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The doctrine of God in African Christian thought : an assessment of African inculturation theology from a trinitarian perspective
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Kombo, James Henry Owino |
| Copyright Year | 2000 |
| Abstract | Christian faith knows and worships one God known in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. In his revelation, the Father is depicted as being from Himself, the Son as eternally begotten from the Father and the Holy Spirit as eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. This is what Christian thought means by the doctrine of the Trinity. Although Christian orthodoxy holds the doctrine of the Trinity, the intellectual tools used to capture and convey it vary depending on the epoch, cultural context as well as availability of alternative intellectual images. This point is demonstrated well in Western Christianity. Western theologies exhibit three models 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 specific philosophical presuppositions preferred in certain contexts and at certain times. 'God as Essence' is constructed from the point of view of neo-Platonism, 'God as an absolute Subject' 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 the intellectual resources in the African heritage, African inculturation theology has argued for the use of the conceptual framework of African peoples in the development of theology for African audiences. In an attempt to make a statement to the effect that African Negroes are not neo-Platonists, German Idealists or the Greeks of the second century, and to demonstrate that the African Negroes do have a different ontology that can be deciphered, interpreted, and systematized in one common way, African inculturation theology has posited a simple identity 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 the African concepts of God and the Christian understanding of God. In view of this it appeals to African 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 3 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1163/ej.9789004158047.i-298 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/51962/kombo_doctrine_2000.pdf;jsessionid=FD6B746B84C38907F8A85F09DE87B7E1?sequence=1 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004158047.i-298 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
