Schools of Thought in African Theology

Introduction
African theology, though it is generically unified, is a diverse theological system. What constitute this diversity are the schools of thought within it. Ranging from the camp of continuity to that of the radical discontinuity, the schools also include feminist voices and South African black theological outlooks. In the following, the perspectives of the representative theologians ( . !ola"i Idowu, #ohn S. $biti, !yang %. &ato, $ercy Amba 'duyoye, and Itumeleng $osala( of the schools will be e)plored. *et, it has to be born in mind that the selection is not meant to suggest in any way that other voices, even within the same school, are of less importance.

E. Bolaji Idowu
Situated in the +niversity of Ibadan, ,igeria, -rofessor !ola"i Idowu has long been known as a leading promoter of what he calls a .theology which bears the stamp of original thinking and meditation of Africans./0 In his much1celebrated earlier book Toward an Indigenous Church, !ola"i established himself as a somber modern African theologian by making his own, in the words of !ediako, .the plea for an authentic African theology and churchmanship./2 3. 4. !a5ta rightly notes Idowu6s concern7 .the 3hurch is still a dependent one looking to missionaries from outside for manpower and material resources, dependent in its theology, its liturgy and its church discipline, in fact it its whole e)pression of the 3hristian life./8 9his seems to e)plain why Idowu gave his paper the title, .the predicament of the church in Africa./: %e e)plains that there are three positions of attitude towards 3hristianity in Africa. 9he first position pertains to an e)treme nationalism where it is supposed that there cannot be found any good .in what the 3hurch has been doing in Africa,/ thereby condemning the church and its work indiscriminately. 9he second position concerns those .loyal children of the 3hurch who feel only gratitude and who regard anything that savours of criticism as disloyalty. 9hey feel it their duty to be "ealous guardians of her reputation and consider any suggestion of reform as an attack upon her./; 9he third position, which is a middle position, is entertained by .those who claim that they are also true children of the 3hurch but reali<e that their house needs to be put in order= they are aware that one of the gifts of 4od to man is the possibility of detachment

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. !ola"i Idowu, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (>ondon7 S3$ -ress, 0?@8( )i. &wame !ediako, Theology and Identity: The Impact of Culture upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and Modern Africa (')ford7 Regnum !ooks, 0??2.( 2A@. 8 3. 4. !a5ta, BIntroductory Review6, in 3. 4. !a5ta, Christianity in Tropical Africa, Studies -resented and Ciscussed at the Seventh International African Seminar, +niversity of 4hana, April 0?A; (>ondon7 ')ford +niversity -ress, 0?AD( 8;8= See also !ediako, op.cit., 2AD. : 9his catch phrase constitutes the title of his paper. 3f. !a5ta, 'p.cit. :0@1::E. ; Idwou, B9he -redicament of the 3hurch in Africa6, in 3. 4. !a5ta, 'p.cit., :0@.

