The Bible and African Culture as Sources in African Christian Ethical Decision Making

The Bible and African Culture as Sources in African Christian Ethical Decision Making
Author: Paul Harry Moyo
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

The problem of relating African Christian culture to the message of the Bible has troubled theologians who reflect on African Christianity for a long time. Today, Africa is at a crossroad. It is tom between following what African culture says, on the one hand, and what the Bible says, on the other hand. The strong influence of Western culture (the channel through which Africa received the gospel) adds to this crisis. A solution to the crisis, which African Christians are facing when making moral decisions, can only be found in taking both the Bible as the Supreme Court of appeal and the African cultural values seriously. Forcing African Christians to choose between the Bible and African culture win just lead to more crises. To address this crisis, this study sets out with an introduction that defines the problem, plan, method of dealing with the problem, a review of related literature, the scope and the importance of the study. Chapter two looks at the relationship between Scripture and non-biblical sources in Western Protestant theology. The study finds that although the mainline Protestant theologians spoke about sola Scriptum, they did not mean by this slogan that Scripture should be the only source material for theology. They rather wanted to acknowledge the fact that Scriptme should be the most important source material for mornl decision making. In other words, they did not understand the sola Scriptum battle cry in an absolute and exclusivistic way. They allowed other sources to playa role. This slogan was, however, interpreted in an exclusivistic way by the leaders of the Radical Reformation. Some of the missionaries who brought the Word of God to Africa also tended to interpret and apply the sola Scriptum slogan in an absolute and exclusivistic way. The third chapter looks at the Bible and African culture as sources in African Christian ethical decision making. The study finds that the African theologians reacted against the exclusivistic tendencies of the missionaries in a number of ways. Some, who were on the radical side, put African culture above Scripture. The majority of the African theologians, on the other hand, while accepting the primacy of Scriptures as an important source, stressed the fact that African culture should be taken as important source material for moral decision making in Africa. The problems of polygamy and AIDS are discussed in this chapter to show the crises that arise when African culture is not taken seriously. In the fourth chapter the study looks at the use of African culture in Christian ethical decision making. It argues that there are a number of salient elements of African culture, which should be taken into account when making moral decisions in African Christian ethics. We conclude that any neglect of the African cultural input will lead to less authentic moral decisions. The last chapter summarises and concludes what has been discussed, explicates the findings of the study and gives guidelines on what should be the way forward for African Christian ethical decision making. It concludes that ethical decision making in an African context can only be authentic if, among other things, African cultural values are taken seriously. Factors like reason, natural law, context and tradition or culture, should be allowed to play a role in African Christian ethical decision making. We need to use the whole of God's reality when making moral decisions. The study ends by identifying certain unresolved issues, which may need further study.

Foundations for African Theological Ethics

Foundations for African Theological Ethics
Author: James Nkansah-Obrempong
Publisher: Langham Publishing
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2013-05-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1907713840

Having taught on ethics in Africa for almost a decade, James Nkansah-Obrempong presents a work that goes some way to addressing the dearth of materials on ethics that combine African social, religious, cultural and moral values with biblical and theological values. Integrating these from African, Western and biblical contexts Nkansah demonstrates how important they are for dealing with contemporary moral and social issues facing the church in Africa and African societies. The book develops a theoretical, biblical and theological foundation for Theological Ethics and uses this to address the broader issues that affect the socio-political and economic life of African people and the church.

Transforming Culture

Transforming Culture
Author: Keith E. Eitel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 198
Release: 1986
Genre: Africa
ISBN:

The author presents a working model for the development of a personal biblical ethic and then applies his model to a prominent ethical issue in Cameroon - polygamy.

African Christian Ethics

African Christian Ethics
Author: Samuel Waje Kunhiyop
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2019-04-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310107083

This is an introduction to African Christian ethics for Christian colleges and Bible schools. The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the theory of ethics, while the second discusses practical issues. The issues are grouped into the following six sections: Socio-Political Issues, Financial Issues, Marriage Issues, Sexual Issues, Medical Issues, and Religious Issues. Each section begins with a brief general introduction, followed by the chapters dealing with specific issues in that area. Each chapter begins with an introduction, discusses traditional African thinking on the issue, presents an analysis of relevant biblical material, and concludes with some recommendations. There are questions at the end of each chapter for discussion or personal reflection, often asking students to reflect on how the discussion in the chapter applies to their ministry situation.

Christian Ethics in an African Context

Christian Ethics in an African Context
Author: Dick Allen Rader
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1991
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

For 150 years Africans have been longing for a Christianity which is not the «White man's religion.» Missionaries have often failed to strip the Western cultural «garb» from their presentation of the gospel. Emerging African theologians in rapidly expanding congregations are beginning to formulate an explicitly African theology. The Christian message must be contextualized within the local culture if it is to be communicated effectively in the daily life of the African Christian. This book shows how missionaries and African Christians can work together to find timeless biblical principles and allow those principles to directly impact African culture.

The Bible and African Culture

The Bible and African Culture
Author: Humphrey Waweru
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2012-03-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9966040099

How can African theology survive the self-repetition of mere cultural apologia or contextualization-stereotypes, and mature into a critical theoretical discipline responding to the challenges of the postmodern world-order? Dr. Humphrey M. Wawe contributes here a sound theological reflection using the hitherto unused methodological paradigm of mapping the inroads in the transaction between the Bible and African culture.

The Bible in Africa

The Bible in Africa
Author: Gerald West
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 846
Release: 2021-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004497102

Although the arrival of the Bible in Africa has often been a tale of terror, the Bible has become an African book. This volume explores the many ways in which Africans have made the Bible their own. The essays in this book offer a glimpse of the rich resources that constitute Africa's engagement with the Bible. Among the topics are: the historical development of biblical interpretation in Africa, the relationship between African biblical scholarship and scholarship in the West, African resources for reading the Bible, the history and role of vernacular translation in particular African contexts, the ambiguity of the Bible in Africa, the power of the Bible as text and symbol, and the intersections between class, race, gender, and culture in African biblical interpretation. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of African biblical scholarship. In fact, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of African biblical scholarship available in print. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

Engaging Religions and Worldviews in Africa

Engaging Religions and Worldviews in Africa
Author: Yusufu Turaki
Publisher: Langham Publishing
Total Pages: 547
Release: 2020-04-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1783688416

In a world of increasing globalization, we live amidst a clash of cultures, religions, and worldviews – each battling for the human heart and mind. In this in-depth study, Yusufu Turaki offers a theological framework for engaging this clash of perspectives in Africa, where traditional African religions, colonialism, and exposure to Christianity have each had a lasting impact on contemporary African worldviews. Professor Turaki undertakes a systematic analysis of the nature of African Traditional Religion, its complex history with Christianity, and the need for African Christian theology to address its cultural and historical roots effectively. He provides both a conceptual framework and practical guide for engaging African cultures and religions with compassion, understanding, and a firm foundation rooted in scriptural truth. This book is an excellent resource for students of religion and theology, as well as those interested in Africa’s traditional heritage or drawn to the important work of cross-cultural and inter-religious dialogue.