Queen's Theological College

Theological Approaches to Religious Diversity:

A Collection of Readings for Theo 679

Professor Ian D. Ritchie

May 2003

Table Of Contents

Chidi Denis Isizoh
ATR Reads Areopagus 2

CANADIAN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
Religious Ceremonies Involving More than One Faith Tradition 24

Guidelines for Religious Ceremonies Involving More than One Faith Tradition 24

NEW YORK TIMES: Top Evangelicals Critical of Colleagues Over Islam 25

Kwame Bediako
The Unique Christ In The Plurality Of Religions 27

Chidi Denis Isizoh

ATR Reads Areopagus

1. INTRODUCTION

The second book of Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, has always provided

an interesting glimpse into the world of the first Christians. I have

been fascinated by the account given of the attempts to confront the

problem of religious pluralism in the early days of Christianity. One

example of such attempts is the encounter between Paul and the

inhabitants of Athens who were distinguished from the rest of the people

of their time by their high learning and religious devotion. On an

elevated spot in Athens, the Areopagus hill, Paul delivered a speech

that could be considered as one of the earliest presentations of a

Comparative Theology of Religions in the New Testament.

Hitherto, the non-Jews and non-Christians were considered as pagans

whose "gods are idols, silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They

have mouths, but they speak not, they have eyes, but they see not, they

have ears, but they hear not, nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Like them be those who make them! -- yea, every one who trusts in them!"

(Ps 134, 17-19).

In this speech in Athens (to be referred to as "the Areopagus speech")

Paul interpreted the concept of God among the non-Jews in a positive

light. The God worshipped in the "pagan" Athens is the same Creator whom

Paul had come to proclaim. The speech thus provides the theological

basis for the missionary enterprise among non-Jews and non-Christians.

God is not circumscribed in a particular geographical ambient. He is

acknowledged and worshipped by all men and women everywhere.

Scholars have shown great interest in the speech.(1) From a long list of

them we mention only a few. E. Norden, in his seminal work (Agnotos

Theos), presented the first major analysis of the Areopagus Speech in

which he sought to determine its form and font. B. Gaertner (1955), by

carefully considering the typological writings from antiquity to the New

Testament times, placed the speech in the context of natural revelation.

M. Dibelius (1956) read it within the framework of "motifs" of images

beautifully yoked together to produce a text unique but, according to

him, isolated in the entire New Testament corpus. J. Lebram (1964) dug

into the original parallel texts of the Testament of Orpheus,

Aristobulus and Aratus to discover some existing Jewish literature for

instructing proselytes from which Luke could have possibly derived his

materials. V. Gatti (1982) sought to show the relevance of the

inter-testamental literature, especially the religious and Hellenistic

sapiential works, to the overall understanding of the speech. This was

already a movement towards biblical contextualisation which C. Ukachukwu

Manus later (1989) tried to articulate with the African background in

mind. The same trend of thought in inculturation biblical study of the

speech was followed by P. de Meester (1990) and P. Bossuyt with J.

Radermakers (1995).

This write-up presents a reading of the speech from the African context.

It takes a close look at the pericope, not with the aim of discussing

the problems of dialogue with religions or the status of non-Christian

religions from the point of view of Catholic theology.(2) Its direction

is to attempt to study the text of the speech from the point of view of

a reader in African Traditional Religion. There is a striking similarity

between the religious dispositions of the Greeks (as described in the

text of the Areopagus speech) and the Africans (as I have personally

experienced and read about them).

How would the speech of Paul in Athens sound to a person whose religious

background is African Traditional Religion? What points of contact exist

between the themes raised in the Areopagus speech and the theological

elements in the religious tradition of the Africans? In an attempt to

answer these and similar questions, a reflection on different themes of

the Areopagus speech from African traditional religious outlook is

presented.

2. RELIGIOSITY OF THE PEOPLE

* ˝I perceive that in every way you are very religious (v.22)

"Africans are notoriously religious."(3) This assertion can be verified

in the lives of most Africans, be they exposed to the Euro-American

influences or not. Religion permeates every aspect of the African

life.(4) Mbiti expresses this religiosity forcefully:

* Wherever the African is, there is his religion: he carries it to

the fields where he is sowing seeds or harvesting a new crop; he

takes it with him to the beer party or to attend a funeral

ceremony; and if he is educated, he takes religion with him to the

examination room at school or in the university; if he is a

politician he takes it to the house of parliament. Although many

African languages do not have a word for religion as such, it

nevertheless accompanies the individual from long before his birth

to long after his physical death.(5)

J. E. Holloway presents the same point thus:

* Religion was (and remains) a vital part of the lives of most

Africans. For some it encompassed their entire existence. It

substantiated and explained their place in the universe; their

culture, and their relationship to nature at large. Religion among

most African ethnic groups was not simply a faith or worship

system; it was a way of life, a system of social control, a

provider of medicine, and an organizing mechanism.(6)

Right from the womb, through birth, infancy, puberty, initiation,

marriage, and funeral, many African societies have religious rituals for

each phase of life.(7) Each day begins with prayer, offering of kolanut

and pouring of libation. Each major step in the life of any given

traditional community involves certain consultation of fortune-tellers

and diviners to ascertain the will of God and the spirits. It is rare to

find any act, human or otherwise, without some religious explanation for

it.

This religiosity explains, in part, why there is a high turn over from

Traditional Religion to Christianity or Islam in Africa. It accounts

also for the quick spread of many groups of religious families and

traditions in the continent. David B. Barret has recorded a long list of

religious groups operating in Africa.(8) The number is ever increasing

year after year.

Africans never lose the consciousness of the divine presence and

intervention in their daily affairs. Their strong religious instinct

tells them that neither the advancement of science nor mere human

endeavour is sufficient to solve the problems of man today or to guide

his decisions in daily undertakings or still to guarantee happiness,

peace and progress in the world.(9)

3. RELIGIOUS ARTEFACTS IN WORSHIP

* ˝For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship

(v.23a)

The term "worship" is not found in the vocabulary of many African

societies. In some areas, when it is used, it often refers to religious

acts, individual or collective, formal or informal, which are directed

to God. The more common words used are "offering" and "sacrifices".(10)

The objects used include: animals (cow, bull, sheep, goats, dogs fowls

or chicken, human beings), foodstuffs (first fruits, eggs, maize sorghum

flour, honey, cassava), drinks (milk, beer, water), incense, smoke from

tobacco pipes, leaves.

A place (shrine or temple) is set apart for offering and sacrifices.

Usually, a shrine is dedicated to a specific spirit or divinity. Thus in

Yoruba land the 1700 divinities have shrines in people's dwelling houses

where the divinity concerned exercises great influence and authority as

the owner of the house and the area. Similar situation is found among

the Igbo people. For example, Ogbunike, a small town near Onitsha has a

shrine (Okwu) for Kesa, another for Ogba (cave). Nkwelle-Ezunaka has a

reserved forest for the powerful Iyi-ojii. The Ganda people have temples

for the national divinities with functionary priests and, occasionally,

mediums and women servants. A.M. Liguira reports that when any of these

divinities prove ineffective to help the people, the king could order

his or her temple to be raided and even destroyed.(11) Only with the

express permission of the priest in-charge may other people enter the

shrine.

The sacred spot where sacrifices are made is the altar. Its location

varies from place. Generally it is found in the shrine. Among the Igbo

it is expected that each household has small altar where the head of the

family makes offerings. Mbiti reports that the Ila use "the foot of the

central pole in their houses as altars", and for the Kipsigis, altars

"are made of sticks" and are located "on the right side of the door

outside every house"; and the Konta "have altars on the roads leading to

their homes, where they place their agricultural offerings".(12)

It was usual before the advent of European modernity and secularization,

and Christian and Islamic religious influences to see several places of

worship (shrines and altars) while walking through the pathways in an

African village. This is a manifestation of the religiosity of the

people. It is not a multiplication of kateidolos or a promotion of

paganism and a support for sanctuaries of devils, as many Europeans have

portrayed it. It is a genuine expression of religious sentiments.

4. CONCEPTS OF GOD

(A) THE SUBLIMITY OF GOD

* ˝I found also an altar with this inscription, "To an unknown god."

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

(v. 23b)

African Traditional religion has been variously described as

monotheistic, pantheistic, polytheistic and, recently an author (13) has

added, henotheistic. The divinities are broadly divided into two (but

not on the basis of equality of status): the Supreme deity and the

subordinate deities.(14) Each tribe or ethnic group has its own

pantheon, according to the specific needs and interests of the people.

