African Hermeneutics
Abstract
Interpretation of Scripture occurs within one's worldview and culture, which enhances our understanding and ability to apply Scripture in the world. This book addresses Bible interpretation from an African perspective. It uses an intercultural approach known as the "four legged stool." It brings an awareness of how one's African context gives a lens to hermeneutics and how one can interpret texts with ability despite our cultural influences.
... Accessing-Announcing -Here the two steps are fused to enable the use of an interdisciplinary approach by applying skills and knowledge acquired from social sciences, human sciences, African Indigenous Knowledge Systems, the Bible and theology to critique positive aspects of the studied phenomenon or incident or religious praxis. The use of Mburu's (2019) African hermeneutics also applies in this step. ...
Practical theology has evolved from emphasising pastoral ministry to addressing contemporary issues facing local churches so that they can bring about transformation within the communities in which they operate. In addition, efforts and proposals to support practical theology as interdisciplinary have progressed and are considered to be transformative. This article explores the Lekgotla and Magadi processes by leveraging the African Indigenous Knowledge System (AIKS), with the aim of presenting two Ubuntu-based research methods for practical theology to engage and contribute to the transformational agenda. It combines social constructivism and the Ubuntu worldview to propose the Lekgotla method and the Magadi methods.
The prosperity message preached mainly by independent apostles and prophets in Network Christianity’s new prophetic churches with some Pentecostal leanings has become popular among many Africans. The link between the American prosperity message and its African nephew is discussed to disclose the unique African elements, such as Africa’s traditional emphasis on a holistic spirituality which includes attaining health and prosperity by pacifying evil spirits and angry ancestors. One of the reasons for the popularity of the prosperity message is that it links closely with the African enchanted worldview and the spirituality that characterizes African traditional religion. This challenges Pentecostals to consider its compatibility with the gospel of Jesus Christ, based on the discipleship of the cross and servanthood, and suggests that the neo-Pentecostal prophet and apostle have become the modern equivalent of Africa’s diviner and healer. Their message of prosperity deviates from the essence of the gospel of Christ in several respects: firstly, it entails a distorted view of God and the Bible, described in almost pantheistic terms; secondly, its anthropology and Christology view relegates Christ to a man empowered by the Spirit and elevates human beings’ union with God; lastly, its view of revelation authorizes extrabiblical revelation to the same extent as the biblical text. This paper concludes that the prosperity message represents a dangerous fallacy based on a syncretistic contextualization of the gospel to African spirituality.
The idea of flourishing life has become one of the most important concepts in theological discourse, understanding human flourishing as at the heart of the Christian gospel. This literature and document-based research links the concept of flourishing life with the missio Dei and presents it as a contextually relevant theological interpretation of the missio Dei. The Church’s participation in God’s mission includes contributing towards flourishing life, and it concludes that such participation is of particular importance to ecclesiology. Missional ecclesiology is interested in everyday life and in faithful presence in everyday communities. The research follows an incarnational approach and argues for a Christian lifestyle focussed on the rhythms of everyday life in a way that appreciates the importance of the material life. It proposes attending to created life, sustained life and consummated life. The connection between flourishing life and the missio Dei underscores the important role of the Church in earthkeeping and affirms the Church’s calling to take responsibility for creation. The Church participates in sustaining life through four principles: conservancy, safeguarding, fruitfulness and Sabbath rest. In terms of consummation, the expectation of the end influences the here and now and how the church acts in everyday life.The research demonstrates that the connection between the missio Dei and flourishing life does have important implications for the Church’s public theology and the challenge to articulate a positive vision of life. It proposes a pluralistic social vision focussed on diversity, unconditional love, Jesus Christ as the light of the world, the moral equality of all human beings, and freedom of religion. The research concludes by attending to faithful presence as a way to translate the missio Dei into church praxis. Ecclesial life is located within the mutual concerns of the neighborhood. Faithful presence includes practices such as listening to the narrative of your place; enacting God’s peace in neigbourhoods; serving justice and reconciliation, allowing truth to flourish; and faithful reciprocal relationships with the created world.
In 21st century Africa, the Pentecostalism movement has demonstrated its unique characteristics in contrast to Euro-American Pentecostalism or any other form of Pentecostalism that has been witnessed on the global scene. In this article, I refer to it as Afro-Pentecostalism without any intended bias to those who may not prefer Afro as its prefix, as I consider its uniqueness as deserving of a unique recognition. In its hypothetical setting, the article resists placing Afro-Pentecostalism in either of the three traditional so-called historical categorisations of Pentecostalism (Neo-Pentecostal independent groups with prophets and apostles as their leaders; the classical Pentecostal movement that grew out of the 19th century Holiness Movement in the United States, and puts more emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit; and the charismatic movements that have been in existence since the 1960s)-despite their huge differences. As a historical treatise, this article seeks to demonstrate that Afro-Pentecostalism, largely a blending of the three categorisations and indeed the fourth categorisation, is not necessarily keen on the three categorisations and strongly builds more on the commonalities rather than on its divergences. Appealing to the African ethos of wholeness stands out as the common denominator to which this article has given more attention. The mercurial characteristics among the various strands of Afro-Pentecostalism are certainly key concerns in this presentation. The methodology in this article includes interviews with selected people who are connected to this topic, participant observation, and an extensive review of relevant literature.
The text of Ephesians 6:10–20 reframes the sectors of what we know as ‘spiritual warfare’ to tackle demons that menace and disturb people’s daily life. Reading this text from an African perspective helps to understand the text as well as believers in Africa to efficiently use the proposed weapons.
Contribution: An approach such as an intercultural criticism with the aid of a four-legged stool model in this research proved to be appropriate.
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