My Faith as an African
My Faith as an African

Author: Jean-Marc Ela

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2009-05-01

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1606086235

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At a time when Africans, like other peoples, are facing the shock of technological and cultural modernity, liberation of the oppressed must be the primary condition for an authentic inculturation of the Christian message. This is the central axis of the papers in this book, which begins with the questions of faith posed by cultural variables, an internal dimension of the African's condition. In order to understand what is at stake, we need to place these matters in the overall context of a society and a history marked by conflicts-which lead to a rereading of our African memory. The basic issue of the Credibility of Christianity is being raised from with in the dynamic which allows Africans to escape from the inhumanity of the destiny to which certain factors would condemn them. So critical reflection on the relevance of an African Christianity requires us to identify the structures or strategies of exploitation and impoverishment against which Africans have always struggled, finding their own specific forms of resistance within their cultures.

Encyclopedia of African Religion
Encyclopedia of African Religion

Author: Molefi Kete Asante

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2008-11-26

Total Pages: 1582

ISBN-13: 1506317863

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"Numerous titles focusing on particular beliefs in Africa exist, including Marcel Griaule′s Conversations with Ogotemmeli, but this one presents an unparallelled exploration of a multitude of cultures and experiences. It is both a gateway to deeper exploration and a penetrating resource on its own. This is bound to become the definitive scholarly resource on African religions." — Library Journal, Starred Review "Overall, because of its singular focus, reliability, and scope, this encyclopedia will prove invaluable where there is considerable interest in Africa or in different religious traditions." –Library Journal As the first comprehensive work to assemble ideas, concepts, discourses, and extensive essays in this vital area, the Encyclopedia of African Religion explores such topics as deities and divinities, the nature of humanity, the end of life, the conquest of fear, and the quest for attainment of harmony with nature and other humans. Editors Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama include nearly 500 entries that seek to rediscover the original beauty and majesty of African religion. Features · Offers the best representation to date of the African response to the sacred · Helps readers grasp the enormity of Africa′s contribution to religious ideas by presenting richly textured concepts of spirituality, ritual, and initiation while simultaneously advancing new theological categories, cosmological narratives, and ways to conceptualize ethical behavior · Provides readers with new metaphors, figures of speech, modes of reasoning, etymologies, analogies, and cosmogonies · Reveals the complexity, texture, and rhythms of the African religious tradition to provide scholars with a baseline for future works The Encyclopedia of African Religion is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in fields such as Religion, Africana Studies, Sociology, and Philosophy.

God, Spirit, and Human Wholeness
God, Spirit, and Human Wholeness

Author: Elochukwu Eugene Uzukwu

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-03-09

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1621891666

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The Holy Spirit provides access to relationship with and reflection on the Triune God. In West Africa, Christians approach the Triune God in a way that challenges the Jewish-Christian memory. Deeply rooted in their ancestral memory, where living is relationality, they embrace the Trinitarian faith, the economy of the relational God-Christ-Spirit, by expanding and reinventing their indigenous experience of God, deities, spirits, and ancestors. Christian faith-practice is marked by the spectacular dominance of the Holy Spirit, whose charisms reflect the operations of deities. African Initiated Churches (AICs), Protestant and Catholic charismatic movements, experience God-Spirit's liberating and healing hand for the enhancement and realization of communal and individual destiny (what one expects from a concerned providential deity). This book argues that the emergent West African Trinitarian imagination is in harmony with Hebrew insight into the One and Only Yahweh of the patriarchs that assumed the dimensions of Elohim, God--experienced as a sound of sheer silence by Elijah, and proposed in utter weakness as the Only God by Deutero-Isaiah--the God that Jesus called Abba, Father. As Spirit and Life, the Holy Spirit, which is the source of all charisms (Origen), is our link to the Trinity.