In general the divinities are arranged in a hierarchy with the Supreme

deity at the apex (distant, with all the superlative titles and

qualities) and the other divinities and ancestral spirits according to

their rank and order of importance in the community. The relationship

between the Supreme Being and subordinate divinities has lead to

different interpretations given to the African Traditional Religion.(15)

The early European visitors to Africa did not meet a people without the

knowledge of God; they did not encounter pagans. The missionaries did

not invent the names and various attributes given to God: they used what

was already available among the people. Setiloane remarks:

* For that is the contention of African Theology, namely: that when

the missionary preached about God, and they accepted his teaching,

the Africans nevertheless continued to conceive of God as Modimo,

that is, in their African terms. It is accepted by us all now that

the Christian message to Africa through the Western missionaries

did not find a Tabula Rasa?. It is this awareness of God and

religious disposition that made the evangelization of Africa

possible and provided a basis for it."(16)

When Paul at the Areopagus hill spoke of an "Unknown god", many Africans

would have recognised the phrase as the title they give to the Supreme

deity (God). The Igbo will not find it difficult to understand that

Chukwu (God) is Amama-amasiama (the Known who cannot be sufficiently

known); the Ngombe call him Endandala (the Unexplainable); the Ashanti

refer to him as "the Fathomless Spirit"; and the Bacongo say that he is

"Marvel of Marvels".(17) The Zulu acknowledge that God has made all

things but they do not know his name.(18) The tribes of Massai, Lunda

and Moru talk of him as not only unknown but unknowable.(19) The result

of a long research on the concept of God as incomprehensible and

mysterious among several African tribes done by Mbiti led him to make

the following affirmation:

* God is described as shrouded with a mystery deeper than can be

fathomed. His real nature is absolutely unknown, so that even his

personal name is also a mystery. To know his proper name would in

effect amount to penetrating into his mysteriousness and

incomprehensibleness. People might, and indeed do, know some of

his activities and manifestations, but of his essence they know

nothing. It is a paradox that they "know" him. He is not a

stranger to them, and yet they are estranged from him; he knows

them, but they do not know him. So God confronts men as the

mysterious and incomprehensible, indescribable, and beyond human

vocabulary. He is the Mystery of mysteries, the Marvel of marvels,

the very Mysterium Tremendum par excellence.(20)

A foreigner in Africa, who simply goes round the villages to observe the

religious acts of worship as practised by the followers of the

traditional religion, could interpret the term "Unknown god" with

reference to the Supreme deity in another sense. Ikenga-Metuh writes:

* The Supreme Being is one and can only be one, but he features less

frequently in public worship and everyday religious experience

than the divinities who are many and feature in almost every

sphere of African life.(21)

When this tendency to pay less direct attention to the Supreme deity in

public worship is observed, it could lead to the conclusion that God is

unknown among many tribes of Africa.

Westermann and many other writers go further to speak of the Supreme

deity in Africa as Deus otiosus (the withdrawn God). According to him:

* The high-god is, as a rule, not the object of religious cult and

is of small or almost no significance in practical religion.

People acknowledge him, but neither fear nor love nor serve him,

the feeling towards him being at the highest, that of a dim awe or

reverence.... The Africa's God is a deus incertus, and a deus

remotus, there is always an atmosphere of indefiniteness about

him.(22)

Some authors report that there are African communities that share this

view of Westermann. For example V.C. Uchendu holds that in the Igbo

theology, the high god "Who has finished all active works of creation

and keeps watch over his creatures" is "a withdrawn god".(23) In

asserting the remoteness of the Supreme Being, P. Baudin describes the

Yoruba notions thus:

* They represent that God after having commenced the organization of

the world, charged Obatala with the completion and government of

it, retired and entered into an eternal rest, occupying Himself

only with His own happiness: too great to interest Himself in the

affairs of this world. He remains like a negro king, in a sleep of

idleness.(24)

S.F. Nadel takes up the terms of incertus and remotus, as applied to

Supreme Being, and reaches the conclusion that that they are verified in

the religion of the Nupe where "nothing very definite can be said or is

known about God."(25) The nature of the Supreme Being (Soko) in Nupe is

Lokpa - "far away" - and He "cannot be reached by prayers and

invocations alone, there have to be intermediaries, of which Kuti

(ritual) is one and Cigbe (medicine) the other."(26)

The Fang express the enstrangement of the Supreme Being thus:

* Nzame is on high, man on the earth, is on high, man on the earth,

Yeye O, Yalele. God is God, man is man, everyone in his house,

everyone for himself.(27)

It is commonly held among different peoples of Africa that there was a

primordial close relationship between the Supreme Being and man which

became severed at some point in the remote past. There are myths to

explain the cause of this separation.(28) The Ashanti hold that the

Supreme Being lived in the sky but very close to men. Whenever the

mother of these men pounded fufu her pestle was constantly knocking

against God and so he decided to move up higher to avoid this

disturbance.(29) The Bari and the Lugbara peoples of the White Nile

region believe that the separation occurred because the rope which

linked the abode of the Supreme Being and the habitation of men was

accidentally broken by a hyena.(30) Among the Mende, the withdrawal was

occasioned by the disturbance of God by incessant requests made by human

beings. God therefore moved Leve - Up.(31) The Yao people hold that God

went up when men learnt how to make fire by friction and began to

disturb him with the smoke.(32)

But the withdrawal has another interpretation. His "remoteness" is

explained as an act of benevolence. In the words of Evan Zuesse:

* God is concerned above all to co-operate in maintaining a world in

which crops will grow and health will abound. But because of this,

God is not the usual centre of worship. Indeed, it is an

expression of his continuing benevolence that he has withdrawn his

overwhelming power and presence behind the intermediary beings he

has appointed to govern the modulated realm of specific beings.

God does not involve himself too directly in the world that he

sustains, for too particular and intense an involvement might

destroy the fabric of the divine order he sustains.(33)

Scholars up to R.S. Rattray, one after another, have upheld the opinion

expressed by Westermann that among the Africans, "God does not live in

practical religion." It was widely expressed that God in Africa is not

approached or worshipped directly. Rattray discovered that there is

indeed a direct worship of God. He pointed out that among the Akan,

Nyame is worshipped with shrines and priests dedicated to him.(34) Since

then many more scholars have found similar forms of religious acts

directed to God.(35)

The altar dedicated to this God, although not everywhere found among all

the tribes of Africa, is accommodated in the religious worldview of the

people. The inscription of the name of a particular god or spirit to

whom a shrine or altar belongs is done in the memory of the people, such

that when it is forgotten, it could lead to the situation where a

particular sacred place exists without proper identification of the

deity who owns it.

(B) GOD THE CREATOR

* The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of

heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man nor is he

served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he

himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he

made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the

earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of

their habitation, (vv. 24-26)

God is almost universally acknowledged as the creator of the world. Some

names that refer to him as the creator could be mentioned: Mumbi

(Akamba, Kenya), Jok Nyakaswiya (Alur, Zare), Cuta (Ambo, Zambia),

Ruhanga or Nyamuhanga (Ankore, Uganda), Bore-Bore (Ashanti, Ghana),

Rurema (Barundi, Burundi), Kibumba (Basoga, Uganda), Zambi (Baya,

Central African Republic), Kagingo (Ganda, Uganda), Omubumbi (Gisu,

Uganda), Chineke (Igbo, Nigeria), Namulenga (Ila, Zambia), Ndorombwike

(Nyakyusa, Tanzania), uDali (Pondo, South Africa), Rog (Serer, Gambia),

Mlengi (Tonga, Malawi), and so on.(36)

Africans have their own myths of creation. It does not, however, seem

that the African concept of creation includes bringing things into being

ex nihilo. But whatever primordial elements used, there is a strong

affirmation of the creative role which God has played in the world. The

origin of God himself is not discussed, it is assumed in the myths that

he was there from the beginning. The Boshong simply say that in the

beginning Bumba was alone. God is Mutangakugara, the one who existed in

the beginning (according to the Shona people); Kajati, self-creator (for

the Tonga tribe); and uZivelele, the self-existent One (for the Zulu).

This uncaused Cause is responsible as the initiator and origin of other

beings in the world.

He is not only responsible for bringing other things into existence, he

also endows each being with its specific quality. This description

touches on the point mentioned in the Areopagus speech of God's role in

allotting period and boundaries of habitation to every nation.

There is a striking similarity between the function assigned to God in

the Areopagus speech and his role as found in the name given to him in

Igbo language. One of his names in Igbo is Chineke. This word has two

component parts: "Chi" (meaning God or deity) and "eke" (with root

meaning, "divide").(37) In one sense it conveys the sense of endowing,

according to Metuh. It means that God gives life and all the other

qualities necessary for existence. This extends to allotment of places

of habitation to different tribes.(38) The Ganda call him Namugereka (he

who arranges and distributes according to his discretion). For Kiga

people he is Rugaba (the One who gave everything on this earth and can

also take it away).

