African theology

This article tries to understand the prosperity gospel in a way that enables us to distinguish what is valuable and what is not in this phenomenon. The article starts by recognizing the puzzling aspects of the prosperity gospel. Someone might be tempted to dismiss it straightaway as simply unchristian and foolish. Looking at the people who are attracted to the prosperity gospel, however, helps in recognizing the prosperity gospel instead as a genuine protest against certain tendencies in the mainline churches. The article suggests that the prosperity gospel might be a celebration of the dignity in pure, spontaneous religious impulses and the dignity in enjoying or wishing to enjoy the good things in life This leaves us with the question of how we can distinguish between a genuine form of the prosperity gospel and forms that are simply is unchristian and foolish. To find answers to these questions the prosperity teaching's interpretation of Abraham is compared to Sören Kierkegaard's reading of Abraham as a knight of faith. This leads to a kind of litmus test to distinguish a genuine prosperity gospel from theologically unacceptable forms of it. Four criteria are presented: 1. Our faith should show gratitude rather than being a form of manipulation; 2. We should recognise the value of both tradition and resignation; 3. A genuine prosperity gospel would be a personal affair always enacted in fear and trembling; and 4. It should be about God and not about you. When these criteria are met, the prosperity gospel can be a theologically valid way to express dignity, so this article concludes-the dignity in pure, spontaneous religious impulses, and in enjoying or wishing to enjoy the good things in life.

How can one read Mark 5:1-43’s story from the multiple levels of post-colonial, feminist and HIV/AIDS perspectives?  There are, no doubt, many ways of reading any text.  But more importantly each of the above mentioned paradigm is a diverse field of methods and theories.  Mine can only be one small aspect of each of the above paradigms. My exposition will be done through providing a background of a narrative reading of the plot and setting of the story, while the analysis of characters will also come through in this section, it will largely be covered in all other sections.  The narrative reading will therefore be brought to interact with the methodological narratives of postcolonial, feminist and HIV/AIDS frameworks.  Yet the use of the postcolonial here denotes that my reading is both on and through the surface—that is, it also assumes a concrete history of the Roman Empire as well as to read the text as a narrative. The article employs narrative, postcolonial, gender and HIV/AIDS theoretical frameworks to read Mark 5:21-43.

The doctrine of the Trinity is often regarded as the inherent weakness of African Christian theology. This has to be understood in the light of African resistance against the colonising doctrine of the Trinity and thus the need to either affirm the continuity with African notions of the Supreme Being and the God of Israel or to reject Christianity altogether
as the religion of colonisers. Nevertheless, this contribution will retrieve a decolonial impulse in the Trinitarian confession. Even if the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed may be regarded as an imperial compromise, the symbols of Spirit, cross and father are anti-imperial in origin. We argue that apophatic theology may offer a corrective, through
resistance against any tendency to take God for granted.

La parabole est un procédé oral par lequel, le maître, provoque l'auditeur à la réflexion. Il le provoque à trouver en lui-même solution à ses questions. Le maître fait appel à l'étonnement de ses auditeurs par le moyen de comparaisons souvent déroutantes. En Afrique, une parabole est une comparaison pour montrer quelque chose d'invisible que l'orateur ne peut dire directement, mais qu'il peut faire comprendre en racontant une histoire. Une histoire inventée, qui n'est arrivée ni à toi, ni à moi, et qui, pourtant, finira par dire de la vérité pour nous. Cette histoires est imaginée et racontée par un maître de sagesse pour agrémenter et illustrer son enseignement moral. Elle est tirée de la vie quotidienne et est donc directement compréhensible par l'auditoire. Mais l'enseignement moral qu'elle illustre est plus subtil et demande à être deviné. La parabole ponctue ainsi la plupart du temps la parole des anciens ou les sages des tribus. Car, la sagesse se veut comme parole par les paraboles. Elle renferme une valeur, un conseil, donc, un comportement à adopter face à une situation donnée d'où l'importance de les savoir décortiqué. In fine, la visée de la parabole est donc argumentative. Elle propose des personnages et des situations symboliques, représentatifs de la morale que l'auteur veut en dégager. La parabole, outil de transmission du savoir traditionnel Différentes traditions, coutumes, pratiques et cultures puisent souvent la sagesse des paraboles composées de tout un mystère épais qui reste toujours vêtu de la parole. Il faut le vivre, s'en imprégner, car n'étant enseigné que par l'oralité. Autrement dit, la parabole peut être considérée comme la partie de la tradition qui est mise en forme selon un code propre à chaque société et à chaque langue, en référence à un fonds culturel. Elle véhicule aussi bien l'histoire du groupe que ses croyances, ses représentations symboliques, ses modèles culturels ou sa vision du monde naturel.

