African Christology

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The degree to which Christianity has been embraced by Africa south of the Sahara has been a phenomenon that has led to a closer examination of the mutual impact of the Christian faith and African culture. A very important question in this continuing debate is how African Christians can embrace a faith, which came to them via Europe and North America, in a way that is true to the Bible and at the same time be the religion of African people. For many, the African Indigenous churches epitomize this tension between faith and culture. At the center of this debate lies Jesus Christ. How are Africans in post-missionary Africa to speak of Christ in a way that is truly meaningful to the African and through the worldview that is their own? Clarke questions the theological axis on which Christology in Africa has revolved and upon which Christological discourse has been developed. He advocates a re-examination of the language and symbolism, or orality, as a means of articulating who Jesus is for Africans in ways that are suitable to their context and worldview. Drawing upon a large-scale questionnaire survey, other qualitative research methods, and theologians and researchers of African religions and culture, Clarke represents a grassroots perspective of the way Christ is experienced in Akan African Indigenous Churches in Ghana. "Chafing for too long under the yoke of a Western Christianity that was irrelevant to their context, African Spirit churches have emerged with a vigorous, inculturated faith pitched at the wavelength of African need. The biblical Christ they joyfully worship resembles, thinks like, and speaks like an African. African Christology adds this significant voice to the Christological conversation, expanding and enriching it with unique, illuminating insights and perspectives. A needed contribution to theological scholarship and global Christianity!" --Trevor Grizzle Professor of New Testament Oral Roberts University "Clarke's African Christology is a must read, not only for those interested in African theology nor only for scholars, historians, and missiologists of African Christianity, but for all interested in and called to the Christian theological enterprise in a post-western, post-Enlightenment, and post-Christendom world. Systematicians, dogmaticians, and academic theologians across the discipline who take up this book will be challenged to rethink their methodological paradigms for Christian theological discourse in the twenty-first century. --Amos Yong J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology Regent University "Much has been written on the mission history of the African Independent Churches, arguably the most significant development in African Christianity within the last century. Clifton's useful study takes us into their understanding of Jesus Christ. The extensive use it makes of their oral theological discourses on Jesus Christ enables us to appreciate the Christological significance of Christian religious innovation in Africa." --J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu Professor of African Christianity and Pentecostal Theology Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana Clifton Clarke is Associate Professor of Global Missions and World Christianity at Regent University and is an ordained bishop in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN).