i. Introduction
Trying to be a thoughtful person
who is passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implication to all
of life, I sometimes find myself agonizing on how I should think of my African
identity in the light of being a Christian. The question of identity, I sense,
is what can allow me to understand my place in the the history that has shaped my present being, and the consequences of how
to live by faith. The central thesis of this reflection is that our unique
Christian identity is what will enable us to engage with our wider culture with
vibrancy and vitality. Miroslav Volf locates the necessity of identity in the milieu
of the Post-Christian west and the multi-cultural setting of the globalized
world.[1] Even
though Christians are a majority in Kenya, how these Christians identify
themselves has a bearing on how they engage with the society and culture around
them. Delanyo Adedevoh advocates for transformation of Africa’s socio-economic
and political factions as stemming from a new way of thinking about our self-identity.[2] In
order to solve the prevailing developmental issues as well as the popular
culture, identity is crucial, both for the present and future. However, the
question of Christian identity in Africa implies several issues: i) African and
Western contexts; ii) Biblical Basis for identity; iii) Implications for
cultural engagement.
ii. Christian Identity in Africa: African or Western Soil?
The reality of missionary
efforts in implanting of the gospel into African soil may be a good starting
point for the reflection of the question of Christian identity in Africa.
Missionary enterprise in Africa has been accused of an ethno-centric focus that
served to dissolve African identity from Christian identity. Speaking of the
western missionary enterprise, Jean Marc Ela observes that “Christianity permanently
confronts its peculiar contradictions; throughout the history of missions, it
has long practiced a “deculturizing” control over African populations – forcing
them brutally to sever their roots and lose their authenticity.”[3]
In severing their African roots and authenticity, Lecturer in missiology Keith
Ferdinando interacting with Kwame Bediako’s work, observes that being Christian
has been the same as being western and this premise founded upon the lack of
validity in “transposition of the gospel into African categories.”[4]
It is in line with this that Desmond Tutu observes a sort of ‘religious
schizophrenia’ among African Christians.[5]
Ela, Ferdinando, Bediako and Tutu
all seem to focus on the idea of Christian identity in an African context. The
fact that the missionary enterprise is castigated with the above misgivings,
does not necessarily mean that their efforts have been unappreciated. However,
their underlying presupposition has been the fact that the gospel has to
transcend cultural categories for the Africans to maintain a Christian
identity. Kwame Bediako’s work draws on the work of the early church fathers to
show the interrelationships between the gospel and the cultural heritage of the
fathers – Justin Matyr, Tatian, Tetullian and Clement of Alexandria. Siding
with the latter’s view, Bediako sees the African tradition as being preparatory
for the gospel, parallel to the role of the Old Testament for Israel.[6]
Hence a continuity between culture and gospel can be observed in articulating a
Christian identity, according to Bediako.
However, Ferdinando seems to caution
us from focusing on this debate from merely an intellectual foundation to one
that has a biblical basis that is for the edification of the Saints of the
Church of Jesus Christ. Despite the fact that he observes that “Christians do
not cease in any absolute sense to belong to the cultures in which they were
brought up,” he observes that the gospel’s counter-cultural message seeks to
bring unity in diversity. This critique of Bediako is based on his thinking being
based on an African worldview that is past-oriented instead of being founded on
the biblical basis of the eschatological hope that is forward-looking.[7]
Hence in summary, our cultural identity is of importance in grounding the
gospel categories in ways that are familiar to us, but beyond all, the
all-pervasive character of the gospel message transcends all cultures and calls
us to unity. Beginning from our experience of conversion, this unity transcends
to our faith experiences.[8]
This unity is founded on our identity as “Children of God” assured, inspired
and transformed by the Holy Spirit of God (1 Jn. 3:1; Rom. 8:16, 12:1-2; Gal.
4:6.). In this regard, African Christians are hence absorbed in the salvific
history of the Jews in the Old Testament. This does not necessarily mean that
they observe Jewish custom, but that it should influence how they understand
their religious and cultural identity (Rom. 4:11, 11:17).[9]
iii. Christian Identity: The issue of Difference, Reconciliation and Transformation
Having
taken into consideration the issue of Christian identity in an African context,
how then should our identity as Christians impact surrounding cultures? In
order to do this effectively, we need to take into cognizance the issue of our
differences and how we should seek reconciliation and transformation among our
own cultures and those that surround us. In a social context where identity is
necessary for a Christian culture, Volf outlines the idea of “difference” that
marks out the Christian community from other communities:
Christian communities
will be able to survive and thrive in contemporary societies only if they
attend to their “difference” from surrounding cultures and subcultures. The
following principle stands: whoever wants the Christian communities to exist
must want their difference from the surrounding culture, not their blending
into it. As a consequence, Christian communities must “manage” their identity
by actively engaging in “boundary maintenance.”[10]
The premise that Volf posits is relevant for our discussion:
Namely, that Christian identity is unique from other communities and cultures
that surround the Christian. He seems to be cautioning us from pluralistic and
inclusivity ideals that assimilate the exclusivity of the gospel. This was the
error of the liberal program, to which G. K. Chesterton rebutted ‘those who
marry the spirit of the age will find themselves widows in the next.’[11] Similarly,
Africa has always been left bankrupt when she has sought to marry a non-African
identity, for in doing this she has failed to address her own issues. Accommodating
to surrounding cultures denies them the uniqueness of the Christian message, which
is the only hope of change that they would otherwise receive. The spirit of the
age is embedded in a spirit of uncanny, craftiness and deceit that shifts
allegiances to distort truth and hence collaborating with this spirit leads to
dissolution of the Christian identity.
