American Baptist HISTORICAL SOCIETY Bringing o ar leg a cy to light The Trinity and African (Christian) Identity the A frican m ust not be reduced to a single identity but should be allowed to participate creatively in the plurality o fh is ٨ ٠ ٠I/ISÏ/IS* ‫ﻢ‬ ‫ﻣ‬ ‫ا‬ \ ‫ ا‬/ ‫ﻢا‬ ‫ﻤ‬ ‫ﻤ‬ ‫ﺎ‬ ‫ا‬ ‫ﻟ‬ ‫ﻣ‬ ‫و‬ ‫و‬ or her context. D a v id T o n g h o u N g o n g The issue o f Afriean identity is one that has not only interested African Christian theologians but also Africans from all walks o f life (politics, philosophy, the arts, and others) who have endeavored to grapplewhla Africa’s encounter with non-African cultures and religions. This encounter and the circumstances under which it happened is said to have decentered the African, giving her a split consciousness and making it difficult to delineate a coherent and authentic African identity. !■'!٠١١١١ a Christian perspective the issue can be '‫י‬ using Desm ond Tutu’s classic statement that “the African Christian has suffered from a form o f religious schizophrenia,”' as a result o f the meeting between Christianity and African Tratliticmal Religions. For Kwame Bediako, however, religious pluralism is the experience o f the African theologian and “Christian identity is the issue .”‫أل‬From the perspective o f art, W ilkinson’s <)l)sc) vation that when Africans make use o f Western elem ents and m odern technology in African art, it is interpreted (in Africa) “as proof o f the slide towards decadence and inauthenticity,”‫؛؛‬ also indicates the struggle with the delineation o f African identity. Thus the understanding o f African identity that will be shown here is not directed only towards African Christians although it is born out o f Christian reflection. It is an understanding o f African identity that can influence the lives o f both African Christians and non-Christians. It is a Christian contribution to tin· understanding o f African identity. This article will attempt to show that the understanding o f the self as com posite in African spirituality can help us explain how God is Trinity and that this com posite self, which is the image o f the Trinity, can help us address the -Wriean identity crisis. I am not aware o f any (‫ ا‬1‫ا־> ا‬ instance where ffie issue o f African identity‫ ־‬has been addressed in the context o f the doctrine o f ffie Trinity in African theology. Am ong ffie earliest African theologians who address ffie doctrine o f the Trinity is 378 Charles Nyamity ‫ ا‬proceeds “ 0 ‫؛‬٨١١١١ - a consideration o f Bantu CO S mology to a projection therefrom to the Trinity” because for him Creation reflects its Creator.”4 Thus for Nyamity, the relational o f“‫؛‬،{ the universe reflects the Trinity although not in terms o f how the -Trinity is in essence but in C od ’s central characteristics, i.e., the char acteristics o f God that are important to hum an beings. Like Nyamity before her, Mercy ٨٢١٦ ‫ ة(ا‬Oduyoye also held a relational view o f the -Trinity: “[w]e find the ?ersons in constant and perfect mutual rela o: 1 sh‫؛‬ t -‫؛‬p and we are rem inded o f the n eed for properly adjusted rela ,tionships in oru human families, institutions, and nations. Recently -Okechukwu Ogbonnaya has also looked at the Trinity from a conunu nal perspective, moving from the African com m unal view o f society to see the Trinity as a com munity o f gods.6 T he above shows that African -theologians have stressed the social doctrine o f the Trinity that em pha -sizes com munity but they have not equally stressed the role o f the indi .vidual in this dynam ic By stressing the relational and com m unal nature o f the Trinity, these wanted to avoid the charge o f Modalism and stave ’ ١١‫؛؛‬ societal and " which they view as detrim ental to ‫الا(إلا‬ structures. They also wanted to stave * ' ' ' ‫(ا‬،، ‫ ا‬،‫ اﺀ؛ الا‬-individual ism and build com munity or help the sm ooth functioning o f social institutions by stressing, am ong other things, that a “person” can only be understood in relations as the divine Trinity demonstrates. 1 do not intend to reject this trinitarian m odel because it is helpful to Africa in act that many African social structures are presently riewfalling‫؛‬ o f the apart. But to me the pressing problem in African theology is not that o f com m unity (although, 1 must insist, this» ١٧ not be n eg lected ), but $، how ،Itc individual African must find her or his identity in the world in view o f the historic encounter between African and non-African >١١١‫־‬ -tures and religions. Cornel West has shown the importance o f em pha sizing the place o f the individual in society by stressing what he calls the -norm oMndividuality.’’