African Catholicism and Hermeneutics of Culture
African Catholicism and Hermeneutics of Culture

Author: Joseph Ogbonnaya

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2014-08-05

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 163087504X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The study of Christianity in the non-Western world reveals a demographic shift in the center of Christianity from the Northern Hemisphere to the South. But the contradictory aspect of the massive African conversion to Christian faith is the grinding poverty level in Africa. This condition raises important theological and ecclesiological questions that demand urgent answers. Therefore, the research objectives of this book are to examine African Catholicism's involvement in human promotion and to seek a new way of theologizing Christianity that moves sub-Saharan African peoples to action against the massive injustices that keep them poor. Drawing on Africae Munus, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of the Second African Synod (2011), and Bernard Lonergan's notion of culture, African Catholicism and Hermeneutics of Culture argues that to truly be "the spiritual 'lung' of humanity," African Catholicism must appropriate the Christian message to transform African attitudes and personhood and so foster a self-reliant commitment to integral African development.

African Perspectives on Culture and World Christianity
African Perspectives on Culture and World Christianity

Author: Joseph Ogbonnaya

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2017-05-11

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1443891592

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Unlike the global North, “the ferment of Christianity” in the global South, among the majority of world people, has been astronomical. Despite the shift in the center of gravity of Christianity to the global South, intra-ecclesial tensions globally remain those of the relationship of culture to religion. The questions posed revolve around to what extent Western Christianity should be adapted to local cultures. Should we talk of Christianity in non-Western contexts or of majority world Christianity? Is it appropriate to describe the shift as the emergence of global Christianity or world Christianity? Should Christianity in the global South mimic Christianity in the global North, or can it be different in the light of the diversity of these cultures? Can Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Europeans and North Americans – the entire global community – speak of God in the same way? This book is devoted to examining varieties of the intercultural process in world Christianity. It understands culture broadly as a common meaning upon which communities’ social order is organized. Culture in this sense is the whole life of people. It is the integrator of the filial bond holding people together and the various institutional structures – economic, technological, political and legal – that guarantee peace and survival in societies, states, and nations, both locally and internationally. As this book shows, the centrality of culture for world Christianity equally showcases the important position the scale of values occupies in world Christianity.

African Philosophy and the Hermeneutics of Culture
African Philosophy and the Hermeneutics of Culture

Author: Theophilus Okere

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9783825882174

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Series: Studies in African Philosophy is a forum for the publication and wider dissemination of researches and reflections of value on all aspects of African philosophy. While recognising the special advantage of interdisciplinary approach in modern scholarship, it retains a special predilection for works that have special African philosophic import. Although Theophilus Okere's book African Philosophy has made remarkable impact on African philosophical scholarship, many may not be aware of the way he tried to apply his preferred method to other areas of the philosophical investigation in Africa and to overcome the risk of relativism through the promotion of intercultural dialogue in philosophy. The essays published in this volume bear testimony to the multivalent character of Okere's contribution to African philosophy. Most of the essays are about Okere's hermeneutics of culture. Some of the authors examine the method in itself, while others focus attention on its application to specific philosophical themes. Book jacket.

The Humanitarian Engagement of the Church in Nigeria
The Humanitarian Engagement of the Church in Nigeria

Author: Emmanuel Ayebome

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2019-05

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 3643910452

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Human dignity, decent life and human rights are effects of extensive humanitarian struggles by a people to achieve reasonable life for all. The possibility of such El Dorado was stalled in the past by unforeseen circumstances and other man-made tribulations in global history. However, these struggles will remain incomplete without a global perspective. Thus, taking the responsibility to understand humanity and her shortfalls in other parts of the globe becomes necessary. This quest consequently triggers the thorough study on how, where and why their plight is intrinsically tied to their social, cultural, religious and political background. Such genuine consequent studies can uproot the causal effect and thus guarantee the success of that developmental slogan of 'helping people to help themselves.' This study attempts to provide a platform that could chart a path towards sustainable answers to basic social questions.

Communion Ecclesiology and Social Transformation in African Catholicism
Communion Ecclesiology and Social Transformation in African Catholicism

Author: Idara Otu

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2020-05-15

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 153265748X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this book, Idara Otu, one of the new theological voices from Africa, rethinks ecclesiology in the changing context of a wounded and broken world. What does the Catholic Church in Africa look like post-Vatican II? This book creatively illuminates the intrinsic connections between ecclesial communion and social mission in the changing face of the church in Africa. The multiple levels of dialogue in African Catholicism, especially in the reception and contextualization of conciliar teachings, is redefining world Christianity. The author explores how dialogue, synodality, inculturation, leadership, human security, social issues, and social transformation are shaping the identity and mission of the church in Africa. This book also engages recent magisterial teachings and diverse theological voices in developing the praxis for the emergence of particular churches in Africa that are defined by the joys and sorrows of God’s people. The book calls for a Triple-C church, revitalized through Conversion, Communality, and Conversation, as well as fostering integral and sustainable social transformation in Africa’s contested march toward modernity.

Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda
Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Author: Marcel Uwineza, SJ

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2023-07-05

Total Pages: 443

ISBN-13: 1647123461

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first comprehensive examination of the Catholic Church’s role in the genocide against the Tutsi and its attempts at reconciliation From April to July 1994, more than a million people were killed during the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Tutsi men, women, and children were slaughtered by Hutu extremists in churches and school buildings, and their lifeless bodies were left rotting in these sacred places under the deep silence of church authorities. Pope Francis’s apology more than twenty years later presents the opportunity to reimagine the essence of the Church, the missionary enterprise, theology in its multiple dimensions, the purification of memory, and the place of human dignity in the Catholic faith. Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda critically examines the Church’s responsibility in Rwanda’s tragic history and opens the dialogue to construct a new theology. Contributors to this volume offer moving personal testimonies of their journeys to reconciling the evil that has marred the Church’s image: bystanders’ indifference to the suffering, despite their claim as members of the Church. The first volume of its kind, Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda is a necessary step toward the Rwandan Catholic Church and humanity’s restoration of fundamental peace and lasting reconciliation. Catholic clergy, lay people, and human rights advocates will benefit from this examination of ecclesial moral failure and subsequent reconciliatory efforts.

African Hermeneutics
African Hermeneutics

Author: Elizabeth Mburu

Publisher: Langham Publishing

Published: 2019-02-28

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1783685387

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Interpretation of Scripture occurs within one’s worldview and culture, which enhances our understanding and ability to apply Scripture in the world. However, few books address Bible interpretation from an African perspective and no other textbook uses the intercultural approach found here. This book brings both an awareness of how one’s African context gives a lens to hermeneutics, but also how to interpret texts with integrity despite our cultural influences. African Hermeneutics was born of Prof Elizabeth Mburu’s frustration at only having textbooks that predominantly followed a Western worldview to teach her African students. Mburu’s approach to hermeneutics is one that begins in Africa, moving from the known to the unknown as students learn to apply her ‘four-legged stool model’ to biblical texts, namely examining: the parallels to African contexts, the theological context, the literary context, and the historical and cultural context. This textbook will help students and pastors interpret Scripture with greater accuracy in their own context, allowing for faithful application in their local contexts.

Bible Interpretation and the African Culture
Bible Interpretation and the African Culture

Author: David J. Ndegwah

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2020-01-15

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1532611412

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book can be summarized in one sentence: that culture plays a determinant role in the way people perceive, interpret, and, therefore, respond to reality around them—ideas, events, people, and literature, including sacred literature. Thus, when people encounter new reality they perceive and conceptualize it in accordance with their worldview, which is shaped by their culture that is modeled to suit various geographical locations. In order to understand why people around the world behave and act as they do—they choose certain words in what they say and do certain things rather than others—it is important to understand and appreciate this fact. Failure to do so would make it very difficult to engage in any dealings with them, secular or religious, like doing business or evangelization. This is what happened to the Pökot people whose worldview is predominantly communitarian, and yet they were introduced to hermeneutics that are predominantly individualistic, which is at loggerheads with their communal aspirations. The manifestation of this reality is the interpretation of the Good Shepherd parable in the Gospel of John, which the Pökot have understood and contextualized in line with their worldview, against the intentions, goals, and disposition of their evangelizers.

Overcoming Women's Subordination in the Igbo African Culture and in the Catholic Church
Overcoming Women's Subordination in the Igbo African Culture and in the Catholic Church

Author: Rose N. Uchem

Publisher: Universal-Publishers

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1581121334

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"When African scholars lament over the near destruction of African cultures, they do not reflect the reality of African women's historical traditions of empowerment and inclusion in pre-colonial/pre-Christian African societies, which were also lost in the same process of Western Christian cultural imperialism. Similarly, most male Church theologians writing or speaking about inculturation do not address the deeper cultural issues, which impact heavily on African women. ..... [from back cover]

Handbook of African Catholicism
Handbook of African Catholicism

Author: Ilo, Stan Chu

Publisher: Orbis Books

Published: 2022-07-13

Total Pages: 1003

ISBN-13: 160833936X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A disciplinary map for understanding African Catholicism today by engaging some of the most pressing and pertinent issues, topics, and conversations in diverse fields of studies in African Catholicism"--