African Christianity: The Stranger Within

4. African Christianity: Prospects and New Directions

African Christianity: Prospects and New Directions CHAPTER FOUR African Christianity: Prospects and New Directions Introduction I n 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 and directions and ask if Pentecostalism is the emerging face of ‘African Christianity.’ In this regard,African Christianity is finding and domiciling new ways of Christian expressions and teachings that resonate with the prevailing social realities. Is Christianity Too Heavenly Oriented and Largely Irrelevant For Life Here and Now? There is an old sentiment that Christianity is often too heavenly oriented to the point of being earthly useless. Too much of worldly concern is believed to provide a foothold for the devil. Consequently, Christians often in an effort to flee from the corrupting world, “lose interest in their earthly tasks, since preoccupation with the absolute has left no place for the ephemeral, the contingent, and the temporal.”1 _______________________________________ 1 Gustavo Gutierrez, “Toward a Theology of Liberation” (July 1968), translated byAlfred T Hennelly, (ed). Liberation Theology: A Documented History (NY: Orbis, 1990), 66. African Christianity: The Stranger Within This is also the Marxist critique of Christianity: that Christians, with their ambivalent, almost negative attitude to the world, there is something contradictory in their general orientation and attitude. The perceived contradiction seemingly arises when, “often Christians, with their gaze fixed on the world beyond, manifest little or no commitment to the ordinary life of human beings.”2 Christianity cannot really be said to be inherently ‘other worldly.’ Such sentiment can perhaps only reflect a deficiency or shortcomings of sorts in practice.Admittedly, a situation of disinterest in these worldly affairs among the religious often can result, due to the lack of a holistic religious approach in executing the mission of the church. Such approach unfortunately ends up compartmentalising human needs into spiritual and physical boxes, or sacred and secular pursuits where one is emphasised in serious neglect of the other. The naturalistic worldview so nurtured by the Enlightenment, with the supernatural largely disregarded has not helped matters either. One of the legacies of the Enlightenment is that it sowed seeds of great confidence in human progress. The Enlightenment culture nurtured the belief that there was no limit to what humanity could achieve in literature, art, architecture, science and technology. As the belief in infinite human potential took to the centre stage of human thought and life, religion increasingly became marginalized, thus making God largely irrelevant or a matter of private affair to be held separate from public life. With the Enlightenment, as Colin Brown succinctly describes, “what has happened is that man has become more rational. He has thrown off outmoded beliefs. He has rejected, if not God, then at least the ritual and paraphernalia of the churches. It is all part and parcel of man coming of age and living a life of his own.”3 The basic contention is of religion’s perceived irrelevancy, its impotence in contributing to human progress, and its failure to affirm positive _______________________________________ 2 Ibid, 6. 3 Philosophy and the Christian Faith (Leicester: IVP, 1968), 39. 74 African Christianity: Prospects and New Directions human values in the context of these worldly realities. This was, for example, exactly the misgivings that communism had against Christianity. Engels, one of the communists’leading lights; compares Christianity and socialism in the following words: Christianity and socialism proclaim the proximate liberation of humanity from slavery; but Christianity proclaims it in the next life, not here on earth. This is the difference. We are both agreed that humanity has to be liberated; however, for Christians it is later on, while for us it is now.4 The critics of religious traditions generally endorse Engels’ thesis. It is argued that religion will die a natural death when humanity finally rejects it for what it sees as religion’s apparent irrelevance. The critics are convinced that, “many benefits once looked for, especially from heavenly powers, man has now enterprisingly procured for himself.”5 The evidence we have, however, does not support these claims. Most world religions today are not only alive and well, but are also growing vibrantly. It is indeed ironical that communism or Marxism, a one time leading critic with regard to future of religious traditions...