An internationally recognized scholar highlights the important role the North African church played in the development of Christian thought. This accessible introduction brings Africa back to the center of the study of Christian history by focusing on key figures and events that influenced the history and trajectory of Christianity as a whole. Written and designed for the classroom, the book zeroes in on five turning points to show how North African believers significantly shaped Christian theology, identity, and practice in ways that directly impact the church today.

Insofar as public theology is one of several contextual theologies in the world that is focused on and limited to specific contexts, its raison d'être may be understandable. But we argue that if or since public theology has ambitions to become a totalizing and global theological methodology-a ready-made frame to be adapted to and adopted in various contexts-we shall, in this article, unmask and interrogate the unspoken imperial ambitions of global public theology. We will use Black and African theologies to evaluate it. In this article, we argue that the context in which Black and African theologies are done is too important for them to be buried under generalized and seemingly context-less notions of public theology. To this end, we will sketch a few issues that define the context in which Black and African theologies are being done today. These include doing theology not at the helm but in the shadow of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, doing theology in the midst of violence, and doing theology in a manner that does not minimize the painful history of the continent of Africa. In closing, we will propose a theological agenda for Black and African theologies at this time.

When God completed his creation in Genesis he declared it very good. If this be the case, how come the decay, suffering and pain that we witness in the world today? In truth, the problem of suffering or pain is not new. It is one of the perennial problems that have tasked scholars-theologians and philosophers alike over the years. This article adopts an exegetical approach in tackling this problem and Romans chapters 1 and 8 provide the basis of discussion. In Romans it is found that Paul charts a theological path to understanding the causes and solutions to suffering and pain. The Gospel of Christ is upheld as holding the key that unlocks a holistic understanding of the world's predicament as well as God's eschatological plan to bring the issues to a final resolution.

This article explores how mission, forgiveness, and reconciliation have shaped the ministry and work of Desmond Tutu. As much as space permits, it tries to glean the ways in which Tutu has lived out his understanding of mission, forgiveness, and reconciliation in his various roles as lecturer of theology, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants … following the example of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Church needs to offer its own special gift to this country-the gift of eschatological faith. In common language this is the gift of imagination. .. This is what Archbishop Tutu managed to do for us when, in the midst of the violence of the 1980s and the 1990s, he held out a mirror of a different country, of a better people whom he called "the rainbow people of God." 1 1

Focusing on African Christian theology, this paper builds on the taxonomy of African political theology provided by Emmanuel Katongole whose conception of African political theology locates it within the context of the nation state. The paper however goes beyond Katongole's taxonomy to discuss other forms of political theology that are important in Africa today. It proposes a new form of political theology that goes beyond the nation state to encompass the planet and argues that the different forms of political theology in Africa should not be seen as mutually exclusive but rather as interconnected and mutually enriching.

Au début de la célébration dans le rite zaïrois, le prêtre invite l’assemblée à invoquer les saints et ancêtres au cœur droit. C'est cette invocation qui sera analysée en essayant d'en justifier les fondements théologiques et anthropologiques.

This essay studies the moral values and practical relevance of the South African concept of Ubuntu in the process of rethinking Black African theological ethics and Black African theological anthropology. Toward this goal, we examine the works of three prominent African theologians: LaurentiMagesa, a diocesan priest from Tanzania, John S. Mbiti, an Anglican priest from Kenya, and BénézetBujo, a Catholic priest from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.1 The aim of this comparative analysis is to highlight the importance and implications of Black theological anthropology and ethics to the social and moral life of the individual and the community.

This study also aims at articulating a model that is theologically sound, human- sensitive and enriching, and emancipatory. We shall investigate in their ethico-theological writings the intersection of theism, personhood, community, and Ubuntu as an African humanism. The selected African thinkers give the impression that the African perspective on humanity, the social life, and the moral life is more promising, liberating, and dignifying than the Western vision on these issues. The theological anthropology and ethics of Magesa, Mbiti, and Bujostrongly promote interconnected human relations and interactional social dynamics that are based on the Ubuntu moral ethics.This essay suggests that Black African theological anthropology and theological ethics have a strong foundation on the Ubuntu moral virtues and ethical principles that promotes human flourishing and a life in solidarity within the framework of the community and a symbiotic relationship between God, the community, and the individual.