(C) GOD IN FAMILY TERMS

* ˝that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after

him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for "in

him we live and move and have our being", as even some of your

poets have said, "For we are indeed his offspring." (vv. 27-28)

The atmosphere of family exists in the African worldview between human

beings and God. Among most tribes, God is identified as a benevolent

parent. It appears that the conception of him is less sexist than could

be found in Christianity or Islam.(39) To some people, God is Father, to

others Mother and still to others without gender.(40) According to

Joseph A. Omoyajowo:

* The African concept of God is not altogether masculine. In many

parts of Africa, God is conceived as male, but in some other

parts, he is conceived as female; the Ndebele and Shona ethnic

groups of former Rhodesia have a triad made up of God the Father,

God the Mother, and God the Son. The Nuba of Sudan regard God as

"Great Mother" and speak of him in feminine pronouns?. Although

called the queen of Lovedu in South Africa, the mysterious "She"

is not primarily a ruler but a rain-maker; she is regarded as a

changer of seasons and the guarantor of their cyclic regularity.(41)

Metuh finds the attribute of Father in some of the African names and in

the prayers said by the people.(42) Among the names by which God is

invoked are: "Father giver of life", "Father of men," "Great Father,"

"Grand Father," "the father of the sky," and so on. When the people

pray, they use such phrases as: Father of the universe, our father,

father of our fathers.(43)

Among the societies that are matriarchal, God is often invoked as

Mother. The southern Nuba tribe use feminine terms to describe God. They

even refer to him (in their context I should say "her") as "Great

Mother" who gave birth to earth and to mankind. Among another tribe

there is the saying" "The mother of pots is a hole in the ground, the

mother of people is God".(44) The invocation of God as female is found

among those whose "social organisation is centred on the home and

position of the mother".(45) The Ewe people have powerful female-male

combination of Mawu/Lisa as the Supreme being(s). Mawu who is female is

often spoken of as the Supreme being. She is gentle and forgiving.

Indeed it is said that when Lisa punishes people, Mawu grants forgiveness.

Whether God is considered as Father or Mother in the African societies,

it does not change the relationship that exists between him and human

beings. It is generally acknowledged that all human beings are God's

children. The attitude displayed during sacrifices is that of

father-children relationship. There are tribes that explicitly express

this relationship with God. The Bambuti people will invoke God in time

of difficulty thus: "Father, thy children are afraid."(46)

Different groups of persons are considered as special to God. The Bemba

tribe are "the children of God". Among the Lugbara the elders are also

looked upon as "children of God". For the Shilluk the king has the

following titles: "the first born of God", "child of God," etc.(47)

Most African societies hold that God has a divine spark in every person.

Among the Kalabari he has put in every person Tamuno (personal creator).

This divine element is variously called Chi (in Igbo), Ori (in Yoruba),

and Kra (in Ashanti).

God, after creation, did not finish with the world. He still sustains

it. The Bacongo people say, "water never sleeps, God made it to be

always flowing".(48) The providence of God is ever felt. The Igbo say,

"God drives away files for a cow that has no tail".

Although God is presented in household terms, many African traditional

religionists very often do not deal with God directly but go through

intermediaries. God has revealed himself through the ancestors and wise

men. The words spoken by these special persons are sometimes also

divine. There are proverbs, wise-sayings, myths, that are full of

religious symbolism and are very instructive for the understanding of

man's relationship with God.

In spite of the close relationship between God and human beings, after

studying the practice of religion in many parts of Africa, John Mbiti

came up with the following astonishing conclusion:

* We saw ? no evidence of man seeking God for His own sake; or of

the spirit of man 'thirsting' after God as the pure and absolute

expression of being.(49)

The image of a happy life is that in which God is close to the people.

This closeness, however, is not characterized by mere presence for

contemplation but God's nearness to supply food and other basic needs of

man. Thus sacrifices and offerings are mainly for utilitarian purposes.

In so far as God is able to provide them these needs, he can be

anywhere, even "in the distance of the Zamani".(50)

(D) REPRESENTATIONS OF GOD

* ˝Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity

is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and

imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now

he commands all men everywhere to repent, (vv. 29-30)

The early Europeans that came to Africa saw numerous objects used in

religious functions and called them "idols". African Traditional

Religion was dismissed as paganism, idolatry, heathenism and fetishism.

There was even a prayer prepared for, and recited by, Africans for the

conversion of the African people "wandering in the vale of wilderness

where they are destined to be lost forever. But your beloved Son, Jesus

Christ found them?" (51) Early this 20th century, the catechism book

prepared by the missionaries in Igboland of Nigeria had in it inserted

among the grave/mortal sins, literally translated:

* joining the 'pagans' in idol worship, invoking the spirits,

sacrifice, keeping of charms believing in them as God, making of

deadly charms, celebrating funeral rites in the pagan way, or

participating in similar rites.(52)

African traditional religion was unequivocally condemned. Its followers

were referred to as ndi obodo, a term which could mean not simply

citizens of a town but, more derogatively, people who are not civilized

and are pagans. A true Christian, in the days of the early missionaries,

must not have anything to do with that group of people in the society.

The catechism has since been revised. But in some parts of the world,

this uninvestigated assessment, followed by condemnation of traditional

religious practices, still takes place. People are becoming more and

more aware of their cultural, religious heritage and are easily offended

by the missionaries' wrong interpretation of their practices. One of the

early missionary-explorers in Africa once remarked:

* There are innumerable ramifications which I have been unable to

follow, and a vast amount upon which, were I directly questioned,

I should say, 'I don't know.' The more one investigates, the more

one realises the extreme profundity of native thought. It seems so

superficial yet, actually, it is infinitely more involved than the

white man's logic, and he finds it extremely difficult to

interpret it satisfactorily.(53)

Of what use are carved objects in African Traditional Religion? Pierre

de Maret writes:

* In preliterate societies, religious behaviour is manifested

through verbal and non verbal communication and, ? through

material culture.(54)

Sculptural arts often express the spiritual images dominant in a given

place. Because those who carved the images are not nave, they do not

consider the work of their hands as in se God or gods or even spirits.

They reproduce images that help them to focus their thoughts on the

things beyond physical perception, realities in the "noumenal" world.

Natural objects like stones, trees, mountains, metals, are also

conceived as symbols. The word, symbol, has behind it the Greek

sumbolaion, meaning "token, insignia, or means of identification by

which parties to contracts, allies, guest and host, and other kinds of

partners could identify each other." (55) It is considered as "a precise

and crystallized means of expression, corresponding in essence to the

inner life in opposition to the external world".(56)

A symbol stands for or takes the place of another thing. (57) Unlike a

sign, a symbol points to itself but at the same time draws attention to

another thing more profound than itself. It is a thing which it

represents, but at the same time it is not. Cohen explains:

* On the basis of (the) original sense (of symbol) which points to a

coherent greater whole identified through its parts, the word has

come to represent the general phenomenon of metonym found widely

in all cultures: the use of a signal to mean something and yet to

mean something not apparent to the uninitiated. (58)

A symbol (which is not only material things but also gestures,

linguistic expressions, etc.) has no meaning in itself; its

signification is derived from the context, from the community in which

it is used. A kolanut is a simple tropical fruit which in itself is

nothing more than that. But among some African communities when it is

presented to a visitor, it is a symbol of welcome, friendship, love,

etc. Outside these communities, it remains only a simple fruit.

More than a contextual thing, a symbol may have multi-vocality. The same

symbol may mean different things to different communities. The gesture

of goodbye in Italy is, in Nigeria, that of an invitation to come

closer. Among the Lango (in Uganda), Mount Agoro which is rocky is

considered as a place with a very high intensity of God's immanence.

Pilgrims could be seen walking away with pebbles taken from the mountain

believed to contain power to give fertility.(59) The Bambuti (in Congo),

the Gisu (in Uganda) and the Akamba (in Kenya) consider rocks as the

dwelling place of the spirits of the departed.

Apart from drawings used, for example by the Akan people, to designate

attributes of God, there does not seem to be any image made of the

Supreme Being in African Traditional Religion.

5. JUDGEMENT OF THE WORLD

* ˝because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in

righteousness by a man whom he has appointed (v. 31a)

African traditional societies are concerned about justice, punishment

and retribution. There is a strong belief that no good and no evil can

happen by chance. Good things happen because of individual or communal

good deeds which are pleasing to the ancestors, the spirits and God.

Evil comes as a result of wrong doing.

