What Is Not Sacred? African Spirituality by Laurenti Magesa, and: Christian Theology and African Traditions by Matthew Michael (review)

Theology and the academic study of religion in Sub-Saharan Africa were once dominated by foreign missionaries and anthropologists. In the postcolonial era many indigenous writers have made important contributions, such as John S. Mbiti’s landmark 1969 African Philosophy and Religions, and Africans have been key participants in the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians since its inception in 1976 in Dar es Salaam. Like Mbiti, an Anglican priest native to Kenya, Laurenti Magesa and Matthew Michael are both religious and cultural insiders, and these two books are important contributions to this lineage. A Catholic priest from Tanzania, Magesa is well known as one of the region’s leading theologians and for his two earlier books. Michael is a Nigerian scholar trained in missions and biblical studies, currently serving as dean of the ECWA (Evangelical Church Winning All) Theological Seminary, Kagoro; this is his first published book.

Though neither Magesa nor Michael affirms or problematizes what might be called “the snares of double insiderhood,” and though in a number of places they make sweeping generalizations (Magesa admits as much) about things “African,” each has written a significant book that should be enthusiastically welcomed in the fields of African theology and religious studies. Magesa’s What Is Not Sacred? is a beautifully written and deeply reflective exploration of “the structures and meanings of African spirituality in order to understand the genuine religious identity of the black peoples living in the southern part of the continent.” Attuned to the voice of the spirit as manifest in a multitude of human expressions and longings outside the walls of the church, Magesa writes with an authorial yet sensitive tone that crisply echoes African religious realities. Any reader familiar with particular milieus in West, Central, East, or South Africa will find her or his experience resonant with many of the examples that Magesa draws upon from funerary traditions, healing practices, politics, or culinary culture, for example.

Magesa’s theological attentiveness to indigenous African spirituality and Christian inculturation in Africa is his book’s greatest gift. In this regard, it shares something essential with Michael’s Christian Theology and African Traditions. Michael’s study is far more biblically focused, being peppered with references to scripture and considerations of its indigenization in African Christianity. His overarching argument is that Christian theological reflection on and in Africa remains too Western and thus requires a serious reorientation in light of a placement of the “Bible in close dialogue with African traditions.” The call for dialogue is appreciated, though Michael’s emphasis on “revelation” would seem to privilege the Christian position over the indigenous, whereas one of Leonard Swidler’s most important rules for interreligious dialogue is that conversation partners come to the table as equals. A firmer grounding in leading theories of religion would perhaps have aided Matthew in avoiding this pitfall in what is otherwise an impressive project of systematic theology for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Taken together, these books offer many compelling reflections on the religious culture of much of the African continent and of not only how theological reflection there can more soundly engage indigenous religious thought and practice but also of what African spirituality has to offer toward improving the human condition globally. Although Magesa and Michael are both prone to essentialist claims about Africa and about Christianity—and many readers will surely wonder why Pentecostalism and African independent churches are given such short shrift in each book—What Is Not Sacred? and Christian Theology and African Traditions are significant offerings to the scholarly literature on African religions and theology. Their authors are ideally positioned to grapple intelligently with some very big questions as they pertain to African existential contexts, such as the nature of God, revelation, and the meaning of life itself. This reader is grateful for their efforts and certainly feels enriched...