The Church as Salt and Light ed. by Stan Chu Ilo, Joseph Ogbonnaya, and Alex Ojacor (review)

This book consists of an introduction, a foreword, and six chapters; each chapter was contributed by a different author (five Nigerians and a Ugandan). The title is an echo of the theme of the 2009 Second Synod for Africa, “Salt and Light.”

The introduction sets out the theological background of this book, what the Spirit is saying to the Church in Africa today (xiv). The aim of the authors is to initiate an African ecclesiology that will offer new pathways to the realization of the ideals of the Kingdom in Africa. Driven by evangelical passion and pastoral concern, they are convinced that the Church in Africa has not had the anticipated positive impact, as evidenced by the deplorable state of the African continent. The authors take a descriptive and biblical approach to their analysis.

The thesis of chapter 1, “Beginning Afresh with Christ in the Search for Abundant Life in Africa,” by Stan Chu Ilo, is that the new African ecclesiology must be fundamentally Christological. To be an authentic realization of the ideals of the Kingdom, the Church must be the visible face of Christ in Africa, just as Christ, through his humanity, was the true face and presence of God in the world. Like Christ who fed the hungry, the Church must respond to the hunger of Africans for food, education, freedom, and justice. Like Christ the Good Shepherd, the Church must care for the weak, the poor, the wounded, and the marginalized. Like Christ the healer, the Church must be the manifestation of God’s salvific power, overcoming diseases and demonic forces in African societies. The Church is the presence of Christ in the world when it exercises its ministry, not as a hierarchy of power and privilege but as service. The chapter also delineates the characteristics of the Christology that should nourish the new African ecclesiology. It must be biblical and unambiguous in its profession of the divinity of Christ. While sometimes the author sounds preachy, this chapter very helpfully emphasizes the fundamental link between ecclesiology and Christology—a connection that is often neglected in African ecclesiology.

The second chapter, “The Church in Africa and the Search for Integral and Sustainable Development of Africa: Toward a Socio-Economic and Politically Responsive Church,” by Emeka Obiezu, takes up the socio-economic and political dimensions of the new ecclesiology. The Church in Africa, following the example of Jesus who confronted injustice, should be an agent of compassion and justice in Africa, “a bleeding continent” that “wears poverty like a breast plate.” (38–39). Obiezu observes that the Catholic Church has contributed, from the days of the missionaries, to the development of Africa by building shelters for the homeless and establishing academic and medical institutions. But he echoes the cry of many in the continent, that charity alone is not enough (40–41). Christian compassion should go beyond mere acts of charity that provide temporal relief for the poor, to include uprooting the structural causes of their suffering. Obiezu gives a detailed analysis of why many developmental models or strategies to rescue Africa failed. He is of the view that only an integral developmental model that encompasses the healing of tribal and religious divisions can bring lasting development in Africa. While I think it is debatable whether the Church in Africa can help in creating a “classless society,” devoid of divisions advocated by the author (54), his argument that socio-economic and political progress in Africa can be achieved only when the divisions plaguing African societies are eliminated, remains pivotal.

Chapter 3, “The Church in Africa: Salt of the Earth?,” by Joseph Ogbonnaya, questions whether the Church in Africa can be said to be truly the salt of the earth in the face of the grim realities in African societies. The author contends that despite the significant growth of the Church in...