Towards Developing African Christianity: An Overview on how the Christian Faith was Handed Down by Western Missionaries to Africans

Abstract:

The Christian faith continues to enter different cultures and finds its clothing in the new land it enters. This has resulted in what is known as Jewish Christianity, Greco-Roman Christianity, and European Christianity. It does so by re-interpreting and transforming the culture and traditions of the new environment in the light of the Christian faith towards a “home-grown” Christianity. However, it is observed that African Christianity is yet to critically engage with the culture and traditional values of the African environment in order to develop an indigenous African Christianity. This could be due to the fact that Christianity was introduced into Africa by Western missionaries, who perceived African religion and traditional practices as demonic. Consequently, Christianity in Africa presents Christ as a European rather than an African, thereby creating Christianity in Africa, instead of developing an African Christianity. Using historical studies approaches, the paper posits that Africans could develop an indigenous Africa Christianity when the gospel critically engages and transforms the traditional beliefs, myths, stories, idioms and cultural life of the African people.