CONCEPTS OF SALVATION, AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN Prolegomena to African Christian ...

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CONCEPTS OF SALVATION, AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN
Prolegomena to African Christian theology
A Thesis
submitted to the Faculty of Arts
University of Leicester
in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
by
STEPHEN ORABAZINALUM OKAFOR
Leicester, U.K.
July, 1983
UMI Number: U345121
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PREFACE
The title of our thesis speaks of concepts of salvation, African
and Europeeui; the idea of concepts rather than concept indicates that
the conceptions of salvation in African and European Christianity are
not entirely identical. At any rate the notion of salvation is a basic
tenet not only in both Christianities but also in all religious systems.
This last point is particularly significant to our context since we
cannot entirely talk about African and European concepts of salvation
without assuming the legitimate contributions of African and European
pre-Christian religions. However, the present thesis is not necessarily
a report of a study of the theme of salvation; instead the notion is
taken by our enquiry as the basic focus of theology which merely directed
our investigations.
The phrase "African and European" is meant to emphasise the point
that the basic problem of inauthenticity which has hitherto dominated
the discussions of African Christian theology is a consequence of the
encounter between African and European religious cultures. Historically
speaking the meeting of these two cultures is prior to the overflowing
of European populations beyond the borders of Western Christendom; and
60 prior to the modern idea of "the West" or "Western" . However, our
use of "European" and **Western" in the present thesis is on most
occasions synonymous.
Again, the sub-title "prolegomena to African Christian theology",
is an indication that our study is also to be considered as an attempt
to contribute towards the clearing of the ground for any subsequent
theological activity which can be said to be free from the present
11
preoccupation with the issue of authenticity. However, the idea of
"clearing of the ground for any subsequent theological activity" does
not necessarily mean that our research is simply preparatory in nature.
Neither is its concern merely one of giving advice on how African
Christian theology should be done. Instead the thesis may also be taken
as an endeavour to establish the proper basis for (African) Christian
theology; it is obvious that the various advices on how African Christian
theology should be done tended to take less seriously the indispens­
ability of such a basis. Our attempt in this thesis to establish it is
thus a theological one which particularly involved the analysis, albeit
limited, of the basic data of the Old Testament, the New Testament and
the Early Church (cf.Chapter Eight, section 3)« It is of course the case
that the definitive context of our research is the world of African
Christian theology. It does not, however, follow that that world is also
definitive of the character of our enquiry or determinative of the nature
of our conclusions. This is because the general field of Christian
theology is the arena from which we basically asked and answered theo­
logical and other questions. We say other questions because our approach
is largely inter-disciplinary. The inter-disciplinary approach is made
necessary by the fact that, strictly speaking, cosmological, sociological,
•philosophical’ and theological questions cannot be clearly and neatly
separated from one another. Neither in biblical nor in African religious
awareness are such separations made. At any rate it is part of the
arguments of our present thesis that such separations need not be too
sharply made. We may now say something at this juncture on some of the
characteristics of our present thesis:
(a) As already pointed out our research is also fully committed to
the necessity of solving the problem of inauthenticity which is presently
the bane of African Christian theology. It is this commitment which
iii
partly compelled our preparedness to interrogate existing knowledge
seriously. Thus it is, perhaps,true to say that the terrain followed
is as much dry as it is soft. Perhaps "faith" is on the whole called
upon to face "facts" in our approach. However, the pattern of our
enquiry is one of a constructive arrival at a better and effective
theological understanding. Although we have learnt in the course of
those enquiries that an objective approach is not always a true repre­
sentative of the investigator’s subjective feelings or convictions;
nevertheless, it is the most reliable partner in any serious research.
(b) The thesis is structurally divided into four parts. The first
part (more specifically Chapter One) sets out the ’theoretical’ basis for
the remaining part of the thesis. The second part examines the data pro­
vided by the Biblical world and the Early Church in the light of the con­
clusions of the first part. The third part does the same, though in a
general sense, with the relevant materials from the Western theological
history. The fourth part deals basically with African data. Thus
throughout Chapters Two to Nine the ’theoretical’ factors established in
Chapter One are used as analytical criteria for assessing the relevant
data. Among the factors are such notions as "ankhological" (from the
ancient Egyptian word ankh * life), nousological (from the Greek word
nous at ’mind'), and sunyatological (from the Sanskrit word sunyata *
void). There are also such notions as "Persian primary interpretation",
and "Einsteinian interpretation". All these factors and notions are,
with the exception of the Einsteinian interpretation used as crucial theo­
logical notions; all are, however, shown to be primary perceptions of the
world which in turn determined the characters of theological perceptions
of Deity, man and his salvation, and the world. They are also used as
analytical euid explanatory concepts. It is also to them that our con­
cepts of marginalisation/peripheralisation, and dominance/predominance are
allied. All of these are basic to our analyses throughout the study. The
iv
Introduction is more or less a prolegomenon which anticipates what came
later in the chapters. It is perhaps also worth pointing out that all
our eggs are not to be found in the one basket of the opening chapters,
as the structural division into parts partially implies.
