CULTURE, WORLDVIEW AND RELIGION

2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennie J van der Walt
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Culture ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
Christian Philosophy ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Abstract Ideas

Why is a Reformational philosophy needed in Africa? It is necessary, because something is missing in African Christianity. Most Western missionaries taught Africans a “broken” or dualistic worldview. This caused a divorce between traditional culture and their new Christian religion. The Christian faith was perceived as something remote, only concerned with a distant past (the Bible) and a far-away future (heaven). It could not become a reality in their everyday lives. It could not develop into an all-encompassing worldview and lifestyle. Because Reformational philosophy advocates the Biblical, holistic approach of a comprehensive worldview, it is welcomed on our continent. It contains a healing and liberating message to our bleeding and lost continent. What Africans, however, neither want nor can afford, is an ivory tower philosophy, playing intellectual games; a philosophy which does not do or change anything. They want a philosophy which is a “marriage” between abstract ideas and the facts on the ground. They need a Christian philosophy with compassion that may even contribute to the alleviation of their poverty!

scholarly journals Africanization of Christianity: Henry Venn’s indigenization of Christianity

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-85
Author(s):  
Ekpenyong Obo Ekpenyong ◽  
Ibiang Obono Okoi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Church Organization ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Native Literature ◽  
The Church

The history of Christianity has always been a two-way process of transformation in any given culture. Christianity and paganism are reciprocal; Christianity is necessary for revelation to be fulfilled, but the actual quality of this fulfillment depends upon the quality of the religious man transformed by revelation. Christianity, as a result of this, needs a natural religion, the same way it needs all human realities as the sole mission is to save what has first been created. The link between Gospel and culture is that Gospel whenever its introduced and established in a new culture, is “transposed” in a particular way a sweet melody into a new key. Moreover, the Gospel, when transposed from its biblical world to other cultural worlds, undergoes change itself as well as causing these other worlds to change. Crowther created an astonishing impact and contribution after his consecration in 1864; as he strived to indigenize or Africanize Christianity to make it possible for the Christian faith to be accepted by Africans without having to give up or disown their cultural values. This work seeks to find what part Henry Venn, the dynamic and accomplished secretary of the Church Missionary Society, played to see how Christian faith can go well together or combine with African beliefs and practices to produce Christianity which may become a religion for Africans. This work has shown that Henry Venn's ideas on native Church organization include: the native Church needs the ablest native pastors for its fuller development and that it should be under a native bishop and that a native Church is organized as a national institution. This work adopted a qualitative method that used historical and content analysis. This work concluded that for the Africanization of Christianity to be actualized, African Church must have its liturgy or incorporate what was good of the native religions to develop an authentically African Christianity. And that reducing the various African vernaculars into writing and developing native literature was a first step in the reforming movement toward Africanization of Christianity; just as Venn urged Crowther to undertake the translation of the Bible into Yoruba and to preach in Yoruba even while still at Freetown.

scholarly journals Biblijne argumenty ad absurdum świadectwem prawdziwości wiary chrześcijańskiej

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Janusz Nawrot
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Logical Thinking ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Way Of Thinking

Argumentum ad absurdum, as a way of thinking or acting which is pointless from the point of view of rationality and predictability of a human’s action, is intentionally planned in order to justify the uniqueness and thus veracity of the existence of something compared to commonly accepted standards of behaviour. The universality of these standards is questioned by introducing factors that go beyond the patterns of commonly accepted standards. In the Bible, there are also absurd situations from the point of view of human predictability which are directly attributed to God. This absurdity of God’s action, in comparison to the rights guiding pagan religions and the rationally accepted human behaviour strengthens the faith in His existence. Going beyond the area of “normalcy” proves in the strongest way that these facts, which are seemingly at variance with logical thinking, are indeed true. These facts are paradoxically a strong and durable foundation of the Christian faith.

scholarly journals Doing Public Theology in African Christianity: A Reflection on Communiques by Churches in Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 190-200
Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
The Public ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Public Concerns

Faith in public life can be associated with Christianity in Ghana from the days of the early Western missionaries. Christian faith perspectives on matters of public concerns however, assumed a wider scope with the practice of regular issuance of communiques to governments and the people of Ghana by the churches. Christian ministry is expected to be holistic. A holistic approach in Christian ministry is considered to lead to the holistic development of the nation for the common good and the glory of God. Church leaders subsequently, bring their faith perspectives to matters of public concerns as a ministerial mandate to be in pilgrimage with the people. The study is a reflection on how the churches’ communiques are done and the factors that make the communiques theological in the public space. It further seeks to identify the contribution of the construction of communiques to public theology in Christianity in Ghana. The study as qualitative, examines both available primary and secondary sources. Copies of communiques of some selected churches, ecumenical bodies and joint communiques by ecumenical bodies are examined to appreciate insights of communiques by the churches. The study seeks to make a contribution to the theological construction of public theologies in Ghana and African Christianity. KEYWORDS: Public Theology, African Christianity, Communique, Common Good

Rediscovering the Formative Power of Scripture Reading for the Church

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-42
Author(s):  
Mark A. Maddix
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Bible Reading ◽  
The Church

Central to Christianity is the belief is that the Bible is inspired and authoritative for Christian faith and practice. Even though Christians affirm the authority of the Bible, there is a decline in Bible reading and Scripture usage in worship and discipleship. More recent biblical scholarship, built on a pre-modern approach to interpretation, moves to a reader-centered approach to biblical reading. The focus of this article is to explore a reader-centered approach to Bible reading that gives focus to the role of Scripture as means of formation. This rediscovery of the formative power of Scripture has implications for how the Bible is appropriated in worship and discipleship for the church.

