the researcher was so happy when he was moved from the seat he was occupying to a particular seat reserved for visitors since the dressing of the lady sitting in front of him was indecent. She was putting on a bandless trousers which exposed a substantial share of her pink underwear. The preaching was very deafening and aroused but devoid of substance. The church must protest mediocrity with the same dedication that it resists compromise. The researcher observed that the churches visited did not have a very clear discipleship training programme. Winning souls for Christ without a systematic discipleship programme is to a great deal of extent equivalent to begetting sons for the devil. Fanaticism In assorted churches today, the service is not complete without a few prophecies, a healing or two, and a few demons cast out. Churches and ministries ‘compete’ with the most dramatic advertisements such as ‘Divine Explosion’, ‘Mountain of miracles’, ‘Supernatural sensation’ and similar expressions. Though it is good to stress the supernatural, the African church will have to realize that the daily occurrence of miracles is not the focus of the Bible. Building the church in Africa around the miraculous may tend to lead to a faulty emphasis. The primary commission of Jesus was to preach the gospel. Leaning on the miraculous in each service could accordingly lead to fanaticism and deviation from the truth. In the Celestial Church of Christ visited for the duration of the field work, the researcher was called out of the service and taken to the back of the outside altar where visions and revelations, for the most part untrue, from a prophetess when it comes to him were penned by a recorder. For instance, the prophetess observed that the researcher’s wife now and then suffered from stomach ache. The question in one’s mind then is: how numerous normal women do not commonly suffer from bellyache? Rationalism The education of the church is steadily improving. There are a good deal of Bible colleges and seminaries in Nigeria alone. Many of the universities and colleges of education have departments of religious studies. However, as more and more Africans are exposed to re-packed western ideas, African Christianity ought to fight very hard to keep away from the anti-supernatural rationalism of the western church. Starting with the ‘Age of Reason’, the western church has gradually been more and more influenced by an anti-supernatural bias which arises from rationalism. Even altho this has not yet in truth become a severe problem, a severe note of caution is that African Christians need to remainder faith with reason. Syncretism In an undertake to ‘protect’ the Gospel, European missionaries beneath contextualized the message. As the church is now getting more African, care must be taken so that the message is not over contextualized which could lead to syncretism (the mixing of religious beliefs). For instance, the overstress on visions and dreams in the Aladura church. Contextualization without syncretism is one of the major challenges facing the African Church in this century. The typical African, not similar to his western counterpart has a supernaturalistic orientation. The African society gives more attention to religion while the west emphasizes on economics and material culture. One of the reasons why Pentecostalism has been well received in Africa is because a good deal of of the basic tenets are consistent with the African worldview. Some of these includes the supernatural, demons/evil spirits, divine healing, and aroused and physical expressions of worship. Dr. Eze without doubt or question reveals that the Kamwe/Mubi in Nigeria (including Christians) go to animist priests. As he noted, “felt needs for supernatural power for solving sure difficultnesses that defy solution still drive humans to animist priests” (Eze 2005, 5). The lesson to be learnt is the attitude of the Christian community that prayed for rain (with God honouring). This is a clear manifestation of the fact that the Christian God is alive or active in the affairs of men. If theology in Africa is to be meaningful, this point ought to be gravely noted other than as supposed or expected the church will not be applicable and would be like Rip Van Wrinkle, the legendary reputation in Gulliver’s Travels who slept for decades only to wake up to find a wholly changed world. Domination An adverse tendency within Christianity all around church history is that whenever Christianity has achieved the majority status within a culture, it has become intolerant and now and again abusive of other religions. The Crusades in the 10th century onwards could testify to this. The thin line amidst evangelism and tolerance of other religions has been a tightrope which Christians have not always walked very well. Several writers give hope or courage to tolerance amidst Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. Although Boer for instance blamed the latter for most of the religious conflicts, he likewise argues that there are a great deal of instances in which the former now and again started later riots. The essence of his message to Christians and Muslims is respectively wholism and pluralism. Christians need to repent of their flirtations with the language and conceptions of secularism in an surroundings shared with Muslims and move away from it by formulating a more comprehensive worldview. Muslims, on the other hand, need to update their sense of pluralism. Nigeria is marked by a pluralistic circumstance that no longer allows the domination of one religion over all the people. Boer argues that the circumstance calls for changes in the attitude of Christians and Muslims ? they need to move from hostility to respect. THE OUTLOOK OF THEOLOGY IN AFRICA/OPPORTUNITIES Any undertake to do theology in Africa ought to seriously take note of the afore-mentioned discussion. From the foregoing, it could be argued that not all the issues and trends are negative. Although care will have to be taken to stay clear from a church that is to a considerable degree inclined towards rationalism, prosperity, syncreticism, to mention but a few, the African church ought to be commended for it is conscious effort to contextualize the Gospel and emphasize on training of it is clergy. However, the rest of the paper further discusses various chances which must be wisely applied for theology to be significant in Africa. The age of the church A significant proportionality of the contemporary church is made up of young people. The approximated intermediate age of churches visited for the duration of the field work is thirty. There is a possibleness that this trend is not going to change. The church in Africa will proceed to be a young church. This age group is going to proceed to give to it much energy and enthusiasm. It will enable the church to have the strength to evangelize and affect the society. However, it could also make the church more susceptible to fanaticism, intolerance and unwise decisions. One must not forget that Nigerian proverb which states that the child on top of the tree can not see what the elder sitting on the ground may see. The church and the theological school An increase in the number of theological foundations is a welcome development. However, the church and