Keywords: African theological anthropology, African theological ethics, Ubuntu ethics, Black theology, African traditional religion.

Though the Christian faith has in recent years increasingly shown itself to be a truly African religion, a variety of African authors such as Kä Mana, George Kinoti, Hannah Kinoti, August Shutte and Efoé Julien Penoukou have noted that sub-Saharan Africa is facing a moral crisis. This article explores this crisis in as far as it is caused by difficulties in the reception of the (Western) Christian ethic by African Christian communities. It points out that this crisis is visible in (a) double morality, (b) immorality and (c) legalism. It shows that it is both caused by rapid social change in contemporary Africa and by the way the Christian ethic was introduced with a lack of attention for (a) the relationship between worldview and ethics, (b) the social impact of changing cultural practices and (c) the importance of virtue ethics. In this way it also points to the shape Christian moral education for present-day Africa should take.

It is an applied christian exegesis. The conference took care to make a reading of Genesis 22 for a pastoral facing the pagan syncretism in the today african context.
Trata-se de uma conferência feita em contexto pastoral em ordem a uma interpretação que nos ajude a colher a mensagem teológica de então e, ao mesmo tempo, que nos ajude a responder ao hoje. Gn 22 pode, efectivamente ser uma resposta  indispensável a cada vez mais crescente ameaça do sincretismo religioso.

The Notion and Message of the Kingdom of God was deep in the Jewish tradition to which Jesus was born into and in which he grew. Jesus in his earthly ministry took up the preaching of this message and revolutionalized it from what his Jewish tradition and understanding takes it to be. Jesus brought up themes of the message of the Kingdom which resonates among the rejects and nonentities of his society. This essay will seek to explore all these and to show how Jesus changed the understanding of the message of the Kingdom of God. The essay will further situate this message in African theology by placing it in parallel with the African notion of Ubuntu. It will seek to see what Ubuntu do and can contribute to the understanding of the message of the Kingdom of God and how the Gospel message of the Kingdom of God preached by Christ can challenge our African understanding of Ubuntu especially in these modern times in which this ethic has been eroded and its essence beginning to be lost. It will also try to see what African theologians can do to make the Kingdom of God as preached by Christ a reality in Africa.

Qui organise aujourd'hui des funérailles catholiques à Abomey, dans le sud du Bénin? Comment, pourquoi, et dans quelles conditions? Voici quelques-unes des questions auxquelles ce texte s'efforce de répondre, en replaçant ce cas dans la problématique plus générale de l'articulation entre identités religieuses et divisions sociales dans l'Afrique contemporaine.

In the Sukuma language of the Sukuma Ethnic Group  in Western Tanzania there is a proverb: "Mbuli ya kitambo ikachaga yumela."  The English translation is: "The sacrificial goat dies while screaming in anguish."  This proverb can be used to demonstrate what inculturation of the Gospel in Africa is all about.  This and other proverbs and examples of African oral literature (sayings, riddles, stories and songs) are a very powerful way to explain the sometimes complex ideas of theology, catechesis, morality and spirituality in an African context.  This process can be a real African contribution to the World Church.

        This article treats:

I.  The First African Synod's Call for Inculturation
II.  History and Explanation of the Sukuma Proverb
III.  Parallels Between the Sukuma Tradition and the Christian Tradition
IV.  Christian Teaching on the Eucharistic Sacrifice

Scholars have rightly recognized the importance of Paul’s collection for the poor Christians in Jerusalem, and the fact that it is something to which he dedicated much of his time and energy. Paul’s collections amongst the churches he planted partially reveal the economic relationships that existed among them. There is no doubt that “the collection for the saints” formed part of the glue that united various Christian congregations. This paper seeks to reconsider the call for the Church (particularly the African Church) to be self-supporting in light of “the collection for the saints”. Since Paul did not write a treatise on money, we will derive his theology from his instructions to his fledgling churches to assist the poverty-stricken believers of Jerusalem (especially Rom. 15:25-32, 1 Cor. 16:1-4; 2 Cor. 8-9). The Roman Empire’s economic systems will be described to help illuminate the subversive nature of Paul’s practice in light of the region’s dominant culture. It is anticipated that the Pauline approach can liberate the Church of Jesus Christ to use God’s resources wherever they are and wherever they are needed for God’s work. The study proposes that if Christian giving is properly done, it has the capacity to “equalize” our unequal world as resources will move from where they are to where they are most needed. Paul’s approach can free the African church to be as missional as the Pauline newly founded church communities were.

The struggles for environmental and gender justice have challenged how theology is done in Africa. This article framed within the context of continuous search for life-giving African Christianity, argues that a radical relational solidarity that existed between African humanity and environment in some Zambian traditional societies was grounded on ecogender principle. Thus, it seeks to probe deeper into contemporary challenge of African men's alienation from environment as a consequence of colonial quest to restructure African social order. Employing decolonial theological perspective, the article tried to reinterpret some life-giving elements from Bemba and Shila cultural heritage in order to re-conceptualize contemporary African Christian ecotheology. It is from this perspective where African ecogender theology is constructed towards transformation of African human and environment relationship.

In this age and time, scholarship on African indigenous science and medicine is very scanty, if at all in existence. Humanity populates new ideas, thrash old customs, and refine moribund cultures. The quest for new elite culture has profoundly changed belief systems and iconoclastic operations, which were regarded as modus operandi of ancient times. Nowadays, no one fears darkness as there are electricity and other renewable energy forms to provide illumination. The ocean has become our passage for millennia. The firmament and the skies have routinely become our playground. Daily, jet planes, rockets, and drones fly from one end of the world to another.
Some no longer care about ancient ideologies, the cultural praxis of our history, which seem to be buried in the past years of mediocrity.
People now recreate the world in their own ways, wanting, in their limited wisdom and contemplation, innovations and creativity thought to surpass their forebears. People make bulletproof vests, parachutes, life jackets, and other safety devices that will help safeguard lives. One hardly thinks of the legacies of the ancient people, especially in the areas of science and technology. While the Western world, that is, Europe and America, may not be so guilty of this sin of negligence, African nationals are significantly in the habit. Both literate and nonliterate Africans, daily, reject the precious ancient wisdom of the continent and desecrate the once venerated practices that birthed the recorded innovations of the continent while aping western modernism. As a result of the neocolonialist’s distaste for African sensibilities, most importantly, their knowledge of oral literature and cosmic permutation, indigenous knowledge creation has become calcified, jejune, and, in some instances, mortified. It is ironic, though, that while indigenous African knowledge is being mortified at alarming rates, the majority of Africans profess to be either Christians or Muslims who believe in their holy books, the Bible and Quran, respectively. In both the Bible and the Quran, there are over one thousand verses that are prayers for prevention of evil and protection from enemies and that seek benevolence from the elements. These verses are based on the spoken words that are divinely construed. In a similar vein, Yorùbá charms and amulets evoke the same forces to seek protection, ward off evil forces, and seek good fortune from the elements that the universe is composed off: the transcendental powers. Even in their crudest forms, charms and amulets represent two dominant themes that have come to distinguish the Yorùbá people as philosophers, scientists, and technologists. This work brings to the fore the material benefits of charms and amulets to the Yorùbá people on the one hand and, on the other, its constitutiveness both religious practice and science.

African Christians face situations where integrity requires them to find a solution in Christian terms that is by the application of the word about Christ and of Scripture where Western Christianity … has no answers, because it has no parallel experience" (Walls 1996).  Moreover, "a theology, however comprehensive, which had been shaped by the experience of Christendom was not extensive enough or flexible enough to cover the unprecedented situations that arose from the preaching of Christ in the worlds beyond the West" (Walls 2003).

