Justin Ukpong's Jesus - Emmanuel for our times

Abstract

“Africa has a long association with the Bible…At the time of Jesus, the Bible was being read in Africa…Since then, the Bible has continued to be read in Africa” (Mbiti 1994:27). Jesus Christ is the key character with which many who come to the Bible are concerned, academics as well as countless ‘ordinary’ readers. Beyond the methodological considerations wherein this leading African chronicler of African Biblical Hermeneutics has made an immense contribution, what specific insights might we glean from Justin Ukpong’s work about the Jesus of the canonical evangelists vis-a-vis our work as organic intellectuals? What does Ukpong’s Jesus offer present-day South Africa, if one with a missiological interest may extrapolate?