Dictionary of Mission
Dictionary of Mission

Author: Karl Muller

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2006-01-30

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 1597525499

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ÒConceived and developed by two of Europe's most eminent missiologists, in the country where the scientific and sustained study of mission first took shape, [the 'Dictionary of Mission'] represents the finest of the chorus of voices that comprise contemporary missiology . . . The choice of topics and the authors to address them reflects what Christian mission has become: a genuinely worldwide and ecumenical phenomenon. That there would be entries on regional theological developments is indicative of how the world church is developing. A host of other topics here explored show too how the landscape of mission is changing. Taken as a whole, then, the 'Dictionary of Mission' is a road map through this exciting and challenging terrain. --from the Foreword

African Theology in Its Social Context
African Theology in Its Social Context

Author: Benezet Bujo

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2006-03-29

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1597526169

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Increasingly, theologians from non-Western lands demand that theology be done in a new, non-eurocentric way. First published in German, 'African Theology in Its Social Context', by one of Africa's most respected theologians, meets this challenge. Bujo takes traditional African values to the horizon of contemporary social issues: extreme poverty, mass unemployment, rapid urbanization, changing family life. His underlying concern is for the African people and for the models they will choose for their society, their economy, their church. Bujo begins with Jesus. Asking how Christ can be seen as an African among Africans, Bujo identifies Jesus as Ancestor -- the One from Whom all life flows. He goes on to define distinctively African roles for the church, clergy, and lay people alike. From the standpoint of African legal and religious traditions -- many far older than those of the Western church -- Bujo describes pastoral approaches to such issues as death and marriage in Africa. This original and challenging work shows how Africans need not change culture to be called children of God; and how, indeed, Christianity can become a source of fullness of life for Africans.

Reviewing Reality
Reviewing Reality

Author: W. E. A. van Beek

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 3643903359

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From crab divination in the Cameroon to friction oracles in the Congo Basin, from reading cast objects in Mozambique to spirit possession in Cote d'Ivoire, from Sudanese ebony diviners to South African Xhosa healers, divination systems throughout Africa serve their communities by answering questions and resolving problems. Divination helps people chart a course in their lives through a deeper understanding of past and present. This important book reveals the extraordinary diversity and complexity of African divination systems, focusing on self-knowledge, social reality, and intercultural and historical relations. (Series: African Studies / Afrikanische Studien - Vol. 50)

Spirituality of the Third World
Spirituality of the Third World

Author: K. C. Abraham

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2005-08-02

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1597523267

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The Third General Assembly of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, meeting in Nairobi in 1992, took a fresh look at the changing context of the Third World. Theologians in Nairobi firmly declared that third-world theology should be decisively shaped by the spirituality of the marginalized--indigenous people, women, minjung, dalits, and other minorities. Their creative and life-affirming spirituality is at the very center of their lives and struggles. 'Spirituality of the Third World' explores the meaning of spirituality, its biblical roots, its relation to human existence, how it patterns a vision and enriches faith, and how it celebrates life. This spirituality is formed of faith, struggle, and hope--the cry for life from the poor of all continents. Part I describes the changing context of the Third World, with a special focus on North-South relationships. Part II elaborates different forms of Third World spiritualities with origins in South and North America, Africa, and Asia. Part III roots these spiritualities biblically and explores how they enrich theological understanding and sustain Christian life. Contributors: Elizabeth Amoah, Frank Chikane, Virgil Elizondo, Ivone Gebara, Jacquelyn Grant, Franz J. Hinkelammert, Dwight N. Hopkins, Jose Miguez Bonino, Takatso Mofokeng, Pablo Richard, Rosa Adela O. Sierra, George Soares Prabhu, Lawrence Surendra, Ana Maria Tepedino, George E. Tinker, Sergio Torres, Mary John Mananzan, and Maria Vidale.

Mission for Diversity
Mission for Diversity

Author: Elochukwu E. Uzukwu

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 3643906412

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In this multi-cultural and multi-religious world, do Christian mission studies have any place in the academic realm? What theological possibilities and practical insights did Vatican II create for missiology? In this book, experts from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and North America respond to these questions. They explore "mission" as "intercultural studies," and they adopt decolonial thinking to privilege knowledges from the margins of our wounded world. Themes, such as interculturality, interreligious dialogue and inculturation, justice, peace building, and reconciliation, expand Vatican II to celebrate "mission" among and with the nations. (Series: Interreligious Studies - Vol. 8) [Subject: Religious Studies, Christianity]