The Holy Spirit and Salvation in African Christian Theology


Book Description

Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Baylor University, 2007 under title: The material in salvific discourse: a study of two Christian perspectives.




The Holy Spirit in African Christianity


Book Description

The identity and nature of the Holy Spirit has long been a critical – and often divisive – topic among Christians. Yet it is one with which we must continue to grapple if we are to grow in our understanding of the personhood of God, the calling of the church and the life of the believer. The seventh volume drawn from the annual conference of the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology, this collection of essays addresses questions of pneumatology against the rich background of African church history. African theologians explore centuries of Christian understanding, from the writings of Augustine to the doctrine of African Instituted Churches, and examine the impact of pneumatological belief upon the life and worship of the believer. Serving as a corrective on pneumatological heterodoxies while making space for both the diversity and unity of the African church, this volume provides a powerful reminder of the centrality of the Holy Spirit to Christian doctrine and praxis.




The Holy Spirit in African Christianity


Book Description

This book is a study of what African Christians living in Britain believe about the Holy Spirit.




Spirits and Letters


Book Description

Studies of religion have a tendency to conceptualise 'the Spirit' and 'the Letter' as mutually exclusive and intrinsically antagonistic. However, the history of religions abounds in cases where charismatic leaders deliberately refer to and make use of writings. This book challenges prevailing scholarly notions of the relationship between 'charisma' and 'institution' by analysing reading and writing practices in contemporary Christianity. Taking up the continuing anthropological interest in Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity, and representing the first book-length treatment of literacy practices among African Christians, this volume explores how church leaders in Zambia refer to the Bible and other religious literature, and how they organise a church bureaucracy in the Pentecostal-charismatic mode. Thus, by examining social processes and conflicts that revolve around the conjunction of Pentecostal-charismatic and literacy practices in Africa, Spirits and Letters reconsiders influential conceptual dichotomies in the social sciences and the humanities and is therefore of interest not only to anthropologists but also to scholars working in the fields of African studies, religious studies, and the sociology of religion.




The Doctrine of God in African Christian Thought


Book Description

Noting the relationship between philosophy and the doctrine of the Trinity, this book offers the African pre-Christian understanding of God and the "Ntu"-metaphysics as theoretical gateways for African reflections on the doctrine of the Trinity.




The African Memory of Mark


Book Description

We often regard the author of the Gospel of Mark as an obscure figure about whom we know little. Many would be surprised to learn how much fuller a picture of Mark exists within widespread African tradition, tradition that holds that Mark himself was from North Africa, that he founded the church in Alexandria, that he was an eyewitness to the Last Supper and Pentecost, that he was related not only to Barnabas but to Peter as well and accompanied him on many of his travels. In this provocative reassessment of early church tradition, Thomas C. Oden begins with the palette of New Testament evidence and adds to it the range of colors from traditional African sources, including synaxaries (compilations of short biographies of saints to be read on feast days), archaeological sites, non-Western historical documents and ancient churches. The result is a fresh and illuminating portrait of Mark, one that is deeply rooted in African memory and seldom viewed appreciatively in the West.




Christianity and Suffering


Book Description

Christianity and Suffering addresses the need for sustained theological reflection on suffering by Africans, or for Africans and is the fruit of the 5th Annual Conference of the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology. The contributions address age-old issues and wrestle with causes of suffering all from within the African context.




Bible and Theology in African Christianity


Book Description

In this book, the well-known Kenyan theologian, John Mbiti, takes the reader on a pilgrimage of the mind and spirit as he examines the phenomenon of Christianity in Africa. This is a fascinating form of the Christian faith, combining certain characteristics of apostolic Christianity with the realities of African life in the present. It is fresh and fragile, dynamic, and domineering. It echoes the experiences of the early church while at the same time responding forcefully to the situation of today. The author explains how this form of Christianity while leaning heavily on the religious culture and background of the African peoples, seeks and finds its legitimation in the bible. He illustrates that it is both deeply African and committedly ecumenical and universal. A 16-page section of the photographs vividly underlines the theme.




Christian Theology and African Traditions


Book Description

Christian theology is increasingly recognized to be now a non-western enterprise since the high concentrations of Christians in the world are no longer found in the Western societies. Christian Theology and African Traditions takes seriously this present recognition of the southward movement of Christianity from the western world to a non-western setting. It seeks to reposition Christian theology and faith to engage the African traditions in classical category of theology proper, bibliology, anthropology, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology and provides unique insights and problems that these classical and systematic categories poses to African Christianity. Similarly, it provides theological blueprint for non-Africans who are interested in knowing the nature and shape of the Christian theology in non-western settings. Consequently, Christian Theology and African Traditions goes beyond the mere criticism of Western misrepresentation of African traditions to seeing how the Christian theology in its systematic character engages the African traditions. With this methodological template, the work describes in the space of twelve chapters the different classical teachings of the Christian faith on God, scriptures, spirits and demons, the nature of the human person, the persons of Christ, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the church, and the future life in dialogue with some specific traditions of the African people.




An Introduction to Theology in Africa and the Kpelelogical Foundations of Christian Theology


Book Description

In this book, African Christian theology is introduced as a Kpelelogical reflection about life in the context of Africa, which exists in the context of the cosmos. Kpelelogy is the ontological mode of being grasped by the agape of God in Christ by grace through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. By this mode, African theology is introduced by way of a definition, a principle of paradox, and a description, as well as a critical view of the works of African theologians. It examines the issues of method, criteria, and sources of doing theology in Africa and introduces the method of Kpelelogy as an African theological method. This is explored further as a holistic theological method that is conscious of its being in existence, and its life in history, that is driven by faith in the triune God in a pneumatic experience that has been termed in this book as the Kpelelogical ontological mode. The book is ecumenical in view of its engagement with Christian tradition. It presents a Kpelelogical theology that is concretely African and universally Christian in the Okpelejen Wulormor—the cosmic Jesus Christ who is and was, but beyond the munus triplex (Priest, King and Prophet, threefold office of Jesus Christ) that is to come. Hence it is a theology which embraces elements of Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox theological insights in the African context.