Beschreibung
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.
Autorenportrait
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.