for the purpose of self1criticism and that this is designed for a salutary end. If the walls of a building are cracking ominously, the best remedy is not to keep patching them up here and there= it is to e)amine the foundation carefully and effect necessary repairs./A Idowu, in the paper, identifies himself with this latter position. Idowu reveals his sensitivity that the uropean missionaries, for good or ill, did conceive of Africa as a place where there was either no religion in the continent or, if there was any, that it was devilish. 9he 4erman e)plorer, >eo Frobenius, had once said before ever he visited Africa, .a great light of the 3hurch/ had declared that .the Bniggers6 have no souls, but are burnt1out husks of men./@ 9he continent was considered as a place where insensible fetishism was a common place. 9he early >utheran missionaries who, through 3hurch $issionary Society, came to ast Africa perceived of African person as a typical model of the .fallen human./ As such, the missionaries .considered it their duty not only to convert Africans to 3hristianity but also to make them give up and forget their past entirely and live up to their new dignity./D 9his resulted in the church6s negligence of the traditional beliefs of the people, and .little effort was made to understand them and to know their basic hopes and fears and traditional yearnings for 4od, and in what way 4od had met this yearning./? With this perception, Idowu declares that the African church .came into being with prefabricated theology, liturgies, and traditions./0E Idowu6s words themselves are perhaps well communicating of his own lamentation7 It was a serious mistake that the 3hurch took no account of the indigenous beliefs and customs of Africa when she began her work of evangeli<ation. It is now obvious that by a misguided purpose, a completely new 4od who had had nothing to do with the past of Africa was introduced to her peoples. 9hus, there was no proper foundation laid for the 4ospel message in the hearts of the people and no bridge built between the old and the new= the 3hurch has in conseGuence been speaking to Africans in strange tongues because there was no adeGuate communication. In conseGuence, the 3hurch has on her hands communities of believers who, by and large, live ambivalent spiritual lives. 3hristianity to them is a fashionable religion which has the habit of beginning and ending within the walls of a building= it does not reach those vital areas of the personal needs of Africans. 9hus, it is possible for an African to sing lustily in 3hurch, B'ther refuge have I none6, while still carrying an amulet somewhere on his person, or being able to go out of 3hurch straight to his diviner, without feeling that he is betraying any principle.00 'ne area of the .predicament,/ in Idowu6s assessment is that a gospel message clearly showing Africans that they are in fact entering into a covenant relationship with a >iving 4od and a personal Savior has not been present. For Africans covenant is the very vehicle of being related with the ob"ect of worship and thereby with fellow human beings. Within the same conte)t,

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Ibid. Idowu, B-redicament6, :2;. D Idowu, B-redicament6, :2A. ? Ibid. 0E Ibid. 00 Idowu, B-redicament6, :88.

Idowu also thinks that the .predicament/ stretches beyond theology to the realm of liturgy. %e says that it, Hhas now become obvious that the prefabricated liturgies which have been imported from urope and imposed upon this continent have proved inadeGuate. 9here are certain emotional depths which are not being reached in Africans by these liturgies and the whole system is making for spiritual sterility as far as they are concerned. %ymns are uropean verses sung to uropean tunes, the phraseology of the liturgies are either archaic, barely intelligible, or often irrelevant in Africa.02 ,onetheless, this predicament had not been without a reaction. According Idowu6s observation, African Initiatives in 3hristianity are reactionary movements7 .a reaction against the uropean comple)ion of the uropean1related 3hurch in Africa and a rebuke to the aridity of her spiritual and liturgical life./08 It is not merely a reactionary movement= it is also a movement in which Africans sought a way of 3hristian self1e)pression, .groping for the selfhood of the 3hurch, and asking to be allowed to worship as 3hristian Africans and not to be turned into uropeans before they can worship./0: Idowu pervasively re"ects what he perceives as uropean 3hristianity that sees nothing common between the 4od of 3hristians and that of Africans. Africans .recogni<e only one 4od, the Supreme, +niversal 4odHone and the same 4od, the 3reator of all the ends of the earthH./0; ,evertheless, the missionaries preached a 4od who is totally different from theirs, and reGuested them to break up with their religious past. Idowu laments that the new understanding of a >iving 4od and a personal savior should have been rendered as the fulfillment of African religious past. It is with this perspective that Idowu calls for .a radical indigeni<ation of the 3hurch./ Indigeni<ation is a close companion of evangeli<ation, in his view. !ediako Guotes Idowu6s point7 .If the 3hurch Bmust respect, preserve and dedicate to the glory of 4od anything that is of value in the culture and institutions of the country6, eGually the 3hurch Bmust preserve full allegiance to the ternal, 3osmic, +nchanging 3hrist, who is her only >ord6./0A ,or is he re"ecting completely the legitimacy of some elements that may be historically and culturally outside of the .indigenous 3hurch./ %e concedes that if an indigenous 3hurch attempts .to divest herself completely of all Bforeign6 elementsH, Iit ends up in cuttingJ herself adrift from the stream of history./0@

