Evangelization among the Chagga of Rombo: A dialectical Process
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53111/ea.v58i3.1114Keywords:
Evangelization, African Traditional Religion, Ancestors, Living-dead, Eschatology, Inculturation, Diviners, open Predicament, closed Predicament, African ChristologyAbstract
The historical encounter between Christian faith and African Traditional Religion has given birth to different attitudes, beginning with that of rejection on the part of the first bearers of Christianity and their allies to the attitude of tolerance and acceptance that led to the need for a thorough and deeper understanding of both African Traditional Religions and Christian faith. When one talks of African culture and religion there is consensus that the two are inseparable. With a broad understanding of culture as a complex whole including the whole way of life including religion, it is possible to see that even the Good News is carried within a cultural matrix, that must uncloak itself in order to enable those who accept it, live it in their culture. In this encounter, through a continuous dialogue, the Gospel message received through a particular Christian tradition is assessed in order to be assimilated to the African religion-culture, and in turn this African religion-culture is exposed to biblical criticism, being challenged in order to render it conform to the Gospel. Conversion was a dialectical process involving the dynamic interaction between potential converts and missionaries with discontinuity and continuity of some elements of their beliefs and practices. If conversion is taken to involve a dialectical process, it is possible that many Chagga would have accepted Christianity after a period of experiencing its requirements and conditions and especially after tasting the spiritual aspects which touched their inner self and their reason of being, no matter their initial motives. This can be the reason for the strength acquired by Christianity in the Chaggaland.
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