theological school have to work as a team to affect society since “the position amongst the two has almost become that of the church versus the theological school” (Turaki 1991, 31). Turaki evaluates areas of amount of energy and weaknesses in the assumed roles for each, and the theological significances of the dichotomy, together with the resulting competition, isolationism and assertions of autonomy to doing theology. Curriculum development It is necessary for theologians to revisit the curriculum in the seminary. It is questioned whether African seminaries ought to review, retrieve the history of western thought and the western church or rather launch into the depths of their own culture and tradition and correlate Scripture and tradition with African culture, roots, roots and riches. There are areas where the west could also learn from Africa. It is versus this background that it is observed that “instead of competing or claiming superiority for respective approaches, we need to interchange and percentage experiences, we need to grasp one another and learn from each other” (Turaki 1991, 29). It is reasonably argued that, contrary to popular thought, Africa has had a definitive and significant effect on the development of the ecumenical motion in general and it is mission made in particular. It was versus this background that the Edinburgh Conference in 1910 introduced the idea of the whole Gospel by the whole church to the world. Emphasis on justice Justice is one of the most rudimentary conceptions of Christianity (and Judaism). It is a theme that will have to receive more special importance and significance in the African church. A society cannot be healthful without justice. In 1995, a group of Nigerian leaders became concerned regarding the injustice in the Nigerian society. This led to the Congress on Christian Ethics in Nigeria (COCEN) which took place in Abuja in November 1997. It was stressed that Christians are likewise guilty of ethical violations. Christian principles will have to be decently contextualized for Africa. There will have to be a clear understanding of the close link amid religion and social/political issues, and faith and justice. The social instructing of the Church must not only to be studied and known, but likewise apps to the myriad difficultnesses facing Africa ought to be devised and tried. Respect for person humane rights The rights of people must be protected. Refusing to concede a person a occupation because he or she is from the ‘wrong’ ethnic group is a violation of that person’s rudimentary humane rights. The researcher has observed for instance that Christians don’t ordinarily come out in a united strength to clean the environs when the government gives the command each last Saturday in Freetown and Lagos. Night vigils may be conducted without inevitably using earsplitting speakers that would trouble the peace of citizens who are resting. Assistance to the needy The teachings of the church will have to not unnecessarily emphasize on giving from congregation to the church but the other way round. One of the clearest teachings and examples of Jesus was affiliated to compassionateness for the poor. It will have to be viewed as a rudimentary obligation of each culture to take care of it is weak and needy members. Just giving a little cash to a poor person must not satisfy Christians. Christianity will have to be involved in identifying the causes of poverty and addressing these problems. God has not called all Christians to be rich. Prosperity teachers ought to take note. However, He has called us to aid meet the needs of the poor. Helping the needy require adequate housing is not just a governmental obligation but also a obligation of the church. The researcher was impressed when an appeal was made to help the poor in the Aladura church visited. Free computer training was offered which enabled assorted youths to be empowered. The entire congregation was fed after the service. The researcher learnt that this is a regular occurrence. CONCLUSION A biblical fact of which theology will have to take account is that if God without doubt is concerned with all peoples, then there is a theological continuity amid the humans of Israel and others (including Africa). If the Christian faith is to have any real effect on African life, it ought to receive and address the spirit world. A Christianity that has no place for the supernatural speaks in alien tones. The culture of Africans must be realistically studied if any meaningfully affect could be made. Kalu brilliantly quotes P.O. Ajah’s summary of the expected values of the theology of the African church : African theologians will have to programme towards realizing answers to what African theology has to say concerning witchcraft, black magic, demonic influences, occultism, spiritually induced sicknesses, spiritual guidance through forecasting or future predictions, divine healing, deliverance from and casting out of demons and evil spirits, appreciation of cultural values, liberation of the oppressed, relief from poverty and deprivation, humane rights, democratization, ozo title and mystery societies, reincarnation, death and the resurrection, the last judgement (Kalu 1978, 123). WORKS CITED Books and articles Ajah, Paul. 1996. An Approach to African theology. Uburu : Truth and Life Publications. Boer, Jan H. 2003. Nigeria’s decades of blood, Vol. 1. Belleville, Ontario : Essense Publishing. Eze, Herbert. 2004. The intense feelings of suffering of the “Passion” in cultural lenses (part two). Available (online) : http://www.assistnews.net/stories/2004/s04040016.htm. 9th March 2005. http:www.assistnews.net/stories/2004/s04040016.htm. Accessed 11th March 2005. Kalu, Agwu. 1978. The lights and shades of Christianity in West Africa. Umuahia : Charity Press. McCain, Danny. 2000. The church in Africa in the 21st century. Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology. 19(2) : 105-130. Schreiter, Robert J. 1985. Constructing local theologies. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. Turaki, Yusufu. 1991. The quest for cooperation, renewal and relevance in theological education. Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology 10(1). 29-38. Utuk, Efiong S. 1989. A reassessment of the African contribution to the development of the ecumenical movement : Edinburgh, 1910. Africa Theological Journal 8(2) : 85-103. Participant observation Celestial Church of Christ, Mafoluku, Parish I, Wulemotu Agbo Road, Off International Airport Road, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 1-9 St. Paul’s Church Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by researcher on Sunday 1st May, 2005. Church of God Mission International Inc., Victory Miracle Centre, 10 Oludegun Street, Off International Airport Road, Mafoluku, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by researcher on Sunday 10th April 2005. St. Jude Catholic Church, 47 Old Ewu Road, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 1-9 St. Paul’s Church Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by researcher on Sunday 24th April, 2005. St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 1-9 St. Paul’s Church Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by researcher on Sunday 17th April, 2005. © Oliver Harding 2008 |