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Idowu, B-redicament6, :8:. Ibid. 0: Ibid. 0; Idowu, B9he Study of Religion7 With Special Reference to African 9raditional Religion6, in Orita, vol.0, no.0, #une 0?;@, p.02= as Guoted in !ediako, 'p.cit., 2@E. 0A Idowu, Towards an Indigenous Church (>ondon7 ')ford +niversity -ress, 0?A;( ::= as Guoted in !ediako, 'p.3it., 2@:. 0@ Idowu, Indigenous, 08.

In general, Idowu summons for an authentic African 3hristianity, which .is to be found in the direct, deliberate and self1conscious appropriation of #esus 3hrist as a living and present reality e)perienced in African terms./0D

John S. Mbiti
&enyan by birth and once professor at $akerere +niversity, #ohn Samuel $biti stands as the weightiest voice in African theology. >ike Idowu, $biti was sensitive to the .lack of sufficient and positive engagement by Western missions with African cultural and religious values./0? 9he very fact that Africans were not told to develop their own form of 3hristianity ended up, according to $biti6s observation, in the e)istence of the without a theology. In his own words7 .$ission 3hristianity was not from the start, prepared to face a serious encounter with either the traditional religions and philosophy or the modern changes taking place in Africa. 9he 3hurch here now finds itself in the situation of trying to e)ist without a theology./2E %e was more concerned with the universality and particularity of the gospel, whereas Idowu did capitali<e on theology proper as the logic of radical continuity. $biti is not as outright as Idowu on the issue continuity between 3hristianity and African religious past. For idowu the continuity is radical while $biti thinks of it more in terms of accommodation. %e recapitulates the whole idea7 3hristianity is a universal and cosmic faith. It was universali<ed on 3alvary, and cosmici<ed on the first aster Cay. 'ur duty now is to locali<e this universality and cosmicity. urope and America have westerni<ed it, the 'rthodo) 3hurches have easterni<ed it= here in Africa we must africani<e it. It belongs to the very nature of 3hristianity to be sub"ect to locali<ation, otherwise its universality and cosmicity become meaningless.20 !y locali<ation, and not indigeni<ation in Idowu6s sense, $biti meant the translation of the universality of the 3hristian faith into a language and categories understood by the peoples of a given region.22 !y favoring accommodation, he re"ected the idea of indigeni<ing of 3hristianity. For the latter seems to give the impression that 3hristianity is a sort of ready1made commodity that can be transplanted into a local area. For $biti, the universality and cosmicity of the gospel meant that it can be locali<ed. %e thus came to hold the gospel as truly at home in Africa, .as capable of being apprehended by Africans in African terms at the specific level of their religious e)perience, and that in fact this was how the faith had been received through the Western missionary transmission of it./28 %e
0D 0?

!ediako, 'p.cit., 2@A. !ediako, BAfrican 9heology6, in Cavid . Ford (ed.(, The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology in Twentieth Century (>ondon7 !lackwell, 0??@( :82. 2E #ohn S. $biti, African Religions and Philosophy (4arden 3ity, ,*7 Anchor !ooks, 0?@E( 8E8. 20 $biti, B3hristianity and 9raditional Religions in Africa6, International Re iew of Mission ;?728A ('ctober 0?@E( :80. 22 Ibid. 28 !ediako, BAfrican 9heology6, :88.

