Changing the Church by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030534257
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

African Theology

In November 2019, the prestigious Ratzinger Prize was awarded to Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor and to the African biblical scholar Paul Béré. In his speech of thanks, Béré underlined the prophetic value of the prize for African biblical studies (ABS). On the occasion of the prize, Pope Francis pointed out that contemporary African theology is still young but dynamic and full of promise.7 The importance of the African interpretation of the biblical tradition is twofold: on the one hand, it consists in fully realizing African culture, in continuity and in dialogue with its oral traditions. On the other hand, it urges the Church to remain alive by trying to answer the urgent questions of our time. The dialogue and the inclusion of ABS and African theology are among the challenges of the contemporary Church, but also the source for her changing.

The African Continent is composed of 54 countries, characterized by a strong spirituality and by a variety of religions: several Christian denominations, Islam, animist religions, and traditional religions live together, which makes it difficult to map their memberships. However, this does allow us to focus on the spiritual vivacity of the African continent. Alongside this fact, we must take into account the social, political and economic challenges, to which European Christianity has no way of responding. Against this horizon, the contribution of ABS is indispensable in order to make the Bible able to speak in that specific cultural context. This means that

ABS can be characterized both as innovative and reactionary: Innovative, because it refuses to be confined by the methodologies, ancient concerns, and principles that govern biblical studies in the “west”. […] Reactionary, because its driving force is partly a critique of the inadequacy of western biblical studies in providing meaningful responses to concerns that are pertinent to African communities. A genuine ABS is therefore an amalgamation of multiple interpretive methods, approaches and foci that reflect a creative engagement of the Africa cosmological reality and the Bible.8

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