^Thus, this aticle relates the Trinity to the indi “ vidual who is in a com m unity and not to the com m unity as such. It is -in this light that on e can ask who the African (Christian) is in a partie ular context? How is،١١ ?African ،' (Christian) to behave My proposal is that the understanding o f God as Trinity can help us address this identity crisis if this trinitarian life o f God is related to the com posite self o f the person as understood in African spirituality. If p eo p le are created in the im age o f God then they m ust be the im age -o f the triune G od.8 T he view o f God as triune is a short hand for say ing that the divine self is a com p lex (com p osite) reality^ And if God 379 is a com plex reality, it follows that foe hum an b ein g (n ot only the com m unity10) created in the im age o f God bears som e o f that com plexity. African identity, in its p resent socio-religious context, m ust be constructed with fois com plexity in m ind. A person is thus a com p lex psycho-social reality. This com plexity suggests that the African m ust n ot be reduced to a single identity but should be allowed to participate creatively in the plurality o f his or her context. I will first discuss foe history o f African identity crisis and show how Africans have tried to deal wifo it. I will then show how contem porary trinitarian theology has stressed foe “social” rather than “individual” nature o f the Trinity adding that foe view o f “p erson ” in African spirituality as com posite can h elp explain foe trinity and address foe crisis o f African identity. TRACING THE TRAII^‘ Maluleke (following foe influence o f Kwame Bediako) suggests that the quest for African Christian identity in our time must be seen as analogous to foe quest for Christian identity by second century apologists such as Tatian, ^ r tu llia n , Justin and C lem ent o f Alexandria. But it seem s to m e that drawing from the second-century apologists may be helpful in a context where Christian identity is at stake but in today’s Africa, what is at stake is n ot only Christian identity but foe identity o f a w hole p eop le in a world in which they are despised in may ways. This article, as I said above, does not discuss only African Christian identity, but foe identity o f the African from a Christian perspective. I will begin with the African American and African contexts, seeing foe earliest m anifestations o f foe search for African identity in our time in foe pan-Africanism o f foe m id-nineteenth century, in the négritude m ovem ent o f foe early twentieth century, and in foe philosophies o f African personality.^ Drawing from Appiah Anthony, the Ghanaian p hilosopher in ?rinceton University, Maluleke shows that p eople like Alexander Crummel, Edward Blyden, and W.E.B Du Bois, spearheaded the panAfricanist m ovem ent both in Africa and foe U nited States. All o f them were ^ ic a n -A m er ic a n s who, driven by the experience that Africans had in America, tethered their identity ٤٠ Africa as ‘m otherland’ and adopted African countries as foe anchor o f their identity.*‫ ؟؛‬They saw their identity as closely tied to their race, foe ‘n egro’ race. Africans such as Aimé Césaire (from Martinique in foe West Indies) and L éopold Sedar Senghor (from Senegal) started foe négritude m ovem ent in the 1930s. They asserted foe pride o f being African in 380 face o f the humiliation, which they encountered while they were students in France. This m ovem ent influenced both politics and literature in Africa. Although John Mbiti has roundly rejected it as foreign and out o f touch with local people and Jean-Marc Ela taunted it as a Western search for the pristine Africa,^ its importance for foe quest o f African identity must not be overlooked. O ne cannot fail to find foe influence o f this m ovem ent especially in the works o f the esteem ed African poet and philosopher, Okot p ’Bitek from Uganda, who suffered foe same fate like Césaire and Senghor, when he went to study in England in 1958. In his work. Song ofLaxvino and Song ofOcol, he shows his disdain for those Africans who have been ‘corrupted’ by foe ways o f the West. H e writes: “Like beggars/ ¥ou take up white m en ’s adornm ents,/ Like slaves or war captives/ You take up white m en ’s ways./ D idn’t the Acoli have adornm ents?/ D idn’t black people have their ways?”