African Christology

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.