Chapter 15 - The African Religious Context

Summary

Missions in Africa

Before we turn our attention to current African images of Jesus, we will first sketch briefly an outline of the position of Christianity in Africa, after which we will look briefly at the discussion on the characteristics of African theology and then give a short outline of how the supreme God is worshipped in Africa. We will conclude the first part of this section with a description of what is now called the “new African theology.” In this theology reflection on the cross and the suffering of Jesus in relation to the cross and the suffering of the African people forms, as it were, a bridge across the gap – previously thought to be unbridgeable – between African inculturation theology and liberation theology.

We will examine the content of the African tribal religions more closely than we examined the tribal religions of Asia. This is because in Africa the old tribal religions have been pushed to the background by less regionally bound religions to a much lesser degree than in Asia. Because of the emphasis on the variety of African religiosity, it was also difficult to describe its content up until now. This seems to be changing within the so-called “new African theology.” Even without a broad consensus, certain trends are becoming clearer than they previously were, and this is why we will attempt an outline.