Volf argues
against a postliberal program that seeks to reconstruct all of culture and
life. This happens when Christians identify themselves solely from a biblical
perspective without consideration of God’s providential sustenance of
humankind’s historical progression. In this manner, Christians close themselves
from how God may be dealing with the rest of the world. An extreme position
becomes a separatist stance where Christians set their own territory from the
wider culture and do not interact with it – They are merely present but inactive.
If at all they have any engagement
with these surrounding cultures, they become coercive. This stems from their
understanding that these surrounding communities are bereft of God.[12] This
has been ground for European missionaries being accused of a euro-centric
agenda that trampled African identity, with long-standing effects to those who
were colonized and beyond.[13] Julius
K. Muthengi views this dogmatism as directly proportional to prejudice, where
one group has negative beliefs, feelings and orientations towards the other.
This he places in the wider context of ethnocentrism, which he loosely defines
as the tendency to view others from their own closed-minded perspective, as if
other perspectives are assumedly wrong.[14]
Our identity in light of these cultural differences is important, but so is
reconciliation and transformation.
iv. Implications for Cultural Engagement as Conclusion
How then can we maintain our
identity in surrounding culture? We can speak languages we have learnt from
others and metaphorize its meanings; we can inherit value systems and transform
them or reject them altogether; and we can bring new ones into bearing.[15] In
this critical engagement with our cultures, we take into consideration the
seriousness of the fall even in cultural norms, and we also affirm God’s
providential nature in common grace which is seen in the positive things he has
deposited in our culture. Needless to say, our identity though shaped by the
culture we have been born into, is transformed by God’s renewal in our lives
through Christ (Rom. 12:1-2) and looks forward to the eschatological hope of
the consummation of all of God’s peoples and diverse cultures. Only through
this can we be able to test and approve of God’s overarching dealing with this
world. This is based on our reconciliatory mission founded upon our new
identity in Jesus Christ which meets the norms and nuances of surrounding and
foreign cultures. Our Christian identity is crucial to our public engagement:
in its vibrancy and vitality. As Volf warns us, we should not be tempted to
think that we can transform the whole culture.[16] However,
our Christian identity has implications for “all dimensions of a culture”: In
the political arena, in the closed doors of private life, in the playing fields
of schools and in the shambas of rural Kenya.
[1]
Miroslav Volf “Identity and Difference,” in Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (Grand
Rapids, MI: Brazos Press), 77
[2]
Delanyo Adadevoh, Leading Transformation
in Africa (Nairobi: ILF Publishers, 2007), 4
[3]
Jean-Marc Ela, My Faith as an African (Nairobi,
Kenya: Acton Publishers, 2001), xiii
[4]
Keith Ferdinando, “Christian Identity in the African Context: Reflections on
Kwame Bediako’s Theology and Identity,” Journal
of Evangelical Theological Society 50.1 (March 2007): 121-143
[5]
John Parratt, Reinventing Christianity:
African Theology Today (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1995), 14
[6]
Keith Ferdinando, 123
[7]
Ibid., 136
[8]
The issue of conversion and identity is handled well in Keith Ferdinando’s
paper as cited above. For another detailed analysis, see Emefi Ikenga-Methu,
“The Shattered Microcosm: A Critical Survey of Explanations of Conversions in
Africa,” in Kirsten Holst Petersen (ed.), Religion,
Development and African Identity (Upsala, Sweden: Ekblad & Co.), 1987:
11-25
[9]
Keith Ferdinando, 139
[10]
Ibid., 81
[11]
Ibid., 84
[12]
Volf says that this is similar to the totalitarian tendency proposed by Sayyid
Qutb whom he identifies as a strong proponent of radical Islamism, Ibid., 87
[13]
As was the agenda of the African Independent Churches, Delanyo Adadevoh argues
that a decolonization of the African mind is necessary in re-thing African
Christian identity and engagement in the world, Op. cit., 17.
[14]
Julius K. Muthengi, “Roots and Consequences of Ethnocentrism,” Evangelical Journal 32/2 (Fall 2014):
82-92.
[15]
Ibid., 93
[16]
Volf argues that total transformation of culture is impossible and argues for
an idea of limited change: That we
can make small changes in different spheres of life that can form seed for
wider change. This he says is the reason the early church, though in the
margins, flourished. Additionally, total transformation will always be opposed
by surrounding cultures due to the nature of the fall.
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