The doctrine of God in African Christian thought : an assessment of African inculturation theology from a trinitarian perspective

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Christian faith knows and worships one God known in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. In hisrevelation, the Father is depicted as being from Himself, the Son as eternally begotten fromthe Father and the Holy Spirit as eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. This iswhat Christian thought means by the doctrine of the Trinity. Although Christian orthodoxyholds the doctrine of the Trinity, the intellectual tools used to capture and convey it varydepending on the epoch, cultural context as well as availability of alternative intellectualimages.This point is demonstrated well in Western Christianity. Western theologies exhibit threemodels of the doctrine of the Trinity: 'God as Essence', 'God as an absolute Subject', and'God as Community in Unity'. These models can be explained by the influence of specificphilosophical presuppositions preferred in certain contexts and at certain times. 'God asEssence' is constructed from the point of view of neo-Platonism, 'God as an absoluteSubject' uses the infrastructure of German Idealism, while 'God as Community in Unity'recovers and applies the conceptual tools of the second-century Greeks.Taking note of the theological methodology of Western Christianity and recognising theintellectual resources in the African heritage, African inculturation theology has argued forthe use of the conceptual framework of African peoples in the development of theology forAfrican audiences. In an attempt to make a statement to the effect that African Negroes arenot neo-Platonists, German Idealists or the Greeks of the second century, and to demonstratethat the African Negroes do have a different ontology that can be deciphered, interpreted, andsystematized in one common way, African inculturation theology has posited a simpleidentity between the African notions of God and God known in the Christian faith.This research assesses and finds inadequate the notion of a simple identity between theAfrican concepts of God and the Christian understanding of God. In view of this it appeals toAfrican inculturation theology to critically and creatively deal with the African Christians'understanding of God. This call means at least two things. Firstly, Nyasaye, Mulungu,Modimo and so on are to function as the conceptual gates for the Christian view of God. This calls for 'Christianisation' of the African notions of God. Secondly, a 'Christianised'Nyasaye, for example, must for the Luo people mean God known in the Son and the HolySpirit.The 'Christianised' Nyasaye must then make use of native metaphysics for the purpose ofindigenising or grounding it in the cultural milieu of the situation of reception. To achievethis goal, this research has located and proposed the NTU metaphysics, which is used widelyby African Negroes. According to this metaphysics, God is not just a static 'substance', anauthoritarian 'absolute Subject', or a mere relationship; God is 'Great Muntu'. The Son isGod because he derives wholly from the whole NTU of the only 'Great Muntu'. The HolySpirit is God because he has the NTU shared by both the 'Great Muntu' and the Son. TheFather, the Son and the Holy Spirit are persons because the 'genuine muntu' in them is the'Great Muntu', who alone is the ultimate person. Thus the Father, the Son and the Holy Spiritare persons in the ultimate sense.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University