Fabrice S. Katembo

The study of African traditional religions is indispensable in the application of the gospel message in Africa and not in its interpretation. The Bible can be a dangerous book if its interpreters are not careful in matters pertaining to hermeneutics. Furthermore, the African context is dynamic and never static; and so, contextual interpreters of the Bible must always be cautious. By critically evaluating African Hermeneutics by Elizabeth Mburu, this paper concludes that if interpreters of the Bible are to relate biblical studies to themselves and to hearers and readers, the contextual Bible study process must provide the framework in which to read the Bible. However, this does not deny the importance of studying the African traditional religion for the application of the message of biblical texts. This book evaluation concludes with the idea that meaning of a text must be the function of the interaction between the text in its context and the reader in the African context.

One of the most fundamental points to make is that most African theologians have apologetically contributed a lot in communicating the Gospel to our African society. I believe Kwame Bediako has made a remarkable contribution by helping us to think about our Christian faith in relation to our African culture. In other words, he has helped us to see how the Gospel engages the African culture. To demonstrate that Jesus is able to inhabit any worldview as the unique Lord is a useful point of contact between the Christian faith and the African traditional religion – in light of our missional engagement. In his book, however, Kwame Bediako seeks to examine the understanding of Jesus in the African approach; the book deserves thorough critiques, but in the following lines I limit my comments to some points made in the book. The audience seems to be both Western and African Christians.

The greatest concern in this paper is an evaluation of the historical progress of Christianity in Kongo in light of the three dynamics of World Christianity. This paper can be seen as an analysis of the place of Christianity in the Kongo since it was first presented to its indigenous people by the Portuguese missionaries in the fifteenth century. In other words, my aim in writing this paper is to evaluate the reception and the continuity of Christianity by the indigenous people of the Kongo. I admit that the fifteenth century missionaries failed in their process of indigenization; this paper argues that Christianity numerically thrived despite its crippled reception by the indigenous people of the kingdom of Kongo.

In this short article, I seek to compile information on a few theological themes by correlating some of the writings on African traditional beliefs. It is not my intention to exhaust all information concerning African traditional beliefs. Neither it is my intention to do a comparative overview of both the Bible and African traditional religions. This is an overview of the African traditional understanding of God, sin, Christ, salvation and the last days.