African Christianity
The Stranger Within
Publication Year: 2012
Published by: African Books Collective
Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
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pp. vii-viii
All the chapters in this book, although they have not appeared in print elsewhere, originated from papers that were presented at various conferences. In the process of revising them for the purpose of this book, I enormously benefitted from comments by participants who were the first audience ...
Foreword
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pp. ix-x
The title of this book is rather surprising. How can Christianity in Africa be referred to as ‘stranger’ to a people with whom it has interacted for over a century? How can it be described as ‘foreign’ in a continent where the Church is most vibrant and with a legendary growth rate? ...
Contents
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pp. xi-xiv
Introduction
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pp. 1-3
There are books that need to be re-written almost as soon as their first draft is finished. This little book is one such book. It is about the church in Africa, its mission, theology, future and the state of our Christianity. The church is in a constant flux, changing with changing times. ...
1. African Christianity: The Stranger Within
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pp. 4-30
There is a paradox at the heart of African Christianity. It is vibrant and growing but at the same time shallow and superficial. It struggles with nominalism, syncreticism, increasing secularism, and the ever changing social and political realities and the challenges of relevance that come with such changes....
2. Mission
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pp. 31-48
The question of ‘how Christian is African Christianity,’ rightly belongs to the subject matter of mission. A detour of sorts was necessary when we looked at this question in the previous chapter. We had to examine the historical background to African Christianity in order to determine why Africans accepted Christianity ...
3. Theological Education
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pp. 49-72
In a paper published in the 90s, C.B. Peter observes that “There is need to wean Christian Theology away from the Western breast and feed it on African porridge.”1 This observation stands as true as when it was first written. Ironically, African Christianity today is growing faster than that of the West ...
4. African Christianity: Prospects and New Directions
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pp. 73-98
In chapter one, we canvassed possible reasons for the superficiality of ‘African Christianity.’ In chapters two and three, we proposed mission and theological education as two possible solutions to addressing many disconnects at the heart of ‘African Christianity.’ In the present chapter, we explore new trends ...
5. Towards A Conversational Model
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pp. 99-106
As was indicated in our brief analysis of the ‘state of African Christianity’ in chapter one, the African Christian holds a dual loyalty, to Christ on the one hand and to the traditional religions on the other. To address this, we proposed in chapter two the need for a mission that is God-centered ...
6. Conclusion
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pp. 107-108
Christianity is widely followed in Africa yet African Christianity is generally ‘superficial’ and suffers from serious disconnects at various levels. Given that the phenomenal numerical growth has failed to translate into maturity of faith and theological strength, there is then the need to seriously revisit ...
Bibliography
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pp. 109-114
Index of Personal Names
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pp. 115-118
Back cover
E-ISBN-13: 9789966040152
Print-ISBN-13: 9789966150691
Page Count: 132
Publication Year: 2012
