–– Warrick Jubber

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Earlier this year, the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa launched a new academic journal titled “African Christian Theology.” According to the website, the journal promotes Christian perspectives “through deep engagement with African contextual realities.” This is but the latest in a great effort to “Africanise” Christianity. Various books and journals promote so-called African Christian theology, African Christian ethics, African expository preaching, African pastoral care, and African hermeneutics. 

This raises the critical issue that confronts the African theologian of how to interpret and apply the Word of God within the African context. Some may assume this to be an issue that is limited to the academicians, but since “everyone’s a theologian” as R.C. Sproul rightly reminds us, it is an issue relevant to every believer on the African continent.