The concept of God as Judge is not foreign or strange to the African

Traditional Religionist. God is regarded as the "ultimate dispenser",

the "distributor": he gives to each person his or her own portion of

"talents, fortune and estate of life."(60) Mbiti remarks that among the

Azande people, God is known as the "One who settles the differences

between us who are men."(61) The Jie tribe hold that God intervenes in

human affairs to avert calamities and punish those who offend against

the ritual.(62) The Ila people give Him a name Ipaokubozha ("He who

gives and causes to rot").(63)

Discussion on immortality, judgement and retribution in the after-life

does not assume the first place in Africa Traditional Religion. But it

is reported that among the LoDagaa of Ghana there is some notion of

judgement after death.(64) They believe that the dead cannot enter the

spirit-world until the final funeral ceremony called "Cool Funeral Beer"

is performed. In this other world, there is final judgement which is

described thus:

* This involves lineages (sic) rather than individuals. Groups which

contain a great number of witches, liars, or thieves, will receive

everything that causes pain and only salt water to drink in the

land of the Dead. Conversely, good groups will receive all the

good things. They only need to think of what they want and they

will get it.(65)

Among the Yoruba, there is this saying:

* If a Babalawo is in grave want, Let the Babalawo lie not.

If a herbalist is in need, Let the herbalist not be dishonest.

Let no one lie or display dishonesty

Because of accountability when they die.

These are the declarations of Ifa to Orunmila?(66)

There is the strong belief that the spirit of the dead stands before

Olodumare for final judgement in order to give account of individual's

conduct while alive on earth.

Paul announced in his speech to the Athenians that God has designated a

man as a judge on his behalf. In the African traditional societies the

use of intermediaries in determining and carrying out God's instructions

and in pronouncing the divine judgement is known. Priests are

prominently mediators between God and man: they offer sacrifices, often

they are invited to purify a defiled community, and occasionally they

settle disputes among the people. Along with Priests, the seers,

prophets, diviners, medicine men, rain-makers, etc. are also regarded as

people who have powers to know the mind of God and spirits. Kings, in

the areas that have them, are sometimes believed to be divinely

constituted. Elders too are important in settling disputes in the society.

It is known in many parts of Africa that a particular deity can select

somebody to be dedicated to him. Among the Igbo people of Nigeria, if a

person is so selected and he or she refuses to accept, it is believed

that some evil will befall him or her. This evil may come in the form of

misfortune in business, death in the family, and sometimes some mild

type of madness called agwu. A person that accepts the divine

appointment and is consecrated often exercises tremendous spiritual

power in the society. He or she sometimes offers sacrifices, prays for

the community and very often acts as an arbiter in case of dispute

between families or clans.

6. RETURN TO LIFE AFTER DEATH

* ˝and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from

the dead. (v. 31b)

In many African societies death of human beings was not intended from

the very beginning. According to many tribes, man had the option to

choose either death or immortality but, somehow, the messengers either

distorted the message or did not arrive in time to give God the reply

from humanity wishing to live for ever. Some animals are identified as

bearers of this all-important message. Among the animals most often

mentioned include: tortoise, dog, hyena, lizard, cat, chameleon, hare,

mole, etc. In error death was man's first choice in the "primordial

state" of existence and for this reason every person must die. Death is,

therefore, a permanent feature with man.

In the African worldview, death is not conceived as the end of life.

Life has really no end, a person changes from one form of existence to

another. There is no death in the sense of a separation from the close

family members or the tribal community. Life is conceived as cyclic, not

linear; it is eternal, a process that continually moves from the realm

of spirit to that of "history" and vice versa. A person in his old age

with many prosperous children is considered to have a good life. At his

death, he joins the ancestors, undergoing a transition from the state of

mortality to that of ancestral immortality. It is a movement from life

to life.(67) There is strict continuity in the transition. According to

P. Paris, the ancestors retain their moral character, social status and

all family consciousness.(68)

The process by which the dead return to the "historical" world and live

in a normal bodily form is called reincarnation, that is, taking flesh

again. There could be many forms of it among different African societies.

Among the Igbo people two forms are distinguished. One form is called

igba-nje. The person who returns to life is called ogbanje (repeater).

This generally applies only to children. It is believed that these

children are in league and their interest is to torment their parents.

They allow themselves to be born and then they die before the reach the

age of two. They die and then re-enter the womb to be born again. To

stop the repetition of this phenomenon, there is need to perform a

religious ritual called ibo iyi uwa (to unearth and break the instrument

of the covenant between a particular child and the rest of the children

in the group of ogbanje).

Another form of reincarnation is ino uwa. This is return of a happy

person after death to a cherished family where he or she is reborn as a

baby. It is frequently said that old parents at death return as grand

children to their families. But the right to return does not depend on

the dead. It is an outcome of the encounter with the Creator after

death. In the final analysis it is God who permits who should stay

forever in the spirit world or who may reincarnate. Even though to

remain in the spirit world and be revered as an ancestor is a

prestigious thing, most people would prefer to return to earth and live

among their relatives. Metuh says that an Igbo would do anything to make

sure that he is allowed to return and that refusal to be allowed to

reincarnate is considered a retribution for sins committed during one's

life-time or even previous existence.(69)

It is not always easy to explain the nature of the ancestor who returns

to his family. He dwells in the spirit land and, at the same time, lives

as a child among his beloved family members. He may even reincarnate in

more than one family. In the believers view, it is not strange that a

spirit can be ubiquitous. This ability to be in more than one place at a

time is one of the characteristics of the resurrected body in the Bible.

The follower of African traditional religion could find in the concept

of ino-uwa a stepping stone to understanding the Judaeo-Christian notion

of the resurrection.

7. CONCLUSION

Our short reflection here has shown that the important vocabularies

found in the Areopagus speech are not foreign to the Africans. If the

speech had been addressed originally to the Africans, it would have been

well received by an appreciative audience.

Volumes of books have been published condemning the early missionaries

for not understanding and encouraging the admission of many of the

important elements of the African Traditional Religion into the

Christian theology. These early harbingers of the Gospel must not be

placed outside their context of life. They had to battle with the

cultural and sociological conflicts that faced them on arriving in

Africa. Their theology of the missions was not very well developed and

the prevailing opinion of Africa was not positive.

Africans have received the Gospel in spite of the rejection of part, and

sometimes the whole, of their religion (by the earliest missionaries) as

authentic and valid religious expression. The question that remains is:

if many of the positive values of African Traditional religion and

culture were misunderstood by the foreigners, have the Africans really

made them understandable today?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTES:

(1) See Classified Bibliography of Literature on the Acts of the

Apostles, New Testament Tools and Studies, 1966; also Isizoh C.D., The

Resurrected Jesus Preached in Athens, The Areopagus Speech, Rome, 1997.

Also for further reading: Norden E., Agnotos Theos, Untersuchungen zur

Formengeschichte religi÷ser Rede, Darmstadt, 1971; Gaertner B., The

Areopagus Speech and Natural Revelation, transl. by C. H. King, Lund,

1955; Dibelius M., Studies in the Acts of the Apostles, transl. by M.

Ling, London, 1956; Lebram J.-C., "Der Aufbau der Areopagrede,"

Zeitschrift fr die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 55 (1964) 221-243;

Gatti V., Il discorso di Paolo ad Atene, Brescia, 1982; Ukachukwu-Manus

C., "The Areopagus Speech (Acts 17,16-34), a study on Luke's approach to

evangelism and its significance in the African context," Revue Africaine

de Theologie 13 (1989) 155-170; Meester P. de, "Inculturation de la foir

et salut des cultures: Paul de Tarse l'Aropage d'Athnes (Acts

17,22-32)," Tlma 62,2 (1990) 59-80; Bossuyt P. & Radermakers J.,

"Rencontre de l'incroyant et inculturation, Paul Athnes (Ac.

17,16-34)," Nouvelle Revue Tholigique 117 (1995) 19-43. For a

comprehensive discussion on various aspects of the African Traditional

Religion, see my internet webpage at http://users.iol.it/cdi.

(2) The International Theological Commission working under the Vatican

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently published a document

on Christianity and other Religions. See "Il Cristianesimo e Le

Religioni" in La Civilt Cattolica, vol. 3518, (Rome, 18 January, 1997),

146-183.

(3) Mbiti J.S., African Religions and Philosophy (New York, 1990), 1;

also his Introduction to African Religion (Oxford, 1975), 30.

(4) "In spite of their many and varied religious systems the ubiquity of

religious consciousness among African peoples constitutes their single

most important common characteristic." Paris P.J., The Spirituality of

African Peoples, The Search for a Common Moral Discourse (Minneapolis,

1995), 27.