The Quaker Renaissance and Liberal Quakerism in Britain, 1895–1930

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-92
Author(s):  
Joanna Dales
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Liberal Theology ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Educational Initiatives ◽  
Sense Of Reality ◽  
Wrath Of God

Abstract Many Quakers who reached maturity towards the end of the nineteenth century found that their parents’ religion had lost its connection with reality. New discoveries in science and biblical research called for new approaches to Christian faith. Evangelical beliefs dominant among nineteenth-century Quakers were now found wanting, especially those emphasising the supreme authority of the Bible and doctrines of atonement whereby the wrath of God is appeased through the blood of Christ. Liberal Quakers sought a renewed sense of reality in their faith through recovering the vision of the first Quakers with their sense of the Light of God within each person. They also borrowed from mainstream liberal theology new attitudes to God, nature and service to society. The ensuing Quaker Renaissance found its voice at the Manchester Conference of 1895, and the educational initiatives which followed gave to British Quakerism an active faith fit for the testing reality of the twentieth century.

scholarly journals God as One

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem H. Oliver ◽  
Erna Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

Two notions are discussed in this article, namely, the (unity of the) Trinity and God’s omnipresence. These two notions are deeply embedded in the Christian faith system and religion – they actually form both the basis and point of departure for the Christian religion. The aim of this article is to revisit the (Early Church and present) dogma of the Church about the Trinity and omnipresence of God as a result of the heresies and apologies linked to this dogma, and to rethink the notion of the concept ‘Trinity’ linked to God’s omnipresence. The historical method is used in the discussion of the (primary) sources and to reach the outcome.

John Wesley and the Wholeness of Scripture

1985 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-262
Author(s):  
Timothy L Smith
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
John Wesley ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Age Of Enlightenment

In an age of enlightenment, Wesley made the plain teachings of the Bible the foundation of the Christian faith and judged insufficient any Christian experience whose content was not founded in Scripture

The Bible in a Disenchanted Age: The Enduring Possibility of Christian Faith

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-80
Author(s):  
Ronald T. Michener
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Privileged Position ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Book Of Daniel

SummaryThis book steers away from modern entrapments of rationalism and empiricism that led to a disenchanted view of the Bible. Instead, Moberly innovatively proposes three lenses by which to view the Bible: history, classic and Scripture. Throughout the book he contrasts Virgil’s Aeneid book 1 and the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 7. Moberly defends giving the Bible a ‘privileged’ position for Christian faith with ‘plausibility structures’, arguing that the act of privileging one text over another for a particular worldview is common to all human beings.ZusammenfassungDieses Buch steuert weg von den Fallen der Moderne des Rationalismus und Empirizismus, die zu einer entmystifizierten Sicht der Bibel führen. Stattdessen stellt Moberly das innovative Modell von drei Linsen vor, durch welche die Bibel betrachtet werden kann: als Geschichte, als Klassiker und als Schrift. Dieses Modell behält er durch das gesamte Buch bei und kontrastiert dabei Virgils Aeneis Buch Nr. 1 mit dem alttestamentlichen Buch Daniel, Kapitel 7. Moberly verteidigt eine “privilegierte” Position der Bibel für den christlichen Glauben mit dem Hinweis auf “plausible Strukturen”. Dieses Argument besagt, dass die Praxis, einem bestimmten Text gegenüber einem anderen zugunsten einer bestimmten Weltsicht den Vorzug einzuräumen, allen Menschen eigen ist.RésuméCet ouvrage évite les pièges modernes du rationalisme et de l’empirisme qui ont conduit à un regard désenchanté sur la Bible. Moberly innove en proposant d’aborder la Bible sous trois perspectives : l’histoire, l’approche classique et l’Écriture. Il applique cela tout au long du livre et met en contraste le livre I de l’Énéide de Virgile et le livre vétérotestamentaire de Daniel, chapitre 7. Il plaide qu’il faut donner à la Bible une place « privilégiée » pour la foi chrétienne avec des « structures de plausibilité », en arguant que le fait de privilégier un texte par rapport à un autre dans le cadre d’une vision du monde particulière est commun à tous les êtres humains.

scholarly journals The motivation and limits of compassion

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elma Cornelius
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Poor ◽  
God's Love ◽  
The New Testament

What motivates people to serve others? Why do we help those in need, the poor, the sick, the lonely, orphans and widows? Is compassion for humans a natural instinct or is it a learnt response? In the biblical tradition, it is a clear imperative to show one’s faith in God in one’s behaviour by reaching out to others. Luke 10:25−37 seems to be a key passage in the Bible that teaches and exhorts Christians to be compassionate. Psychology teaches us that compassion is a natural instinct in humans although choice is involved too, and it turns out that religion plays a role in reinforcing compassion. This article is an attempt to understand the motivation and limits of compassion as reinforced by the Christian religion by (1) interpreting Luke 10:25−37 in the New Testament and by (2) using modern psychological insights. It often happens that people reach out to others for self-interested reasons, as serving others psychologically gives them a sense of meaning and fulfilment as well as a positive public image. Compassion, however, is also motivated by a love for God and a love and concern for people in general. As caring for others also affects one emotionally and might cause burnout, it is important to set some limits and boundaries on compassion. As God’s love for us leads us to reach out to others, we need to be sure about how and when we should fulfil people’s needs, help them to cope with their own needs, help them to understand the reason for their needs, guide them to fulfilling their own needs or help them to find a place where help is available.

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