^ The négritude m ovem ent sought to instill pride in foe African way o f life. Fhilosophies o f African personality developed during twentieth-century colonial Christianity and sought to understand foe African, specifically as related to foe encounter between Christianity and African Traditional Religions. Som e o f the earliest works that probed this issue were written by Flacide Tempels, a Belgian priest in foe Congo, (La PhilosophieBantoue, 1945), and Griaule (D ieuD ’eau: Entretiens avec Ogotemmeli, 1966). In his Philosophie Bantoue (Bantu Philosophy), Tempels “noted foe agony and ‘identity crisis’ o f African converts,” when he wrote: ‘^ h e Bantu, only converted or civilized superficially, return at the instance o f a determ ining force to the behavior atavistically dictated to them .”^ Colonial missionaries thought that they could define foe African by a single trait and when it was discovered that the African did not fit that mold, outbursts like Tempels’ was foe result. With descriptions like foe above, it would not be long before African Christians wrest foe initiative to speak for themselves. Wifo foe publication o f Des Pretres Noirs s'interrogent in 1956 by French speaking African priests in Paris, Africans would start defining their identity in the colonial context, lead‫־‬ ing up to foe post-colonial era. The above show that foe African identity crisis developed in a context o f foe encounter between African and nonAfrican religions and cultures, especially Christianity as incarnated by foe West and the so-called “m odernism .” ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGE Many reactions have resulted from this encounter. O ne o f them is to see Christianity and “m odernity” as synonymous thus rejecting both o f them as incom patible with being African. O n e’s African identity will 381 not be intact if on e were a Christian. The intention here is to root the hfe o f the African in that which is pristinely African without m eddling in what is seen to be Western. This is the position o f Okot p ’Bitek who lost his Christian faith in England because he saw that African p eople were disrespected. But this m ethod o f defining African identity by polarizing the African against the ©ther does not only breed estrangem ent but also locks the African in a tight corner. The second position, represented by John Mbiti, has been to see Christianity as the answer to the African identity crisis, indicating that o n e ’s identity must be found in Christ. M usopole, a systematic theologian from Malawi who has written a book on Mbiti, says that a “succinct description that can unify Mbiti’s thotight on African humanity is: Jesus Christ, the authentic munthu (person) in and above African culture is the ultimate identity for African p eop les.”^ But fois view is very christocentric thus failing to take into consideration the idea that foe hum an being is created in foe image o f foe Trinity. And as 1 will show, this image does not only entail relations (social) but has implications for the inforidual lifo. Even more, it seems naïve to claim that all Christians or p eople find or should find their identity in Christ because neither the Church nor foe world works in this way. It is a truism to say that gender, class, and other differences exist in foe Church and they are not likely to go away anytime soon, ©ther perspectives are n eed ed to deal with these differences and ensure foe flourishing o f foe individual. However, it must be pointed out that most African theologians work with foe paradigm o f Jesus as foe authentic hum an being (without stressing the trinitarian dim ension o f Christ as the authentic hum an being) and the one in whom African (Christian) identity must be grounded. African wom en theologians, who are very concerned about defining the identity o f the African woman using Christian theology, still hardly move beyond Jesus Christ as the liberator o f w om en .‫ى‬ This does not sufficiently take our Trinitarian faith into consideration. In foe last decade, the issue o f African identity has received renewed attention with som e even claim ing that this is a “crisis” only for African theologians but not for the ordinary African, Christian or nonChristian .‫ وا‬But even if the issue o f a psychologically split ^ rso n a lity is an “ailm ent” o f the elite African professional theologian as Kwenda suggests, it would still be worthy o f attention. But it is n ot lim ited only to foe African theologian but seem s to speak to the very core o f who is, and what it m eans to be, an African in a pluralistic context. Is foe African defined by a single trait, or by many? Is the African to subscribe to on e particular point o f view in exclusion o f all others for fear o f having a psychological ‫؟