(5) African Religions and Philosophy, 2. The same idea is expressed by

many African scholars some of whom we mention as example: Parrinder

E.G., West African Religion, London, 1961; Idowu E.B., Olodumare: God in

Yoruba Belief, London, 1962; Awolalu J.O., West African Traditional

Religion, Ibadan, 1979.

(6) Holloway J.E., ed., Africanisms in American Culture, (Bloomington,

1990), 37.

(7) Mbiti documents many examples from several African societies. Cf.

African Religions and Philosophy, 107 - 161. In his Concept of God in

Africa, he dedicates a whole chapter to discuss Africans' "Times and

Places of Worship": every day; at the observation of the rites of

passage; at the harvest ceremony; at planting time; in time of war or

raid; in time of drought or when rain is needed; at the time of

distress, illness, calamity, or other disaster; before or during an

undertaking; annually or monthly; on special days and occasions; and

other times. See Chapter 20.

(8) Barret D., ed., World Christian Encyclopaedia, Nairobi, 1982.

(9) In the reply to question 44 of the Lineamenta for the 1994 African

Synod the Episcopal Conference of Burkina Faso remarked: "La religion

traditionnelle Africaine survit toujours, mme si elle va s'effritant.

Malgr la modernisation et le mouvement de Christianisation et

d'Islamisation, son influence reste profonde sur les consciences des

individus, puisqu'il s'agit d'une religion qui a sa source dans la

famille mme." The Episcopal Conference of Cameroon in their own reply

to the same question wrote: "La Religion Traditionnelle Africaine

demeure vivace dans toutes les couches de la socit camerounaise. Elle

s'accommode aisment des exigences de la science, de la technologie et

ne se trouve nullement freine par les structures d'un Etat moderne."

(10) On sacrifices among the Igbo, G.T. Basden observes: "?sacrifices

are offered, not from any desire to give, but because of the fear that,

unless they are offered their lives and interests will be blighted.

Every man must contribute his share in public festivals, and all join in

the subsequent carousals, but no man offers sacrifice privately until he

feels compelled to do so by adverse circumstances; it is never a

voluntary offering. Sacrifice is offered solely to appease a malignant

god whose imperative demands are indicated by the gods' executive, i.e.

the medicine-man (dibia)." Cf. Among the Ibos of Nigeria (Lagos, 21983),

223. This view, although in part true, does not present the whole

meaning of sacrifice for an African. Mbiti listed four theories that

explain the meaning and function of sacrifices and offerings among the

followers of African traditional religion: gift theory, propitiation

theory, communion theory and thank-offering theory. See African

Religions and Philosophy (Oxford, 21990), 59; Arinze F., Sacrifice in

Igbo land (Ibadan, 1970).

(11) Ganda Art, (Entebbe, 1969), 31 -32.

(12) Concepts of God, 241.

(13) Peter J. Paris, The Spirituality of African Peoples, 30.

(14) Ikenga-Metuh E., Comparative Studies of African Traditional

Religions, (Onitsha, 1987), 103.

(15) On this complex relationship and the place of the subordinate

divinities and spirits in the African Traditional religion, there is

abundant literature in print. See my webpage on the internet at

http://users.iol.it/cdi/atr_bibliography.htm, for a detailed bibliography.

(16) Setiloane G.M., African Theology: An Introduction, (Johannesburg,

1986), 29.

(17) Cf. Mbiti J.S., Concepts of God in Africa,26. See also Lystad R.A.,

The Ashanti, (New Brunswick, 1958), 163; and Claridge G.C., Wild Bush

Tribes of Tropical Africa, (London, 1922), 268-269.

(18) Cf. Callaway H., The Religious System of the Amazulu, (London,

1870), 9-10. But O. Pettersson (in Chiefs and Gods, Lund, 1953) opines

that probably the name has been lost in the course of history, 153.

(19) See Hinde H., The Last of the Massai, (London, 1901), 99; Campbell

D., In the Heart of Bantuland, (London, 1922), 245; Nalder L.F., ed., A

Tribal Survey of the Mongalla Province, 1937, 172-173.

(20) Concepts of God in Africa, 27.

(21) Comparative Studies, 103.

(22) Africa and Christianity, (Oxford, 1937), 79.

(23) The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria (New York, 1965), 94. The absence of

significant influence of the high god among the Igbo of Nigeria has been

noted by one of the early European missionaries, G.T. Basden in his

Niger Ibos, (London, 1938/1966), 37. In his Among the Ibos of Nigeria

(Lagos, 1921 rep. 1983), Basden remarks: "The knowledge of the Supreme

Being is practically confined to the name and the interpretation

thereof", 216. See also Ikenga-Metuh, Comparative Studies, 126.

(24) Fetishism and Fetish Worshippers, 1885, 9ff.

(25) Nupe Religion, (London, 1954), 11.

(26) Ikenga- Metuh, Comparative Studies, 125-126; See also Nadel S.F.,

Op.cit., 18.

(27) Ulli B., The Origin of Life and Death, (London, 1966), 19.

(28) Mbiti J.S., African Religions and Philosophy, 94-95.

(29) See the contribution of K.A. Busia, "The Ashanti," in Forde D.,

ed., African Worlds, (Oxford, 1954), 192.

(30) Mbiti J.S., African Religions and Philosophy, 95.

(31) Ibid. See also Smith E.W., ed., African Ideas of God, (London,

21961), 278f.

(32) Mbiti J.S., African Religions and Philosophy, 95.

(33) "Perseverance and Transmutation in African Traditional Religions,"

in Olupona J.K., ed., African Traditional Religions in Contemporary

Society, (New York, 1991), 174.

(34) See Rattray H.S., Ashanti, Oxford, 1923, rep. 1969.

(35) Alice Werner has, as early as 1933, made this observation in her

book, Myths and Legends of the Bantu. See particularly pp. 41ff. Cf.

Also Middletown J., Lugbara Religion, Oxford, 1960; Lienhardt G.,

Divinity and Experience, Oxford, 1961; Harjula R., God and the Sun in

Meru Thought, Helsinki, 1969.

(36) See the theophoric names compiled by J.S. Mbiti in Concepts of God

in Africa, 327-336.

(37) Metuh made allusion to this in his Comparative Studies, 109.

(38) This is one of the many instances of the closeness of thought

between the Igbo people and the Jews. G.T. Basden in 1938, at the end of

his monumental work on Igbo tribe of southern Nigeria, gave a chapter to

the discussion on the similarities between the Israelites and the Igbos.

See Niger Ibos (London, 21966), 411-423.

(39) Paris P.J., The Spirituality of African Peoples, 32.

(40) Part of the reason for this "gender-less" concept is the fact that

many African languages do not have specific pronouns for genders.

(41) "The Role of Women in African Traditional Religion," in Onupona

J.K., ed., African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society, (New

York, 1991), 74.

(42) Comparative studies, 107.

(43) See Smith E.W., The Ila Speaking of Northern Rhodesia, 96; Di Nola

A.M., ed., The Prayers of Man, (London, 1962), 7.

(44) Dymond holds that the saying is from among the Ovambo tribe. See

Smith E.W., ed., African Ideas of God, 146.

(45) Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion, 53.

(46) Schebesta P., Revisiting my Pygmy Hosts (London, 1936), 174.

(47) See Mbiti, Concepts of God, 91-94.

(48) Claridge G.C., Wild Bush Tribes of Tropical Africa (London, 1922),

270.

(49) African Religions and Philosophy, 96.

(50) Ibid.

(51) From "Prayer for conversion of Africa" which the author was taught

to recite with diligence when he was younger. Probably the prayer was

prepared by the missionaries. It is now almost suppressed and forgotten.

(52) Original text: "ife ndi obodo n'eme dika ife alusi, ikpoku ndi

mmuo, ichu aja m'obu idebe ogwu chekwube ya ka Chukwu; i gwo ajo ogwu, i

kwa ozu ka ndi ogo mmuo nya na iso ndi obodo wee mee etu ife afu."

(53) Basden G.T., Niger Ibos, (London 21966), xviii.

(54) "Archaeological and Other Prehistoric Evidence of Traditional

African Religious Expression," in Religion in Africa, ed, Thomas

Blakely, et al. (Portsmouth, 1994), 165.

(55) Cohen M.A., "Symbolism," Encyclopaedia of Religion, vol. 14, ed. M.

Eliade (London, 1986), 204.

(56) Cirlot J.E., A Dictionary of Symbols, 2nd ed. transl. Jack Sage

(London, 1971), xxxix.

