Inculturation in Africa: Challenges and Prospects
Inculturation in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Author: La Civiltà Cattolica

Publisher: ucanews

Published: 2022-04-25

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13:

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A collection of 8 articles from the January 2020 edition of La Civiltà Cattolica, the highly respected and oldest Catholic journal published from Rome. In Inculturation in Africa: Challenges and Prospects, Marcel Uwineza, SJ suggests certain paths that the inculturation process could take in Africa. He explains how refusing to inculturate the Gospel message slows down the process of the Church putting down roots in the continent. Pope Francis urges us not to become accomplices of any forms of human trafficking, but instead to forge a new worldwide solidarity and fraternity. Human Trafficking and the Dignity of Work discusses one of the most important and urgent global social responsibilities of the time. In what way is the anthropological and cosmic figure of the couple in the garden the bearer of a theological truth? Jean-Pierre Sonnet, SJ reflects on the twofold perspective that associates the mystery of the garden with that of the human couple in Each Couple is like a Garden: A Biblical Perspective. Juan Antonio Guerrero, SJ suggests three areas where we spend our daily lives as citizens in Urban Life and Citizenship. Public space, work and the family are these areas of our life that sometimes induce paralyzing habits of the heart, claiming they do not encourage relationships or common purposes. The synod for the Amazon was an example of a Church in movement, listening to the Spirit through the cry of the region’s indigenous peoples of the Amazon – its real protagonists. In From the Amazon River to the Tiber: Notes from a Special Synod, Victor Codina, SJ shares insights on aspects of this important ecclesial event. The album Ghosteen, by Australian musician Nick Cave, is a reinterpretation of his mourning for the death of his son. Claudio Zonta SJ says the album is a bridge over the darkness of pain that can only be crossed with the desire that love and pity are really the final words about human existence.

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

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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.

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: 295

ISBN-13: 1532611420

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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 Pokot 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 Pokot have understood and contextualized in line with their worldview, against the intentions, goals, and disposition of their evangelizers.

An Issue of Relevance
An Issue of Relevance

Author: Grant LeMarquand

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780820469287

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As the center of the Christian world has migrated south, especially into Sub-Saharan Africa, a growing and dynamic African biblical scholarship has emerged. Prominent among the texts that have grabbed the interest of African biblical scholars is the gospel story of «the woman with the flow of blood» (Mark 5:25-34; Matthew 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48). This book compares traditional North Atlantic scholarship on this gospel story with the new insights of African biblical studies in order to test the contention that these two versions of biblical scholarship are substantially different. In particular, this book argues that scholarships in the North Atlantic and African worlds differ in their conceptions of the goal of exegesis. For African scholars practical hermeneutical concerns are considered central to the exegetical task.

Moral Integrity & Igbo Cultural Value
Moral Integrity & Igbo Cultural Value

Author: Joseph Ogbonnaya

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2011-11-16

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1465396578

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Most people of Igbo extraction are worried at the alarming rate of social ills bedevilling the Igbo nation. These social evils which debauch authentic Igbo socio-cultural communal ethos include violent crimes like kidnapping of fellow Igbo brothers and sisters for ransom, hired assassinations, armed robbery, political thuggery, etc. These socio-cultural eddies not only pose security risks to people but also paralyse socio-political, religious and economic activities in Igbo land. These crimes are dialectically opposed to the authentic cultural values of Ndigbo who traditionally are known for their rich cultural values and high morality with regard to the sanctity of life and the primacy of the common good arising from Igbo republican spirit. One is left wondering why and what has changed to bring about these various cycles of moral decay which have battered our social system and our noble cultural values. This book written from the backdrop of the increasing crime rate in Igboland examines the agents of social transformation that has impacted Ndigbo beginning from inter-tribal trading, colonialism, including the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War up to the forces of globalization. It argues that the agents of social changes has not destroyed Ndigbo’s cultural values but has affected Ndigbo’s attitude toward life. It proposes Ndigbo’s moral integrity based on the conept of ezindu (good life) as the foundation of Ndigbo’s common meaning or cultural value. This book therefore, creates an awareness of the impact of modernity on Igboland and proposes a response based on Ndigbo’s cultural value, one that promotes moral integrity as a panacea to forces of secularization. It identifies the social evils which afflict Igboland and traces the problem to the breakdown of authentic cultural values of the people. It will establish a theoretical framework for analysis by locating the causes of this breakdown with a cultural dis-valuation arising from distortion in the dialectic of Igbo communities as a result of lack of integration with the forces of secularization. These unleashed greed and various forms of self-interest to the detriment of the common good. The way forward, I will argue, lies in attending to the integrity of cultural values that inform the everyday life of the people. This will be the task of those creative minority who by paying attention to the superstructural cultural values responsible for arts, science, philosophy and the human sciences will re-create cultural values responsive to the malaise of modernity in the various forms it is influencing the Igbo nation. This, in itself, will demand moral integrity rooted in authentic cultural value and greater responsibility on the part of the superstructure of culture. Christianity as the dominant religion in Igboland must be prepared to impact the life and value of Ndigbo positively and integrate Ndigbo’s cultural values in her ministry of evangelization.