‬plit personality or is there a way to hold diverse views in tension? Is it unnecessary to try to resolve this identity crisis as Kwenda^ and Maluleke^ suggest? These theologians acknowledge the com plexity inherent in defining African identity and suggest that it may not be necessary to resolve the “identity crisis” because it is part o f our heritage and the heritage o f all peoples in the world. But these suggestions are still inadequate because they may stifle research in this area. Anthony Appiah clarifies the issue: If there is a lesson in the broad shape o f the circulation o f cultures, it is that we are all already ‘ by each other, that there is no longer a fully autochthonous ¿,¿;/¿¿-African culture awaiting salvage... the postulation o f a uifltary Africa over against a m onolithic W e s t-th e binarism o f Self and O ther— is the last o f the shibboleths o f the modernizers that we must learn to live without.22 If there is no unitary Africa then there is no on e way o f being an African. An African finds her identity not in a fixed changeless category but in interaction with the many ways o f being African. The African Christian and the non-Christian can cross the boundary and participate creatively in that which has hitherto been conceived as the other without losing their identity because that in which they ^ rticip a te has com e to be their identity. In the next section, I will show that the triune God as a self has crossed this “c r o sc u ltu r a l” and “c r o s p e r so n a l” boundary by participating in that which is foreign to God without losing the divine identity so that we too, made in the image o f the triune God, can ^ r ticip a te creatively in that which is other, without losing our identity ‫ آص‬as crossing foe boundaries has redefined foe triune God so too does our creative crossing the cultural and religious boundaries redefine us as fodividuals. Trobably this is what Maluleke means when he says that “identity is a series o f moving targets. ”^٠ ٩ IMAGING THE TRINIT¥: CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES IN AFRICAN PERSONALITY Trinitarian theology after Barth has posited foe divine Trinity as comm union in which we are drawn to participate and from which we can learn how to image foe reign o f God even as we wait for the new ereation when God will be all in all. Thus for theologians like Zizioulas it would be unfoinkable to speak o f the “on e G od” before speaking o f the God who is “com m u nion .” H e maintains that foe substance o f God has no ontological content, no true being, apart from com m union .2‫ ه‬H e makes it clear that there is no being without com m union; that nothing exists as an “in d ivid u al” coneeivable ‫ ط‬itself, but eautions that the indi‫־‬ vidual must not be crushed by com m union. Unlike Zizioulas who sees com m union as an ontological reality, M oltmann discusses the movem ent o f the triune God in salvation history establishing their unity in their fellowship or mutual p e r i c h o r e s i s . ‘^ For Fiddes the triune God is not only in relationship or fellowship but is the relationship and we are drawn into this relationship for participation. This is the only way we interaet with the triune God, with each other, and creation. Thus, we do not only imitate the life o f God but we participate in it.26 These are all helpfol but the social approach to the doctrine o f the Trinity cannot adequately deal with the issue o f African (Christian) identity. Unlike Zizioulas, I posit that it is possible to talk o f the “one G od” and that the substance o f God can be said to have an individual ontological content. That is why 1 am using the life o f the triune God as a m odel for the individual life since the individual is made in the image o f G od.^ This means that it is possible to think o f the triune God as an individual, as a self, although not in the Augustinian sense o f using hum an psychology in describing the trinitarian relations. Augustine, who reluctantly used the traditional designation o f the Trinity as persons, used the analogy o f “the inner m an” (the mind, its knowledge o f itself and its love for itself) to describe the God who is triune and yet on e substance.2^ But for us the triune God is not a person in the sense o f single entity but in the sense o f the com posite nature o f the person as is understood in African spirituality T he African personality, as Zahan notes, is not a single, indissoluble entity but en)oys a certain plasticity “the hum an being does not possess the unity which we attribute to him [sic]; the individual is not felt to be an undivided w h ole .”2‫و‬Zahan continues: African psychology attributes to the self a broader and richer content than our classic treatises on the study o f the soul. To define the self we separate it from the other, whereas in Africa the opposite is the rule; no where is the African psyche ever lim ited to “that which is not the other and does not com e from him [5¿r].” On the contrary, the African carries within him self [sic], psychologically and psychically, his [sic] own genitors and their respective amendants. His [sic] self is thus more “social” than “individual.”