All theology is culturally conditioned-though many Christians in the West, whether of Roman Catholic or various Protestant or Pentecostal traditions, seem reluctant or unable to recognize this fact. In the first and second centuries, as the Christian faith spread throughout the Roman and Persian Empires and into India, "as converts, believers in Jesus were required to turn their processes of thought toward Christ, to think Christ into the intellectual framework of their time and place. The eventual result was Christian theology as we know it" (Walls 2004). While "the second-century question was the possibility of being both Christian and Greek; the twentieth-century question was the possibility of being both Christian and African. We are made by our past; it is our past that creates our identity and shows us who we are. We cannot abandon or suppress our past or substitute something else instead, nor can our past be left as it is, untouched by Christ. Our past, like our present, has to be converted, turned toward Christ. The second-century quest was the conversion, not the suppression or replacement, of Hellenistic culture, and in that case conversion had led to cultural renewal. Today's quest is the conversion of African culture, and perhaps thereby its renewal." (Walls 2008)

This is the task and the role of African Christian theology. The fruit of this work will benefit not only the Church in Africa but World Christianity as a whole. This bibliography lists important texts of Christian Theology from African perspectives. Find materials on African Biblical Scholarship and Hermeneutics, African Christian History, African Women in World Christianity, and Africans and Africa in World Christianity in my companion biographies.

[latest revision:  29 December 2023]

This paper will present some interpretations of Batswana women readers of Matt. 15:21-28. In keeping with the theme of this volume, the aim of presenting their readings is to take seriously the subjectivity and agency of their own interpretations. I shall first give the historical background of these readers and then briefly touch on the methods used to acquire these readings and their framework. Thirdly, I shall present the findings of a questionnaire and the tape-recorded sermons. In conclusion, I shall employ a post-colonial feminist perspective to ask what are the useful models of reading to be drawn from their interpretations.

This article offers an extended review of some recent publications in the field of African theology and HIV and AIDS. Hence it critically examines the progress that is made in the engagement with and the reflection on issues related to the HIV epidemic by African theologians. The article notices the emergence of a new strand of Africa theology, a (liberation) theology of HIV and AIDS, which builds on and employs the classic strands of African liberation, inculturation, reconstruction and women’s theology. Moreover, some challenging issues for the further African theological engagement with HIV and AIDS are identified.

Hermeneutics, derived from the Greek word for “interpret” refers to the theory of interpretation.  More comprehensively, hermeneutics concerns the interpretation of texts and other forms of communication both oral and written as well as fundamental issues of the nature of language, meaning, communication and understanding.  I use hermeneutics here to refer to the act and process of biblical interpretation while preaching is the public declaration of the meaning so discovered.
Paul encouraged Timothy to: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of  truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV).  The verb translated as "correctly handling" conveys the idea of handling with skill or mastery.  Paul expected Timothy to develop himself to the point of handling the word of God with skill and mastery.  This is a challenge to all who have the responsibility of preaching or teaching God’s word. It is also because of this that we must regularly evaluate our preaching with a view to constantly improving our hermeneutical and preaching skills. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the hermeneutics and preaching that goes on in Pentecostal churches. After an attempt at defining some key words, the paper is divided into three main parts namely characteristics of Pentecostal churches, appraisal of Pentecostal hermeneutics and appraisal of Pentecostal preaching.

La parabole est un procédé oral par lequel, le maître, provoque l'auditeur à la réflexion. Il le provoque à trouver en lui-même solution à ses questions. Le maître fait appel à l'étonnement de ses auditeurs par le moyen de comparaisons souvent déroutantes. En Afrique, une parabole est une comparaison pour montrer quelque chose d'invisible que l'orateur ne peut dire directement, mais qu'il peut faire comprendre en racontant une histoire. Une histoire inventée, qui n'est arrivée ni à toi, ni à moi, et qui, pourtant, finira par dire de la vérité pour nous. Cette histoires est imaginée et racontée par un maître de sagesse pour agrémenter et illustrer son enseignement moral. Elle est tirée de la vie quotidienne et est donc directement compréhensible par l'auditoire. Mais l'enseignement moral qu'elle illustre est plus subtil et demande à être deviné. La parabole ponctue ainsi la plupart du temps la parole des anciens ou les sages des tribus. Car, la sagesse se veut comme parole par les paraboles. Elle renferme une valeur, un conseil, donc, un comportement à adopter face à une situation donnée d'où l'importance de les savoir décortiqué. In fine, la visée de la parabole est donc argumentative. Elle propose des personnages et des situations symboliques, représentatifs de la morale que l'auteur veut en dégager. La parabole, outil de transmission du savoir traditionnel Différentes traditions, coutumes, pratiques et cultures puisent souvent la sagesse des paraboles composées de tout un mystère épais qui reste toujours vêtu de la parole. Il faut le vivre, s'en imprégner, car n'étant enseigné que par l'oralité. Autrement dit, la parabole peut être considérée comme la partie de la tradition qui est mise en forme selon un code propre à chaque société et à chaque langue, en référence à un fonds culturel. Elle véhicule aussi bien l'histoire du groupe que ses croyances, ses représentations symboliques, ses modèles culturels ou sa vision du monde naturel.