Postcolonial Perspectives in African Biblical Interpretations
Postcolonial Perspectives in African Biblical Interpretations

Author: Musa W. Dube

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2024-01-30

Total Pages: 538

ISBN-13: 1589836375

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This volume foregrounds biblical interpretation within the African history of colonial contact, from North Atlantic slavery to the current era of globalization. It reads of the prolonged struggle for justice and of hybrid identities from multifaceted contexts, where the Bible co-exists with African Indigenous Religions, Islam, and other religions. Showcasing the dynamic and creative approaches of an emerging and thriving community of biblical scholarship from the African continent and African diaspora, the volume critically examines the interaction of biblical texts with African people and their cultures within a postcolonial framework. While employing feminist/womanist, postcolonial, Afrocentric, social engagement, creative writing, reconstruction, and HIV/AIDS perspectives, the authors all engage with empire in their own ways: in specific times, forms, and geography. This volume is an important addition to postcolonial and empires studies in biblical scholarship. The contributors are David Tuesday Adamo, Lynn Darden, H. J. M. (Hans) van Deventer, Musa W. Dube, John D. K. Ekem, Ernest M. Ezeogu, Elelwani B. Farisani, Sylvester A. Johnson, Emmanuel Katongole, Malebogo Kgalemang, Temba L. J. Mafico, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan’a Mphahlele), Andrew M. Mbuvi, Sarojini Nadar, Elivered Nasambu-Mulongo, Jeremy Punt, Gerrie Snyman, Lovemore Togarasei, Sam Tshehla, Robert Wafawanaka, Robert Wafula, Gerald West, Alice Y. Yafeh-Deigh, and Gosnell L. Yorke.

Rediscovering Jesus in Our Places
Rediscovering Jesus in Our Places

Author: Elia Shabani Mligo

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2020-05-28

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1725263521

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The question of contextual theology and its relevance to Africa in this time of globalization, whereby there are rampant uncontrolled changes in cultures, technologies, economic policies, and even people’s religious lives, is very urgent. How is contextual theology relevant in the ever-changing contexts of the church in Africa? Indeed, there are a number of challenges which contextual theology faces within the church in Africa, which need to be addressed contextually. Some such challenges include poverty, rampant violence, homosexuality, alcoholism, the resurgence of prosperity gospel materialistic prophets and incurable illnesses like Ebola, HIV and AIDS, and the current coronavirus (COVID-19). However, which context in Africa? Context in Africa, as in other parts of the world, is always in flux; it is complex and fluid. There is no permanent context. The experience of Jesus in such a changing context needs to be rediscovered depending on what transpires in each particular place at a particular time. This book addresses some of the overarching challenges that face contextual theology and how such challenges should be addressed by the church in Africa in contemporary ever-changing context for it to be relevant in Africa. It also highlights the need to move from liberation and inculturation theologies to reconstruction theology in dealing with the challenges of the current church. Hence, the book is important to students and scholars engaging in practical, systematic, biblical, and contextual theologies in all their branches.