founds his understanding of the relationship between 3hristianity and A9Rs on the following assumptions.2: 0. African peoples are deeply religious. 3hristianity in Africa came to peoples who had already been deeply religious. %ence, some level of dialogue or assessment of relationship between the two is possible. $biti underscores7 .African religiosity affects all areas of life, and people look at life and e)perience it through this religiosity. 9herefore, the way they see 3hristianity is itself affected deeply by this traditional religiosity./2; 2. A9Rs should be regarded as preparation e angelii. 3ontrary to the denigrating assumptions of the Western missionaries, African religious past and worldview has a great value. 3hristianity should adapt itself on this valuable heritage, instead of being unwarrantedly and e)clusively dependent on .imported goods./ 8. A9Rs are largely but not entirely compatible with 3hristianity. 9his is all meaningfully about searching for and establishing common ground between the two religions. $biti instructs that .Hthis has to be determined carefully, with the aid of academic understanding, the grace of 4od and the sympathies of the human heart./2A :. 3hristianity may be seen as a fulfillment of A9Rs. 9his is a converse of what is said in K2. $any theological viewpoints in the 'ld 9estament find much parallel in A9Rs. !ut in the ,ew 9estament we hardly find matches with A9Rs. 9his suggests that A9Rs can stand as listening companions but with a receiving end, recogni<ing fulfillment of their religiosity. 9his recognition, in turn, .calls for a theological articulation of the fulfillment not only as an academic e)ercise, but to guide the 3hurch in its life, work and mission in Africa./2@ ;. 3hristianity is to "udge and save A9Rs. Articulation of the fulfillment is not all the time affirming, but also critiGuing and "udging. >et me Guote $biti7 3hristian fulfillment means, in effect, a universali<ing act, and what cannot measure up to that height is not worth fulfilling. 'nly 3hristianity has the legal credentials to pass the right "udgment on traditional religiosity= and unless 3hristianity does that in Africa, it will find itself wrapped up in a lot of religiosity not unlike the type that our >ord pronounced .dead/ in -hariseeism and #udaism.2D A. African traditional religiosity can become an enrichment for 3hristian presence in Africa. 9his stands for the simple fact that in order to make the message of the gospel intelligible, A9R values and beliefs are very helpful.

2: 2;

See $biti, B3hristianity and 9raditional Religions6, :801:8?. $biti, B3hristianity and 9raditional Religions6, :82. 2A $biti, B3hristianity and 9raditional Religions6, :8;. 2@ $biti, B3hristianity and 9raditional Religions6, :8A. 2D Ibid.

@. A sympathetic study of the relationship between 3hristianity and A9Rs may be of mutual academic benefit to both. 9his actually is a pragmatic assumption.

Byang H. Kato (Radical Discontinuity)

At the other e)treme of the spectrum was the radical discontinuity stoutly championed by !yang &ato, representing the thought of those 3hristian churches and groups linked with the LAssociation of vangelicals of AfricaL (formerly also, Lof $adagascarL(, and who trace their spiritual heritage, in the main, to the missionary work of Western Faith $issions in Africa. !asing himself on a radical !iblicism, &ato stressed the distinctiveness of the e)perience of the 3hristian 4ospel to such an e)tent that he re"ected the positive evaluation of any pre13hristian religious tradition as a distraction from the necessary Lemphasis on !ible truth.L2? &atoMs insistence on the centrality of the !ible for the theological enterprise in Africa must be reckoned a most important contribution to African 3hristian thought. 'n the other hand, his outright re"ection of the understanding of theology as a synthesis of LoldL and LnewL in a Guest for a unified framework for dealing with culturally1rooted Guestions meant that &atoMs particular perspective could not provide a sufficient foundation for a tradition of creative theological engagement of the sort that the African conte)t seemed to be reGuiring. !efore long, other vangelicals, without denying their commitment to the centrality of the !ible for the theological enterprise, were already seeking more positive ways whereby the 3hristian 4ospel might encounter African tradition.8E

2? 8E

!yang %. &ato, Theological Pitfalls in Africa! (&isumu7 vangel -ublishing %ouse 0?@;( 0A?. 9ite 9iNnou, L!iblical Foundations for African 9heology,L in Missiology! vol. 0E, no. :, 'ctober 0?D27:8;1::D.