INTEGRITY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES
Integrity Research Journals
ISSN: 2811-2407
Model: Open Access/Peer Reviewed
DOI: 10.31248/IJAH
Start Year: 2020
Email: ijah@integrityresjournals.org
Christianization without westernization: A study of Acts 15:19-20 in relation to African-Western discriminatory bias
https://doi.org/10.31248/IJAH2022.058 | Article Number: BF08C8A92 | Vol.3 (3) - June 2022
Received Date: 04 June 2022 | Accepted Date: 29 June 2022 | Published Date: 30 June 2022
Author: Dominic Obielosi
Keywords: culture, African, hermeneutics, Christianization, discrimination, exegesis, westernization.
It is a happy news and a welcome development that Christianity registered an incomparable acceptance and growth in Africa. Religion deals with faith. It can make or mar the people’s development depending on how it is presented. It is appreciable that Christian missionaries to Africa brought with them civilization, ranging from education, politics, and even socio-economic area. However, the spate of fanaticism and fundamentalism in Africa not unconnected with a misconstruction of the biblical message is worrisome. Of greater concern is the inability of some Africans to distinguish between the truth of Christianity and the western bias. Left in a confused state not unconnected with the teaching by some confused or biased missionaries, some Africans repudiate African culture on the altar of Christian belief. The hardworking African has turned into a lazy one on the hope that God takes care of him. Her highly spiritualized culture has been abandoned for fear of idolatry. Her strong family cohesion has been exchanged with western individualism. Her respect for elders and ancestors has been replaced with blames against the ancestors for their woes and failure. This paper employs exegetical lens to study the response of the Apostles in the face of similar problems in the gentile world. It then exhorts Africans to accept that which is authentically Christian without neglecting her richly cultural heritage.
| Achebe, C. (1975). The arrow of God. London: Heinemann. | ||||
| Aluko, T. M. (1967). One man one wife. London: Heinemann. | ||||
| Banton, M. (1966): The social anthropology of complex societies. Baton M. (ed.). London: Tavistock. Pp. 37-48. | ||||
| Blass, F., & Debrunner, A. (2007). A Greek grammar of the New Testament and other early Christian literature. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. | ||||
| Boff, L. (1985): Church: Charism and Power. Liberation theology and the institutional church. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company. Crossref |
||||
| Dillon, R. J. (1994). Acts of the Apostles. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Brown R. E. (ed.). Bangalore: Theological Publications. | ||||
| Felder, C. H. (1989). Troubling biblical waters: Race, class, and family. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Crossref |
||||
| Kenyatta, J. (1979). Facing Mount Kenya, London: Heinemann. | ||||
| Kürzinger, J. (1971). The Acts of the Apostles, vol. II, New York: Herder and Herder. | ||||
| Magezi, V. (2007). Pastoral counselling: Towards a diagnostic and interpretational approach in Africa. Skriflig 41(4), 655-672. Crossref |
||||
| Maluleke, T.S. (2020). Racism en route, an African Perspective. Ecumenical Review. World Council of Churches, 72(1), 19-36. Crossref |
||||
| Martin, C. J. (1989). A Chamberlain's Journey and the Challenge of Interpretation for Liberation. Semeia, 47, 105-135. | ||||
| Metuh, E. I. (1991). African religions in western conceptual schemes. The Problem of Interpretation. Jos: Imico Press. | ||||
| Ngugi, W. T. (1978). The River Between, London: Heinemann. | ||||
| Nzekwu, O. (1971). Wand of Noble Wood, London: Heinemann. | ||||
| Obielosi, D. (2020). Critical review on prophetism, charism and agwu: Striking a balance between discriminatory belief and reality. In: Sheels, G. K. (ed.). Recent Advances in Science and Technological Research (vol.5, 97-104). London: Book Publishing International. | ||||
| Onwubiko, O. A. (1991). African thought, religion and culture. Enugu: Snaap Press. | ||||
| p'Bitek, O. (1970). African Religions in Western Scholarship, Nairobi. | ||||
| Perkins, P. (1977). Reading the New Testament. An introduction. New York: Paulist Press. | ||||
| Pope Paul VI (1975). Evangelii Nuntiandi: Apostolic exhortation of his holiness. Link |
||||
| Pregeant, R. (1997): Engaging the New Testament. An Interdisciplinary Introduction, Minneapolis: Fortress Press. | ||||
| Tlharihani, B., & Olehile, B. (2021). The phenomenon of divorce and its challenge to the black African communities: A need for pastoral and indigenous African marital therapy. Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 7(2) 1-21. Crossref |
||||
| Van der Minde, H. J. (1990). Dio, Therefore", Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 1. Balz, H., & Schneider, G. (eds.). Edinburgh: T&T Clark. Pp. 335-338. | ||||
| Vatican II (1965). Nostra Aetate: Declaration on the relation of the church to non-Christian religions, nos. 1-3; A. Flannery ed., Dublin: Dominican Publications. | ||||
Copyright © 2025 Integrity Research Journals. All rights reserved.