^° ft is unfortunate that Tylor calls this the “scattered s e lf’ but he helpfully points out that “the different ‘relatednesses’... are pictured as separate entities rather loosely held together, each having a different source and a different function.”٩* H e calls this division o f the self “souls” (but these divisions are personalized), and o f the variety o f souls his research unearthed, the following tripartite division can he seen: foe “life-soul.” the “individual-soul” and foe “transcendental-soul.” About this tripartite division o f foe soul Zuesse shows that foe life-soul pulses in foe blood and is often derived from foe m other and her ancestor while foe individual-soul is often linked with patrilineal ancestors and governs the character. But the first two souls are fused to each other and to foe body by the transcendental-soul which com es from G od.”^ This is how foe individual is connected to the self, foe community (and foe rest o f creation), and to God. Where these relations are severed foe person falls into disharmony. This tripartite division can be said to faintly mirror foe Trinity in that foe life-soul which generates life can be said to be foe Father who, in foe thought o f early Christian theologians, is the Source or in foe language o f Moltmann, foe one who sends. This analogy may break down in that the provenance o f foe life-soul is foe m other and her ancestors but the Father has no provenance. But this concern may be countered with foe fact that we are using finite analogies to talk about foe divine who is infinite and our analogies do not exactly represent the divine but hopefully approximates her. Coming back to our analogies, the individual-soul is foe Word or foe Son and foe two souls are linked together by foe transcendental-soul, who is foe Holy Spirit, known in Augustinian language as the bond o f love. The tripartite division in foe life o f a person is seen clearly in foe life o f the Son who becam e hum an and held these souls in harmony and thus led an ideal life and is seen by Christians as foe ideal human being. Through foe life-soul foe Son is connected to the Father and does what the Father sent him to do, i.e., work for foe salvation o f the despised o f the earth. Through the individual-soul, which marks foe character o f foe Son, he is able to stand his ground against foe various temptations that m ight have taken him away from fois harm onious life. Through foe transcendental-soul, which is foe Holy Spirit, the Son is enabled to live the harm onious life thus procuring foe salvation o f the despised o f the earth and upon his resurrection, is reunited with foe Father. These three souls make foe one person or self ]ust as foe three persons in the Trinity make up foe divine self, especially as seen in Jesus Christ. Just as the three souls are different but yet make up foe human self, so too are foe three persons who make up the divine life different but yet are one. Thus the person, as the triune God, has a composite self that is not made up o f ]ust one self (soul) but o f many. It is this com posite, differentiated self that foe trinity en]oys, although in more creative ways and in ways that are different from ours. After discussing som e o f the images used for the spirit in the Old ^ sta m e n t, Fiddes concludes that what one learns from them is that the Old ^ s ta m e n t does have an ‘extended ^ r so n a lity ’ o f God, so that God is present as through such ^ r so ^ fic a tio n s as divine word, name, wisdom, and spirit, and that God is thus experienced as “com plex and not sim ple .”