Christian witness at a time of African renaissance - Looking Ahead to the WCC's Eighth Assembly: African Perspectives

Ecumenical Review, The, Oct, 1997 by John W. De Gruchy

Christianity has of course long been an African indigenous religion. The process began in Egypt within the first decades of the Christian movement and rapidly spread across North Africa, as well as down into Nubia and Ethiopia.2 Centuries before the evangelization or Christianization of Europe was accomplished, African Christianity had reached maturity. In doing so it had a remarkable impact on the future shape of Christianity in Europe and elsewhere. The contemporary movement of missionaries going from Africa to re-evangelize Europe was predated centuries ago by the widespread influence of Coptic monasticism on Celtic Christianity and subsequently more widely on Europe.(3) So the possibility that Africa may become the Christian continent, or that it may fulfil a crucial role in turning the dream of African renaissance into reality, has historical precedent.

Yet we should reflect more critically on the claim that Africa will be the Christian continent of the future. Even if the statistical forecasts are reasonably accurate, what can such an assertion possibly mean? Perhaps Africa will have the greatest concentration of people who claim to be Christian. But does that make Africa a Christian continent -- any more than the dominance of Christianity in North America makes that continent Christian? Is there not a danger that such talk reflects a triumphalism that leads to a complacency, which has never been healthy for the life of the church or society? It is unlikely to be different in Africa. What is far more important is whether African Christianity as a majority or minority religion faithfully reflects the reign of God and witnesses to the gospel in ways which enable the just and peaceful transformation of the continent.

With this in mind we must not only face the realities which confront Africa but also the realities of African Christianity. In celebrating its achievements, we should also reflect on its weaknesses, and so ponder its future with sharper discernment. Precisely at this moment of its world-historical significance, African Christianity needs to take account of the dangers lurking in its midst which can so easily subvert expectations. In this regard it is sobering to recall the rapid demise of the church of North Africa in the 7th century. Why did that ancient church, with its great leaders, Augustine among them, go into such rapid decline? The matter has been widely discussed and we need not go into detail here. Undoubtedly it had to do with the rise and spread of Arab power and Islamic faith. But it also had to do with internal problems within the church, epitomized by the Donatist schism, which tore the church apart. It is also true that the church failed to penetrate sufficiently deeply into Berber culture. The church in North Africa imploded, albeit under pressure from without. If such historical memories teach us anything, it is that well-founded expectations can be confounded by unexpected historical twists and turns.

We need a much more nuanced analysis of the church in Africa than can be provided by overly confident rhetoric combined with statistics. After all, the church situation is so complex and confusing that it is perhaps far more accurate to speak about "African Christianities" rather than African Christianity. At one level its amazing range of diversity -- from Coptic and Catholic through Anglican and Protestant to a vast number of African-initiated churches -- is part of the strength of African Christianity. Perhaps denominationalism as a category of ecclesial analysis does not quite fit this amazing array of church community, liturgy and life with all its vitality and growth. Yet how does this diversity, with all its contradictions and conflicts, relate to the claim that Africa will be the Christian continent of the future? Given the diversity of Christianity (especially in relation to the relative unity of Islam and the all-pervasiveness of African traditional religions), what sense can we make of the claim? Where are the coherence of faith and purpose, the shared vision of and solidarity in witness to the reign of God, the common commitment to evangelism and the transformation of unjust social orders, the mutual striving to ensure that Christianity overcomes its colonial past and becomes truly indigenous?