This paper highlights the proposed “Talitha cum” African women’s biblical hermeneutics of reading through sketching the practices of four African women scholars: Mercy A. Oduyoye (Ghana); Madipoane Masenya (South Africa), Musa W. Dube (Botswana) and Teresa Okure (Nigeria). As used in this paper, Talitha Cum hermeneutics refers to the art of living in the resurrection space: the art of continually rising against the powers of death—the powers of patriarchy, the powers of colonial oppression and exploitation, the powers that produce and perpetuate poverty, disease and all forms of exclusion and dehumanization. Walking in the legacy of Kimpa Vita, African women’s talitha cum hermeneutics are ways of living and insisting on staying alive; even where one confronts oppressive powers that crushes, one dares to rise.  The discussion of  the above four women reading strategies is preceded by an elaboration on the source of naming, that is, Talitha cum, derived from the story of the bleeding and dying daughter of Mark 5.

Rev. Dr. John Stott, a British scholar and pastor, is highly esteemed in the Christian evangelical tradition. He was a profound theologian who successfully integrated scholarship with preaching ministry. He embodied and espoused the ideals and tenets of evangelicalism. Both Stott and Billy Graham are the two people mostly responsible for the global appeal of evangelicalism. This paper aim to demonstrate that Stott embodied key tenets of Evangelicalism especially in regard to preaching and social concern and that his influence extends beyond the borders of Britain to Africa. In order to develop the thesis, the paper begins by a brief look at John Stott's biography. Second, the paper examines Stott's approach to, and theology of ministry focusing especially on his theology of preaching and social concern. Finally, the paper offers some key lessons that African preachers can learn from the life of this notable theologian.

A referida temática se enquadra na esfera da Teologia Pública. Assim, pretende-se com este tema dar um contributo em como pensar a fé no espaço público angolano. Pois a nação hoje entendida como Angola, é em grande parte fruto das ações desenvolvidas pelos movimentos cristãos na região e também dos pensamentos teológicos e educacionais obtidos pelos, então, líderes dos movimentos de independência da Angola ou mesmo pela população em geral. Deste modo, para tratar do tema supracitado, dividiu-se o presente trabalho em três capítulos. Sendo que no primeiro capítulo se fez a abordagem histórica do protestantismo em Angola: trazer as vertentes teológicas bem como as origens das igrejas existentes em Angola será o foco neste primeiro momento. No segundo capítulo procurou-se mostrar o processo de descolonização em Angola assim como as tensões sociais e políticas desde 1961, passando pelas origens dos partidos de Independência e pela guerra civil que duraria desde 1975 a 2002. Por fim, no terceiro capítulo, a preocupação passou em demonstrar de que forma se dá a presença das igrejas protestantes na formação do Estado angolano, para além de assinalar algumas possibilidades de atuação da igreja na esfera pública angolana.

Palavras-chave
Angola; missões; Igrejas protestantes; Cristianismo e política; Teologia pública.

This theme becomes from Public Theology and it intends to reflect christian faith in Angolan public space. This nation called Angola, has in its history, lots of actions developed by Christian movements in the region that were influenced by theological and educational thoughts adopted by their independence movements leaders. The same happened to the population in general. The first chapter was presented the historical approach of Protestantism in Angola. The origin of the existing churches and its theological aspects will be discussed in this first part. The second chapter worried to show the process of decolonization in Angola as well as social and political tensions since 1961, through the origins of the Independence parties, and the civil war, from 1975 to 2002. Finally, in the third chapter, the concern was to demonstrate how the Protestant churches are present in the formation of the Angolan State, discussing some possibilities of its actions in the Angolan public sphere.

Keywords
Angola; Missions; Protestant Churches; Christianity and politics; Public Theology.