(57) Cf. Kooy V.H., "Symbol, Symbolism," in Interpreters Dictionary of

the Bible, vol. 4, 472-476.

(58) Opus cit., 204.

(59) Mbiti J.S., Concepts of God , 149.

(60) Wagner G., in Forde D.I., Op.cit., 43.; Mbiti J.S., Concepts of God

in Africa, (London, 1970), 76. We shall lean heavily on Mbiti's work as

a great source of information for our discussion here.

(61) Mbiti J.S., Concepts, 76.

(62) Gulliver P. & Gulliver P.H., The Central Nilo-Hamites, (London,

1953), 47.

(63) Smith E.W., & Dale A.M., The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern

Rhodesia, vol. I, (London, 1920), 199.

(64) Cf. Goody J., Death, Property and the Ancestors (London, 1962); and

also Metuh E., Comparative Studies, 270-272.

(65) Metuh, Ibid., 271.

(66) O'tito. Extract taken from the internet webpage maintained by

Fashina Falade at: http://www.artnet.net/~ifa/otito.htm, Ijo Orunmila.

(67) Mbiti calls those who live in this new state "living dead".

(68) Op. cit., 52. Margaret W. Creel explains: "Ancestors retained their

normal human passions and appetites, which had to be gratified in death

as in life. Ancestors felt hunger and thirst. They became angry or happy

depending on the behaviour of their living "children." The living dead

were vindictive if neglected but propitious if shown respect. Just as

filial loyalty prevents one from allowing a parent to go hungry, "so

must food be offered to the ancestors." See "Gullah Attitudes toward

Life and Death," in Joseph E. Holloway, Op. cit., 88.

(69) Metuh, Comparative Studies, 272.

* * * * * * *

CANADIAN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

Religious Ceremonies Involving More than One Faith Tradition

September 2001

At certain times in Canadian public life, significant events call on the resources of the religious and spiritual traditions of our land. These might be occasions of public mourning, as in the case of the crash of SwissAir Flight 111 near Peggy's Cove. They might be solemn events such as the bringing home of the Unknown Soldier to Ottawa in the summer of 2000. They could be moments celebrating our history, such as the memorializing of the "Famous Five Women" from the Persons Case. In communities across our land, Thanksgiving Day is often marked with multifaith celebrations.

The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) offers the following guidelines as a contribution towards acknowledging the multifaith realities of our country. Developed by the CCC Interfaith Relations Committee in consultation with partners from the Muslim and Jewish faiths, and adopted as a statement of the Council, these guidelines provide suggestions for planning and conducting public religious ceremonies that include the participation of a diversity of religious traditions.

Guidelines for Religious Ceremonies Involving More than One Faith Tradition

Prayer involving members of more than one religious tradition is appropriate on public occasions when the wider community comes together to celebrate, or to mourn following tragedy. As members of diverse communities in consultation with one another, we have made the following recommendations to our constituencies.

Such religious ceremonies grow out of, and reflect, respect for all traditions present. This respect needs to be present in the planning as well as in the actual event. Faith Communities should take the initiative to work collaboratively in planning such events. They are free to name their own leadership to participate in the actual prayer.

* Introductory bidding prayers should be inclusive, in the form of an invocation that opens the community to the divine presence. Sensitivity toward all participants ought to guide all activities.

* Each participating leader should be free to pray from within his or her own tradition, and to read from texts that are considered sacred in his or her own tradition.

* Leaders may speak positively about their own tradition, not negatively about other faith traditions.

* It is appropriate to pray individually and collectively for the good and well-being of the whole community gathered. It is inappropriate in this context to offer prayers which imply the incompleteness of another faith tradition.

The aim of such religious ceremonies is to foster that respectful presence which enables members of a community to support and affirm each other. These guidelines give all participants the freedom to speak from their own traditions faithfully, and the responsibility to respect other traditions fully.

The Canadian Council of Churches

159 Roxborough Drive

Toronto, ON, M4W 1X7, Canada Tel: 416.972.9494 Fax: 416.927.0405

The following article appeared in The Unique Christ In Our Pluralist World edited by Bruce Nicholls, Carlisle, U.K.: Paternoster Press and Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1994. Pp. 47- 56.

Kwame Bediako⁽¹⁾

The Unique Christ In The Plurality Of Religions

Dr. Kwame Bediako examines the uniqueness of Christ from the perspective of the spiritual aspirations and fears of people of other faiths. He argues that the biblical affirmations are witnesses to the unique Christ. He calls for a theology of the Holy Spirit in interpreting the incarnation as a unique sign and demonstration of divine vulnerability in history; redemption through the Cross as the logic of divine love; and the Lords table demonstrating the making of one people out of many peoples. Bediako argues for inclusiveness without exclusiveness (See Christ Wrights introduction).

INTRODUCTION:

CHRIST, UNIQUE IN RELATION TO 'OTHER LORDS

'Jesus is the Son of God, said the Christian evangelist.

'My shrine-spirit is also a child of God, said the traditionalist. What is the next line in the discussion?

That sequence in a constructed conversation between a Christian preacher and an African religious traditionalist may be taken to illustrate the kind of issues that are at stake in the Christian affirmation of the uniqueness of Christ in the midst of the plurality of religions. It is not often recognized in Christian circles that theological affirmations about Christ are meaningful ultimately not in terms of what Christians say, but in terms of what persons of other faiths understand those affirmations to imply for them. In other words, our Christian affirmations about the uniqueness of Christ achieve their real impact when they are tested to establish their credentials and validity not only in terms of the religious and spiritual universe in which Christians habitually operate, but also and indeed especially, in terms of the religious and spiritual worlds which persons of other faiths inhabit. For it is, after all, in those 'other worlds that the true meaning of the unique Christ is meant to become apparent and be validated.

Perhaps I need to stress that the procedure I suggest does not mean that Christian affirmations are to be shaped or determined by the content of other religious faiths, let alone be derived from those sources. The point is rather that by their very nature, Christian affirmations about the unique Christ of our faith arise from their relationship to the claims and presuppositions that are made by persons of other faiths for theirs. There are no real grounds for affirming the uniqueness of Christ where there are no alternatives to be taken seriously. In the words of the apostle Paul:

For although there may be so-called gods jn heaven or on earth -- as indeed there are many 'gods and many 'lords --, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom they exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Cor. 8:5--6, RSV).

In the apostles statement, the very affirmation that there is only one Lord Jesus Christ is made in relation to the other 'so-called many lords. In other words, affirmation of uniqueness has meaning as it relates to alternative claims. Accordingly, the affirmation about the unique Lord Jesus Christ arises from how he is perceived in his relation to other 'lords.

The approach I am taking is essentially that adopted by Bishop Kenneth Cragg, a sure guide into our subject, in his book, The Christ and the Faiths -- Theology in Cross-Reference (London; SPCK, 1986). Bishop Cragg states this quite clearly from the start:

There would seem to be today a growing recognition that Christian theology must justify its being 'Christian by undertaking a theology of religion at large and incorporating this into its traditional responsibility for its own distinctiveness. It is there -- Christian theology in harness with a theology of religion and tethered around the theme of the Christ -- that this book aims to take in hand (xi).

In my view, it is this approach that the New Testament, indeed the Old Testament as well, take in affirming the unique divine self-disclosure that we have been given and which culminates in our Lord Jesus Christ.

CHRISTIAN AFFIRMATIONS - AS RECOGNITION NOT

ASSERTIONS

Once the affirmation about the unique Christ is expressed in the terms we have suggested, it may seem to be so self-evident that it might not need to be stated. And yet, in point of fact, it is because the nature of our Christian affirmations is so often misconstrued by Christians and non--Christians alike that the issue can bear some elaboration.

It is perhaps not an exaggeration to suggest that there is a general tendency in Christian circles to treat Christian affirmations as essentially theological data, as some sort of fixed grid of doctrinal positions which have an inherent meaning in and of themselves, irrespective of their validation in terms other than those in which they are stated. The affirmation about the unique Christ will, accordingly, be one such theological datum. While there may be a case for treating our own formulations of our doctrinal positions in this way, I am certain that we cannot treat biblical affirmations in that way. Biblical affirmations, while they have the character of convictions, nevertheless, arenot given as fixed data. Rather, being an integral part of the total biblical revelation, they share in the character and purpose of that revelation, namely, to provide the conditions for humans to make an identical response ~of faith in the unique Christ, whom they reveal and to whom they bear witness. Within the scriptures this process can be identified in the apostle Pauls statement in 2 Corinthians 4:13--14:

Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote: 'I believed and so I spoke, we too believe, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

The truth of biblical revelation, therefore, is not just truth to be believed in by ~ mere intellectual or mental assent; it is truth to be participated in. Paul by his faith in Christ, finds that he has become a participant in the same truth as motivated the psalmist in Psalm 116:10.