‫وو‬In my view, it is this extended personality o f God in the Old Testament that came to be articulated in the New Testament as the divine Trinity. This idea o f com plexity in God is related to the complexity or com posite nature o f the triune God, which I have suggested. Each manifestation o f God is com posite in that what seems to be one in appearance is actually m ore th an ]u st one as the understanding o f the person in African spfrituality shows. Thus, the Son who is seen as one person o f the divine Trinity is m ore than ]ust one because the Trinity participates in his life. In Jesus Christ (the Son) the triune God is revealed as this com posite or social self. O f the Son Paul said: “in him the fullness o f God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:19). If the fullness o f God dwelled in Jesus Christ, then it was the holiness o f the triune God that dwelled in him. Jesus Christ, who is our ideal m unthu, shows us that it is possible for foe individual self to be the image o f the trinity because he was indwelled by the Father (foe lifo-soul) and the Spirit (foe tramcendental-soul) and thus was not simply the image o f foe Trinity but actually showed us foe Trinity. This does not mean that Jesus Christ is foe Trinity but that the Father who sent him was with him and has always been with him in the power (fusion) o f the Spirit. In foe lifo, death and reu rrection o f Jesus Christ, foe Trinity was at work. Thus the Trinity is located, although not xhaustively, in the one person (foe Son Jesus Christ) because he has a com posite or social personality. In creation foe hfosoul o f the triune God is known as Father; redem ption is wrought by foe individual-soul o f the triune God known as foe Son, and the renewal, sustenance, and eschatological c o n f r m a t i o n o f creation, is wrought by foe Holy Spirit or foe transcendental-soul o f foe triune God. The three souls that make up the self are different in that they bring different experiences to foe self but they are one in that they make up foe self. The individual-soul for exam ple, som etim es leaves foe body and wanders in dreams and in foe spirit world. Thus it takes foe person to strange and dangerous places. In foe same way, the different persons o f the triune divine self bring different experiences in foe life o f God. Through the Son (foe in d irid a l-so u l), for exam ple, the triune God has participated in that which is not part o f foe divine life— the human. Through foe Son, God becom es vulnerable to 386 human machinations just as through the individual-soul the hum an self becom es vulnerable to spiritual m achinations. (The individual-soul may he hijacked thus leading to the death o f the person). But the indi1(‫; ااا)ن ؟‬،‫ اا>ﺑﻤﺎ‬bridges the gap between [١١(■ spiritual and the physical world. In the same way, through these m ovem ents ( ‫اﺀ()ن‬builds bridges by taking that which is by nature not the self o f God, such as the hum an self, into the divine self. That is how each individual participates in the life o f God (because G od’s self,tin ou gl) the individual-soul or the Son, has taken us into the life o f G od). That is how each individual learns to mirror the im age o f the divine self whose image she is. How does fee African Christian image fee life o f this triune self o f God and how does this address the African identity crisis? Because fee self is com posite in African spirituality and thus participates in different levels o f reality, fee African is liberated to participate in creative and redemptive ways som etim es using that which is regarded as fee Other to ensure fee flourishing o f their social environm ent. This social environm ent is one that is made up o f what is defined as traditionally African and that which is not. T he intention here is to harness that which encourages fee flourishing o f life in our world and enhances our relationship wife God. When the African self takes that which is not traditionalty regarded as part o f the self into the self, she will not see it as a crisis o f identity but as participating in fee life o f God and creation in a m anner consistent with fee human self as image o f the triune God. This has im plications for fee social, religious, political, and econom ic spheres in Afeica. CONCLUSION The identity crisis o f fee African (Christian) can be addressed by understanding the human self as image o f fee self o f fee triune God. This study o f the history o f the issue o f African identity crisis shows that it can be traced to Africa’s encounter with non-African religions and cultures such as Christianity and “m odernism .” The com posite nature o f fee African self mirrors, although very dimty, fee self o f the triune God. Just as fee African self is com posite, so too is the triune self o f God. Since the triune self o f God does not suffer hom multiple personalities disorder or loss o f identity by taking in that which ‫؛‬loes not belong to the divine self, so too the African (Christian) can go out o f herself in her socio-religious and cultural context, and creatively take in even that which is not traditionally African without losing her identity. 