(c) It is necessary to say something about footnoting in the pre­
sent thesis. We are well aware of the occasional complaint against "the
tyranny of the footnote" (cf. J.P. McKinney, 1971, p.xii). But the realm
of theological studies is a realm of controversies and objections. Con­
sequently most definitive theological works have long learnt to live with
the tyrant rather than leave out altogether questions which will only
distort the flow of argument in the body of the text. Our thesis has also
to deal with an additional problem because of the wider canvas in which it
(the thesis) is set. As a result a chapter is almost invariably all we
can devote to a given area of knowledge among the areas the general nature
of our research took us into. Thus the occasional long footnotes in the
thesis are perhaps the only way by which we can minimise the greater
problem of raising too many unanswered questions. And we hope the reader
will bear with us. It is also the case that on few occasions the full
titles of the works of quoted authors are given in the bibliography rather
than in the footnotes and references. This obtained particularly with
Chapter Four.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am immensely grateful to all who helped to make this research
possible. I am also grateful to the authorities and the librarians of
the following libraries; University of Leicester library; King’s College
(London) library; Church Missionary Society library (London); School of
Oriental and African Studies (London) library; University of London
library (Senate House) and St. Paneras library (London). I am equally
grateful to the University of Birmingham library (Heslop Room).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements
IV
Abbreviations and Diagrams
Vlll
Introduction 1
I. Historical indications 1
II. The reasons for our enquiry 3
III. Scope of the study 12
IV. Nature of the study 13
PART ONE: CHRISTIANISATION AND THEOLOGICAL DISAGREEMENT l4
Chapter One : The Presuppositions in the Crisis (of Christianisation
and theological disagreement) 15
1. The Context of the Disagreement 15
2. Three Primary Interpretations of the World 18
3. An Asian Primary Interpretation 21
(i) The Hindu View 22
(ii) Buddhism 23
(a) The Theradava Buddhist view 24
(b) The Mahayana Buddhist view 24
4. The Western Interpretation 28
(i) Aristotle 28
(ii) Plato 30
(iii) Plotinus 31
(iv) Dionysius the Areopagite 32
(v) St. Augustine of Hippo 34
(vi) Rene Descartes 35
5. African Primary Interpretation 36
(i) The basic premise of African Studies in the West 37
(ii) Negritude - philosophy of African being 45
(iii) The meaning of the African world - life, commensality,
phenomenon-aura 48
Chapter Two: Meanings, Missionaries, and African Theology 61
1. The Three Primary Interpretations - an Appraisal 6l
(i) Characteristics of the meanings within religions 66
(a) The sunyatological view 66
(b) The nousological view 67
(c) The ankhological view 68
(ii) God and the meanings 69
(iii) Revelation and the meanings 69
2. The Missionaries and African Culture 71
3. African Church and Theological Disagreement 84
PART TWO: WHOSE MEANING OF THE WORLD? The verdict of biblical data 90
Chapter Three: The Notion of Life in the Old Testament 91
1. The (view of) Meaning Behind the Old and the New Testaments 92
2. Meaning and Revelation in the Bible 99
3* Life and Covenant in the Old Testament 102
VI
4. Life and the Old Testament Concept of Salvation 105
(i) The Unity of human experience 105
(a) The soul 106
(b) God and the World 107
(ii) Life, Salvation and the officials 108
(a) The Prophets 108
(b) The Priests 111
(c) The Law (torah) 113
(d) Wisdom and apocalyptic 1l4
Chapter Four: Life - The Meaning of the New Testament 119
1. Covenant, Quraran and Jesus 119
2. Resurrection and the Ankhological (view of) Meaning - the
foundation of the Church 135
3. The Kingdom of God 139
4. Salvation in the New Testament 144
5. Palestinian Jewish Christianity and Paul 149
6. Whose Meaning of the World? the moment of decision 154
Chapter Five: Hellenism and the Early Church I56
1. Ebionitism and the Nousological (view of) Meaning I58
(i) Politico-cultural background I60
(ii) Theological processes: Paul and the Ebionites 166
(iii) Theological processes: Ebionitism as a heretical term I69
2. Nousological Meaning and Theological Understanding 172
3. The Concept of Salvation in the Early Church in the Light of
the Nousological (View of) Meaning I87
(i) Gnosticism I89
(ii) Orthodox catholics 193
(iii) Ebionites 193
(iv) Manichaeans 194
PART THREE: THE WESTERN INTERPRETATION AND WESTERN THEOLOGICAL
PILGRIMAGE 198
Chapter Six: The Belief of Christendom 199
1. African Legacy 199
2. The Miraculous and Philosophy in the Middle Ages 206
(i) The miraculous in the Middle Ages 207
(ii) The dimension of philosophy in the Middle Ages 211
3. The Understanding of Salvation in the Middle Ages 217
(i) The North African Church and salvation 218
(ii) The Western Church and the Augustinian teaching
on sin and salvation 221
Chapter Seven: The End of an Era 227
1. Protestantism and the Old Order 227
(i) Protestant theology 231
(ii) Humanism 235
2. The Secular Society and Theological Confusion 238
3. What Does Salvation Mean? 255
PART FOUR: THE AFRICAN DIMENSION IN THEOLOGY 260
Chapter Eight: Missionary Church Theology as a Species of
Western Theology 261
1, The Church without Theology 262
vil
2. The Search for Methodology 270
3* The Inevitability of a New Beginning 283
Chapter Nine: African Christian Theology: Its Theological Sources 287
1. Coptic and Ethiopian Churches and African Christian Theology 288
(i) The Coptic Church 288
(ii) The Ethiopian Church 300
2. African Traditional Religion and African Christian Theology 304
3. The Challenge of Non-mission Churches (i.e. Independent
Churches) 312
Conclusion 3^9
(i) The ankhological meaning and other primary
interpretations 319
(ii) Life and the doctrine of God 320
(iii) Incarnation and commensality 321
(iv) The Holy Spirit and phenomenon essence 322
(v) The salvation of mankind 323
(vi) Salvation in Christianity and other religions 324
(vii) Final remarks 323
Appendix 327
Bibliography 330