Another way of expressing this view is to say that the truth of biblical revelation is the truth not of assertion, but of recognition. In that sense, the biblical affirmations concerning the uniqueness of Christ are not arbitrary claims or assertions, made a priori in the interests of, or for the benefit of, any particular community, not even of the Christian community. The affirmations too are the fruit of recognition, and are intended, in centrifugal motion, to find their true significance in their application to the human whole. Thus, these affirmations, in reverse centripetal motion, provide the opportunity and the conditions for the perception or recognition by others of their significance for them. It is in this way that it becomes possible to describe the entire biblical revelation as a witness -- borne by God, and especially to his Son, but also borne by those who, in response to the divine initiative, became partakers by this recognition, of the truth of the witness of God. The cumulative effect of biblical revelation, understood as witness, is the expectation that it will generate similar recognition of the truth to which it witnesses. Thus, in the well-known words of 1 John 1: 1ff.:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you may have the fellowship with us.

The whole of the nature of the biblical revelation may be said to be summarized in these verses. They show that the climactic divine self-disclosure was not in a set of documented religious formulae or theological propositions, but rather in a life -- in a human life which could be seen, looked upon and touched. And yet the quality of that human life was such that it provided and continues to provide, clues for its recognition as truly divine in its origin, and it was truly human in its manifestation. Upon this recognition Christian affirmation makes its claim that the human-divine life to which it bears witness is the light of the world and the life and hope of the whole of humankind and of the cosmos itself.

To clarify further our argument, perhaps in contrast to another major religious faith, Islam, we may quote a recent observation by Andrew Walls:

Much misunderstanding in Christian-Muslim relations has occurred from the assumption that the Bible and the Quran have analogous status in the respective faiths. But the true Christian anology with the Quran is not the Bible but Christ. Christ for Christians, the Quran for Muslims, is the Eternal Word of God; but Christ is Word Translated. That fact is the sign that the contingent Scriptures (also describable as Word of God), unlike the Quran, may and should constantly be translated.

Incarnation is translation. When God in Christ became man, Divinity was translated into humanity, as though humanity were a receptor language. Here was a clear statement of what would otherwise be veiled in obscurity or uncertainty, the statement, 'This is what God is like.¹

In sum, then, the principle of recognition, focusing as it does on seeing Christ as God incarnate and accessible, becomes of crucial importance for rightly understanding the true character of the Christian affirmation concerning the unique Christ. As Christ himself said to the Pharisees:

You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is they that bear witness to me; and yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life (Jn. 5:39f.).

THE UNIQUE CHRIST (1):

RELIGIONS AS TRADITIONS OF RESPONSE

Once the point is granted that Christian affirmations about the unique Christ are not assertions, but rather invitations to recognition, it becomes essential to engage the major question: What then is it that in Christ confronts us, which calls for recognition? This is the fundamental question regarding the status of the unique Christ amid the plurality of religions. It is to be answered not by Christian claims alone, but also by conclusions arrived at through working with the inward meanings of the religious worlds of other faiths. This is so because the vindication of the status of the unique Christ is seen, ultimately, as a demonstration that he is able to inhabit those other worlds also as the Lord.

Here we can begin only with the ministry of Jesus on earth, 'in the days of his flesh (Heb. 5:7, RSV), in other words, as the divine self-disclosure in and through him was offered for recognition to men and women. In this regard, it is important that in Pauls summary of the gospel he focuses, in effect, on the actual events of the life and ministry of Jesus. 'He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, was buried. . . was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures . . . He appeared . . . to Cephas, . . . the twelve . . . more than five hundred brethren at one time . . . to James . . . all the apostles . . . last of all to me (1 Cor. 15:3--9). These actual 'earthly events in the career of Jesus came to be recognized as soteriologically significant; Pauls own final testimony to the efficacy of the salvific import and reach of those events in vv. 9--11 is the sign that these events, validated by the witness of the Scriptures, did and do contain and offer the conditions which make the recognition of their significance possible.

This concentration on the 'earthly ministry of Jesus is valid and indeed necessary, since it is in the circumstances of human earthly existence that we are given to discern and understand the religious dimension of human life in the experiences of men and women. In turn, what constitutes the 'stuff of the sacred, the category of the religious in peoples experiences, becomes important as the locus of the encounter between Christian affirmation and the plurality of so-called 'non-Christian religions. This is another way of saying that it would be false to conceive of the meeting of Christian affirmation with the religious meanings of other faiths in terms of mutually exclusive systems, or even of credal formulations. Rather, the encounter takes place in the things that pertain to the Spirit who, like the wind, blows where he wills. In this sense, a discussion of the ways in which the Christian affirmation about the unique Christ relates to the plurality of religions, involves also a theology of the Holy Spirit. As Kenneth Cragg has written:

In the mystery and the burden of the plurality of religions, there lies, surely, the supreme test of the meaning we intend when we say, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit.²

There is an obvious analogy here with the attempts found in some authors in early patristic theology, particularly Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria.³ However, in place of their notion of the pre-Incarnate Word (Logos) who operated as much in extra-biblical tradition as in the biblical, I evoke the activity of the Holy Spirit.

Since we are concerned with religions, not as 'belief-systems,' but as the matrix in which men and women experience and respond to, the 'stuff of the sacred, in their human existence, it is possible to agree with John V. Taylor in how we may regard peoples religions:

I believe it is truer to think of a religion as a peoples tradition of response to the reality the Holy Spirit has set before their eyes. I am deliberately not saying that any religion is the truth which the Spirit disclosed, nor even that it contains that truth. All we can say without presumption is that this is how men have responded and taught others to respond to what the Spirit made them aware of. It is the history of a particular answer, a series of answers, to the call and claim of him who lies beyond all religions.⁴

Looked at as 'a tradition of response to the reality and disclosure of the Transcendent, every religion can be probed, therefore, not so much for the measure of truth it contains, as for the truth of the human response to the divine action within the tradition. As a tradition of response, every religion also displays within it, 'the same tension between conservatism and development which characterises all human response to the call of God which comes through the new situation.⁵ It becomes possible, then, to speak also of a plurality within a religion as a tradition of response, and to distinguish strands of response within it. Thus, it is possible to understand how one response to Old Testament religious teaching can lead to the Mishnah and the Talmud whilst another response can lead to the New Testament. The distinction of strands occurs in the process of the encounter with Jesus, who is Christ the Lord.

THE UNIQUE CHRIST (2):

WHAT IS IT THAT, IN CHRIST, CONFRONTS US?

Granted therefore that the Christian affirmation about the unique Christ in the midst of the plurality of religions encounters traditions of response to the disclosure of the Transcendent that the Holy Spirit sets before people, our present task is to demonstrate how the scriptural witness to the life and ministry of Christ, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, is the clue to the yearnings and quests in the religious lives of people. As Kenneth Cragg remarks, 'the critical question for the Christian is 'how to have the meanings of Christ operative in human hearts.⁵

There are three aspects of Christian affirmation about the unique Christ which readily stand out for consideration. The first is the affirmation concerning the Incarnation, namely, the affirmation that in Christ, God humbled himself and identified with humankind in Christs birth as a human baby, born of woman, and endured the conditions of 'normal human existence -- in other words, the Incarnation is supremely the unique sign and demonstration of divine vulnerability in history.

The second aspect relates to the Christian affirmation about the Cross of Christ, showing forth the will to suffer forgivingly and redemptively as the very expression of the divine mind and the logic of the divine love. Accordingly all other attempts to achieve the redemptive ends which Christ sought, apart from the ways of the Cross, are revealed as partial and inadequate.

The third aspect relates to the communion at the Lords Table, in which the invitation to all who are united to Christ in faith to partake of the holy emblems of bread and wine -- symbols of Christs redemptive achievement through his body and blood -- demonstrates the uniqueness of the making of one people out of the many of humankind. Accordingly, the reconciliation of broken relationships across racial, ethnic, national, cultural, social and economic barriers becomes an important test of the nature of a peoples response to the disclosure of the Transcendent which the Holy Spirit sets before them.