387 NOTES 1. Desmond Tutu, “Whither African Theology?,” in E. w. Fashole-Luke et al., eds., Christianity in Independent Africa (London: Rex Colling, 1978), 366. It would appear that Desmond Tutu uses “schizophrenia” here as a synonym for multiple personalities disorder and not as a disorder “marked by illusions and delusions” as one o f my colleagues pointed out. Schizophrenia is, in fact, not synonymous with multiple personalities disorder but 1 assume that what Tutu had in mind was the latter and not the former. It would appear that his contention was that the religious situation in Africa made Africans to suffer from multipie personalities disorder. 2. Kwame Bediako, Christianity ril· Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 1996), 267. 3. Jennifer R. Wilkinson, “Using and Abusing African Art”, in p. H. Coetzee and A. p. }. Roux, eds., TheAfrican Philosophy Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), 389. 4. MikaVakakangas, In Search of Fecundationsfor African Catholidsm: CharksNyamity’s Theological Methodology (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 268. 5. Mercy Oduyoye, Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1986), 140. 6. A. Okechukwu Ogbonnova, On Communitarian Divinity: An African Interpretation of the Trinity (New York: Paragon House, 1994). Ogbonnoya’s work take^ seriously the African religious perspective of many gods but sees this not as polytheism but as what he calls communotheism,. He arrives at the Trinity through the African, Tertullian, whom he contends, was influenced by the ancient Egyptian triadic view of divine plenitude and the Christian revelation. 7. Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1982), 17. West contrasts the “norm o f individuality” with “doctrinaire in^vidualism”, seeing the former as reinforcing the importance o f community, common good, and harmonious development o f personality while the latter promotes human selfishness, denigrate the idea of community, and distort the holistic development of personality The stress on the individual or the self in this paper is related to West’s norm o f individuality. 8. Eor me the fact that humanity is created in the image o f God means that human heings have the capacity to act like God. The idea o f original sin is not what diminishes this capacity because 1 see original sin not as something that happened in the past but a characteristic o f an incomplete creation. Creation, together with human heings, is incomplete. As people move towards complete creation, the tendency to miss the mark (sin) is inevitable. That is what original sin is: it is inherent in an incomplete and evolving creation; it does not mean that it is something that happened in the past. 80 the image o f God in human beings is vibrant but faltering. Also, the image o f God is not only found in community as many theologians have suggested and it is especially not found in the relation o f woman and man. Locating the image o f God only in a community or only in the relation between woman and man gives the impression that the individual is not, or is less than, the image o f God. Each individual is the image o f the triune God. Relationships and community help us epjoy life better but do not add to what makes each o f us the image o f God. 9. ?aul Fiddes, Partidpating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine the Trinity (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 269. Eiddes looks at the complexity o f God in the Old Testament before talking o f God’s triunity in the New Testament, implying that the complexity o f God (‘God’s extended personality’) as experienced in the Old Testament can contribute to our understanding of the Trinity. 10. fr would be a caricature to say that some trinitarian theologians see God only as comm union and neglects the individual aspect, but is seems fair to say that they value communion more than the individual. This is the case with Moltmann and Zizioulas as we shall see below. However, Mark s. Medley, using the feminist approach to the Trinity, stresses both “particularity and com m union” since feminist trinitarian theologians stress that individuals retain their in(hviduality even in communion. See Medley’s Imago Trinitatis: Towards a Relational Understanding of Becoming Human (New York: University Press o f America, 2002), 175. Miroriav Yolf also maintains the tension b e ^ e e n “unity and multiplicity” in the triune God since God is unum multiplex se ipso as John Scotus Erigena pointed out. See V olfs After Our Likeness: The church as the Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 193. 