A Strange Question I Hear Often

Is There Anything African About African Theology?

Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined.” You get a glimpse here of the kind of work that I do both at Church Mission Society and Missio Africanus where I help students of all levels (from unaccredited courses to PhD) explore the theological (and missiological) implications of the rise of World Christianity. In the newsletter, I focus on the subject of global witness in the context of the twenty-first century. Every Thursday, I share a thought that has spoken to me in the week, one or two resources that I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission to give you something to think about as you go through your day. I pray one of these will energise you.

NB: Please note that I will soon start tailoring most of my content towards paid subscribers. There will still be occasional posts open to everyone, but most will be for paid subscribers. If you appreciate the newsletter and are able to pay for a subscription, please consider doing so.

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1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off

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One of the questions I get asked a lot — almost every time I speak to a new audience — here in Europe and North America is this: Is there anything uniquely African about African theology that we, as Westerners, could learn? I can imagine some Asian, Latin American, and other non-Western Christians get asked this question a lot too. Sometimes, the tone of the question says, “We want to learn from non-Western Christians. Where should we look and what do we need to focus on?” At other times, I hear them say, “There is nothing we need to learn from the rest of the world. We have it all.”

Of course, the obvious answer is that there is a great deal that European and North American Christians ought to learn from the rest of the world about who God is and what God can do. I find it interesting that some people think that all theology going on in Africa is simply a carbon copy of the theological discourses happening in Europe and North America. While a great deal of African theology parrots Western scholars, whose approval its writers crave, it has some key themes that can be best articulated by an African and only an African.

This past week, I attended a Sacred Texts Conference at the University of Ghana, where scholars of religion—Christianity, Islam, and African Religion—gathered to discuss God’s relations to humanity. Spaces like those energise me—we can learn a great deal about God from people outside the Christian faith. Above all else, the scholars of African religion stretched my thinking in ways I had not expected. I got to see what the Botswana theologian, Gabriel Setiloane, meant when he, in the 1970s, said that the God of African religion is vastly more expansive than the God of Christianity. Indeed, the God Setiloane spoke about cannot be limited in any way; not to Sunday morning, not to church buildings, and certainly not to some individualised experience. This understanding of God now shapes a great deal of African Christian theology. God, through the Spirit, actively fills all of life—past, present, and future—and all spaces—there is no profane space that God does not fill and cares about individuals and communities in this life, not only in the next one. Such an understanding of God has a lot to say to Westerners.

Andrew Walls used to say: “new theological thought often emerges when Christianity encounters new cultures.” This is not in the West, generally speaking. It is in places like some cities and villages in Africa. I wish we could say the same about missiology because a great deal of what we know about mission is shaped in classrooms in Western institutions that Andrew Walls often called the “ivory towers” of the West.

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2. Resources I am Enjoying

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Video: The Front Porch: Missions: New to the Black Church?

In this conversation about a decade ago, Thabiti Anyabwile welcomes Carl Ellis to explore the robust history of mission in the Black Church within the American context. The scholar emphasises mission as discipleship of individuals and cultures, even though the former seems to be the popular focus. He shows how mission has never been a strange experience and activity for the Black church. Of course, he does not hide the fact that the first American overseas missionary was an African American, George Liele. Among the many lessons for the global church from this conversation is Ellis’ desire to see our missional activities strategically balanced. We must not only channel our missional efforts overseas but also focus on our domestic contexts—with the same energy and passion. Ellis is the provost’s Professor of Theology and Culture at the Reformed Theological Seminary as well as Associate Pastor for Cultural Apologetics at New City Fellowship.

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3. Quotes I am Pondering

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• Christ’s people, therefore, participate in the missio Dei as those converted and transformed by God’s love. Through them also love embraces and transforms the world. — Johnson Afrane-Twum

• When mission initiatives are done in ways that give rise to self-leading, self-proliferating, and self-supporting structure, devoid of dependency and enslavement to a colonial minority, it can be called development. — Rowanne Sarojini Marie

• Just as a convert from Islam may take time to understand how Christianity differs from Islam, so too a convert from Western culture will have to go through a learning process to find out how Christianity differs from Western culture. — Patrick Sookhdeo

I pray that you will be faithful to the work God has for you this week.