It is possible to reformulate these three aspects of what confronts us in the ministry of Christ as follows: in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit reveals to us a divine paradigm which confronts all religions, in men and women in three specific areas -- in the understanding of power and weakness, in the response to evil and in the response to cultural enmity and social exclusiveness. It is by these down-to-earth clues to the divine paradigm disclosed in the ministry of Christ that all religions are challenged and invited to make an equally concrete response, in faith, repentance and obedience. In this respect, Christianity too, formally equivalent to the other religions as traditions of response, is challenged to respond to the unique Christ who is the Lord. For,

. . . Man-in-Christianity lies under the wrath of God just as much, and for the same reasons, as man-in-Hinduism.

and,

it is not Christianity that saves, but Christ.⁷

In Jesus Christ, then, we have the threefold paradigm of divine vulnerability, the will to redemptive suffering and reconciling love, not as abstract notions, but as concrete events and deeds in a human life, and achieved in ways which Christian faith reads as expressive of the divine nature itself. As the Gospel records of yet another instance of recognition:

When the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, 'Truly, this man was the Son of God (Mk. 15:39, RSV).

What, therefore, in Christ, confronts us, are clues to the recognition of divine self-disclosure and the consequent challenge to become a disciple, one in whose incarnate life that disclosure has been given. Thus the Christian affirmation about the unique Christ in the midst of the plurality of religions does not arise, first and foremost, from theological propositions or credal formulations, but rather from the recognition of the divine nature expressed in actual historical existence. Kenneth Cragg is right to point out:

Sonship, then, before it becomes a term in creeds, is a reality in deeds. We have to read that central decision of willingness to suffer. . . as the expression in the actual, of that by which it was sustained in the volitional. 'The cup which my Father has given me; 'Father, glorify thy Name: 'Father, forgive; 'Father, into thy hands I commend. . .'; these were the prayers within which Jesus suffered. Sonship, in that immediate, existential sense, was the context of his doing. Therefore, we take it also as the secret of his being. If Jesus is 'Son of God in the music of the Te Deum and in the confessions of Nicea and Chalcedon, it is because he was the Son of God beneath the olive branches of Gethsemane and in the darkness of Golgotha.⁸

And, as Cragg further remarks:

that confession did not, could not, mean adoption, or deification, or divinisation. For it could not be rightly stated except as the divine initiative . . . An acquired Sonship is not a fulfilled one. Only as we can say: 'God was in Christ can we rightly say: 'Jesus is Lord (ibid).

What remains important is the realization that the focus of the Christian affirmation is not the assertion of a formula, but the recognition of an achievement in actual history which, in turn, provides clues to the sources of those deeds. As one apostolic precedent of how that history is to be interpreted, says:

Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Mechizedek (Heb. 5: 8--10).

The consistent New Testament pattern of affirmation about Christ is to work from the actual historical achievement in his life, ministry, death and resurrection, to the theological elaboration of the universal significance and application of that achievement. If we wish to follow the New Testament in our affirmation of the unique Christ in the midst of the plurality of religions, then we can also have what Kenneth Cragg calls a 'sober, critical confidence⁹ that the actual history of the achievement in the ministry of Christ is able to stake its claims in the religious worlds of other faiths, because we hold that 'the "mind of the Christ" generates the mind of the Church about the Christ, and not the other way round.¹⁰ The 'meanings of Christ as given in the symbols of the Incarnation, the Cross and the reconciling fellowship at the Lords Table, can become operative in human hearts because he belongs there, and whatever is ultimate in the religious universe of every 'tradition of response, at least in intention, is Christ.

This means also that the encounter between the unique Christ and the meanings inherent in other religions takes place in the terms of those meanings themselves. Acts 14:15--17 and Acts 17:22--34 indicate that this is a possibility. In the process, it also becomes possible to explore new theological idioms without surrendering the Christian content, which, strictly, is Christ himself. I have attempted to demonstrate that, in relation to the spiritual universe of African primal religions, for instance, it is possible to apply to Christ the religiously significant category of Ancestor, but in a far richer sense than is traditionally held about lineal ancestors:

Jesus Christ is the only real and true Ancestor and Source of life for all mankind, fulfilling and transcending the benefits believed to be bestowed by lineage ancestors. By his unique achievement in perfect atonement through his own self-sacrifice, and by effective eternal mediation and intercession as God-man in the divine presence, he has secured eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12) for all those who acknowledge who he is for them and what he has done for them, abandon the blind alleys of merely human traditions and rituals and instead entrust themselves to him. As mediator of a new and better covenant between God and humanity (Hebrews 8:6; 12:24), Jesus brings the redeemed into the experience of a new identity in which he links their human destinies directly and consciously with the eternal gracious will and purpose of a loving and caring God (Hebrews 12:22--24). No longer are human horizons bounded by lineage, clan, tribe or nation. For the redeemed now belong within the community of the living God, in the joyful company of the faithful of all ages and climes. They are united in fellowship which through their union with Christ is infinitely richer than the mere social bonds of lineage, clan, tribe or nation, which exclude the 'stranger as a virtual 'enemy."

CONCLUSION: A CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS

PLURALISM - THE CONTINUING ENCOUNTER

Conceivably it may be objected that the approach I propose is too open-ended, and even risky, for leaving many questions unresolved from the start and for holding many Christian theological propositions in abeyance. One response would be that such an approach, through openness and vulnerability, is what Christian witness to the divine vulnerability in Christ demands. How could we bear witness to the divine incognito in Christ if we saw our task as the coercion of belief by the discrediting of the religious values of other faiths as 'traditions of response to the reality of the Transcendent? On the contrary, our affirmation of the unique Christ in the midst of the plurality of religions, which is the task of a Christian theology of religious pluralism, consists in commending the meanings of Christ as discussed above, to men and women

in their own worlds of faith, respecting their personalities as beings created, like ourselves, in the image of the one and the same Creator, and yet seeking to 'move them Christward in the freedom of their personal wills.² Thus, a Christian theology of religious pluralism becomes an exercise in spirituality, in which one affirms a commitment to the ultimacy of Christ, whilst accepting the integrity of other faiths and those who profess them.

A remark by Bishop John Taylor, citing Kenneth Cragg, on what lies at the heart of Christian-Muslim differences, helps to focus our attention again on the encounter which truly takes place 'in the things that pertain to the Spirit, as expressed in actual history:

. . . the contradictions between Muslim and Christian fidelity can be seen to arise in large part from the different ways in which the Messiah and the Prophet responded to the same situation when it confronted them. Each was sure of his call to show men a new way, preaching, gathering the crowds, training his disciples; and each was faced with the opposition of the religious leaders, rejection and disaffection on his followers. What did he do? Jesus chose to go on in the same way, in the same spirit. He bowed his head to what was coming; he accepted rejection, failure and death, entrusting the outcome to God. Tn the case of Muhammad, it looked for a moment as if he too would take the way of suffering; but then he decided to fight back on behalf of the truth. He raised his army and marched on Mecca: and that was the turning point in his career and the birth of Islam. From these two choices, one can derive the fundamental difference between Christian and Muslim ideas of Gods nature. . . The gulf between them is seen, as it were, in cross section; for it is nothing less than the cross which is now demanding our decision. Once more we see that the evangelism of the Holy Spirit consists in creating the occasion for choice. The servant of the Gospel can do not less and perhaps need do no more¹³ (emphasis mine).

Bishop Taylors observations bring us full circle: the Christian affirmation about the unique Christ in the midst of the plurality of religions implies the provision in Christ-like humility and vulnerability, of the conditions which make the perception and recognition of Jesus as Christ the Lord, possible.

NOTES

1 Walls, Andrew F. (1990), 'The translation principle in Christian history in, P.C. Stine (ed.), Bible translation and the spread of the Church -- the last 200 years, Leiden:

E.J. Brill: 24--39.

2. Cragg, Kenneth (1968), Christianity in World Perspective, London: Lutterworth Press, p. 71.

3. Bediako, Kwame (1992), Theology and Identity -- the impact of culture upon Christian thought in the second century and modern Africa, Oxford: Regnum Books.

4. Taylor, J.V. (1972), The Go-Between God -- The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission, London: SCM Press, p. 182.

5. Ibid., p. 183.

6. Cragg, Kenneth (1977), The Christian and other religions -- the measure of Christ, London & Oxford: Mowbrays, p. 116. 7. Walls, Andrew F. (1970), 'The first chapter of the epistle to the Romans and the modern missionary movement in, W. Gasque & R.P. Martin (eds), Apostolic History and the Gospel, Exeter: Paternoster Press: p. 357.

8. Cragg, Kenneth. The Christian and Other Religions op. cit., p. 56. 9. Ibid. p. 59.

10. Ibid.

11. Bediako, Kwame (1990), Jesus in African Culture -- a Ghanaian perspective, Accra: Asempa Publishers, p. 41f.

12. Cragg, Kenneth. The Christian and Other Religions, p. 116.

13. Taylor, op. Cit., p. 188f.

* * * * * *

1. Dr. Kwame Bediako is director of the Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre, AkropongAkuapem, Ghana.