11. In tracing the historical development of the quest for African (Christian) identity 1 draw largely from an article written by Prof. Tinyiko Sam Maluleke, professor o f African Theology in the University o f South ^ rica . The title o f the article is “Identity and Integrity in African Theology: A Critical Analysis,” Religion and Theology 8, no. 1 (2001): 27-41. This volume was dedicated to the discussion o f the issue o f religion and identity in Africa but no one looked at it from a trinitarian perspective and no one 1 have read has done so. 12. Ibid., 31. 13. Crtimmel (an Episcopalian priest) and Blyden (also a priest) adopted Eiberia while Du Bois adopted Ghana. 14. Maluleke, “Identity and Integrity”, 39. 15. Okot p ’B ite k , SongofLawino and SongofOcol (New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books, 1966), 49. 16. In Maluleke, Identity and Integrity, 28. 17. Augustine c. Musopole, BeingHuman in Africa: Towards ‫ س‬African Christian Anthropology (New York: Peter Lang, 1994), 11. This is also Musopole’s position. 18. Mercy Amba Oduyoye and Musimbi Kanyoro, eds.. The Will ،٠ Arise: Women, Tradition, and the Church in Africa (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1992). In this work by African women theologians, the theology o f the Trinity is not even discussed. 19. Chirevo, V. Kwenda, “Does Africa Need Theology in the T w e n ty -F ir st Century?,” in Theology in Dialogue: The Impact of the Arts, Humanities, and Science on Contemporary Religious Thought, ed. Lyn Holness and Ralf K Wustemberg (Grand Rapids, Michigan/Claremont, South Africa: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company/David Philip Publishers, 2002), 167. 20. Ibid., 168. 21. Maluleke, Identity and Integrity, 39. 22. Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy ٠/ Culture (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 155. 23. Maluleke, Identity and Integrity, 39. 24. John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Pres^, 1997), 17. 25.Jurgen Motlmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, trans., Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 95. Moltmann writes, “The unity o f the divine tri-unity lies in foe union of the Eather, foe Son, and the Spirit, not in their numerical identity.” 26. Paul Fiddes, Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine ٠/ the Trinity (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminister John Knox Press, 2000), 50. 27. In Being as Communion, 17, John Zizioulas points out that a human being is foe image of God only when one becomes a member o f foe Church. 1 do not take fois riew since for me human beings are created in the image of God (Gn. 1:28) and do not acquire it by virtue o f their being members o f the Church. So, human beings are image o f the triune God from a Christian perspective whether they are members o f the Church or not. African creation myths see human beings as children o f God by virtue o f the fact that they are created by God. Seeing human beings as children o f God is another way o f saying that they are foe image o f God (Musopole, 177). 28. j. N. D. Kelty, Early Christian Doctrines (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1958), 277-278■ 29. Dominique Zahan, T/¿¿‫ ׳‬Religion, spirituality, and Thought of Traditional Africa, trans. Kate 38‫و‬ Ezra Martin and Lawrence M. Martin (Chicagn and London: The University o f Chicago ?ress, 8(,‫و‬ 7‫و‬ .1 31. John V. Taylor, The Pmnal Vision (London: SCM Press, 1963), 59. 32. E. M. Zeusse, “African Traditional Religion,” in The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions, Abingdon, 19^1. 33. Paul Fiddes, Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 259. 390 ‫آلﻣﺂورلم؛‬ Copyright and Use: As an ATLAS user, you may priut, dow nload, or send artieles for individual use according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international eopyright law and as otherwise authorized under your resp ective ATT,AS subscriber agreem ent. No eontent may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the copyright holder(s)’ express written permission. Any use, decompiling, reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a violation of copyright law. This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS eollection with permission from the eopyright holder(s). 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