A contextual application of biblical doctrine ultimately derives from a contextual hermeneutic. What interpretive guidelines are critical to the development of a genuinely vernacular expression of theology in a local context?
The paper surveys some developments in the prolific field of African Christian Theology. The hermeneutical basis of a distinctly African theology appears largely built upon pre-Christian worldviews and spirituality.
The paper traces the methodology of the “afrocentric hermeneutic,” which assumes that a genuinely vernacular African theology requires a radical continuity between Old Testament concepts and practices and primal religions and worldviews.
The paper considers some case studies in African Christologies that exemplify the exegetical, theological, and practical problems that result from detaching cultural readings from the authorial intent of Scripture, namely the tendency to innovate error and propagate syncretism in the local churches.
The paper evidences the need for mission theorists to move beyond the non-critical reporting of aberrant contextual theologies and instead aid in the formation of a biblically tenable global theology on the basis of a biblically faithful hermeneutic. If the goal of contextualization is the transformation of biblical meaning into local significance, then the vernacular expression must be biblically legitimate and reliable otherwise contextualization has not occurred.
With this goal in mind, the paper urges for a reevaluation of the afrocentric hermeneutic, and suggests parameters for the biblically faithful application of Scripture in the local African church.

Modern African Christians are often faced with a dilemma as regards how to respond to the issue of conflict between Christianity and Traditional African Cultures. This is as a result of the fact that Christian Catechetical teachings which hails from the Christian missionaries has presented the Christian Bible and faith as standing in contradiction to the cultural practices of the African people. Hence for the African who embraces the Christian faith it becomes a matter of “either…or” and as a result many of them who will like to abide by the demands of their traditions and cultures and to participate in them whilst still claiming to be Christians, has adopted a kind of schizophrenic identity as regards the matter of faith and belief. This then raises the question: is the Christian Bible and faith incompatible with African cultures and traditional practices? This paper tries to look at this issue critically and seek to answer the question on whether being a Christian and upholding African cultural/traditional practices are mutually exclusive.

Work refers to a job or activity done regularly. Some people work for the government (public or civil servants); others work for corporations, organizations or institutions that focus on different areas of the economy (private sector). Still others work for themselves (self employed). Some people volunteer their services for causes in which they believe. Even a home-making mother is involved in an important work. This paper argued that whatever work a Christian is involved in, they should approach it as service to the Lord for which they are accountable and through which they will earn divine rewards.

African Christian theology has many tasks today. This is evident both from a reading of the history of African christian theology and from the wide variety of current understandings of its nature and task. Some theologians today contend that the task of African theologian is to provide a clear and comprehensive description of the African Christian faith. Other theologians emphasize the importance of translating faith into terms that intelligible to the African cultures. For others, African christian theology must be defined as thinking about important issues from the perspective of the faith of African Christians. And still others insist that theology must be reflexion on the praxis of Christian faith within an oppressed community. Therefore this paper seeks to provide briefly some definitions, different approaches to contextualization as a process of theologization, the history of Christianity in Africa. We will proceed to explore the need for an African theology, its models and how it is taught to African Christians; the problems confronting African Christians today throuh different cultural values. We will conclude with the general guidelines on formulating the tasks of African Christian theologians.

Even after one hundred and fifty years of Christian missions in Africa, the ancestral cult is still a reality. This is not only the case among the un-churched but among Christians as well. A good number of African Christians pledge allegiance to both the ancestors and Christ. Some sympathetic critics hold that there is no such thing as ancestral cult, but ancestral veneration- proper respect given to one’s elders. This position is cannot stand the evidence taken from various African communities particularly those South of the Sahara. The ancestors occupy a place of prominence among the deities of Africa, and in some cases, there are the only ones that are invoked. The practice is against the Christian scriptures, tradition, reason and experience. The African Christian must say no to the cult of the ancestors or anything that competes for the allegiance that rightly belongs to Christ.

Religion in Africa is in many respects becoming religion without belief and community again, I will argue in this article. Europeans arriving in Africa did not recognize African religion, because Africans did not have the kind of belief and community characteristic of European concepts of religion. Pentecostalization brings back this African concept of religion without worship groups defined by an adherence to a particular picture of the world, and I will show what this means at grassroots level. What matters in this concept of religion is whether something works rather than some implied truth-claims about the world. Instead of forming groups, Neo-Pentecostal ministries are more often organized around the vertical relationship between the man/woman of God and his/her client. The Pentecostalization of Christianity in Africa has led to a form of religion in which beliefs and community are not of central importance.