Overview
This book demonstrates that the encounter between Christianity and various African cultures gives rise to a number of problems for Africans who become Christians. It draws attention to certain traditional African beliefs and practices that seem to be incompatible with Christianity and create problems for Africans who embrace Christianity. Against this background it argues for the need to inculturate Christianity. It contends that in this exercise African Christianity can learn from the attempts at inculturation found in the New Testament times and in the early church. It offers examples of how the early church sought to make use of non-Christian categories of thought and elements in its articulation of the Christian message and in worship. It suggests a few areas of Ghanaian and African life where inculturation could and should take place. These include funeral rites, widowhood rites, child-naming rites, the rites of marriage, libation and christology. It concludes by offering some guidelines for use in the process of the inculturation of Christianity in Africa today.
Full Product Details
Author: Joseph Osei-Bonsu ,
Johannes Beutler ,
Thomas Schmeller ,
Werner Kahl
Publisher: Peter Lang AG
Imprint: Peter Lang AG
Edition: New edition
Volume: 1
Dimensions:
Width: 14.80cm
, Height: 1.00cm
, Length: 21.00cm
Weight: 0.210kg
ISBN: 9783631537909
ISBN 10: 3631537905
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 05 October 2005
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
-I would recommend this book to theological practitioners and theological scholars. Both groups of people share the same concerns which, in this case, are the context in which they find themselves, that ist, the cultural context which no human being can live without. This book opens the consciences of individuals to the issue of their need to understand their environment and be informed by the scriptures on how to address this environment.- (Mokhele Madise, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae)
Author Information
The Author: Joseph Osei-Bonsu was born in 1948 and received a B.A. (Hons.) in Theology in 1974 from the University of Durham (England). In 1975, he was ordained a Catholic priest, and received a Ph.D. in New Testament Exegesis in 1980 from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland). From 1981 to 1994 he worked as a lecturer in New Testament Exegesis at the University of Ghana, Legon, and was a member of the International Theological Commission, Rome, from 1992 to 1997. Since 1995 he is the Catholic Bishop of Konongo-Mampong diocese in Ghana.
