{"title":"Looking Back – Looking Forward","authors":"L. Magesa","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.20559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.20559","url":null,"abstract":"Proclaiming Christ throughout the world – or evangelization – is the mission of God entrusted to the church. As such it is achieved through the agency of human beings, situated in time and space. This means that the mission of evangelization, because it is necessarily culture-bound, takes different forms, models, or paradigms depending on the identity and convictions of the evangelizer, on the one hand, and the situation of the recipient, on the other. In Africa, it is European missionaries who undertook this mission, and its process has manifested itself differently at different times. This brief essay identifies three major models that have been used in Africa since the end of the nineteenth century (Common Era), and discusses their implications for Christianity.","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115750308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decolonial Approaches and Practices in African Theology","authors":"Ignace Ndongala","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.20560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.20560","url":null,"abstract":"This paper surveys the main paradigms of francophone Catholic African theology from the late twentieth century until the present. It proposes that a new paradigm has emerged in the work of O. Bimwenyi Kweshi, M-P. Hebga and J-M. Ela. After outlining the development of the paradigms, this article summarizes and assesses the paradigm associated with Bimwenyi, Hebga, and Ela within the perspective of the decolonization of African theology. Relaying on Ela, he accounts for the knowledge which devalues the interpretations of the margins as defective, pre-scientific and primitive. Its aim is broad, in part to introduce these traditions to an English-speaking audience, but also to show the depth of resources within a particular tradition which is placed in the interstice between theology and social sciences, scholarly research and popularization, in a perspective of a de-occidentalization, de-compartmentalization and de-clericalization of theology. This makes it possible to point towards the shape of a decolonized African theology.","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125487126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Response to Dr. Claudia Jahnel’s Critical Concepts in the Study of African Theologies","authors":"K. Nshimbi","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.19449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.19449","url":null,"abstract":"African theology, as Claudia Jahnel of the African Theologies Network perceives it, constitutes a conceptual map whose boundaries comprise critical concepts. These concepts include ghosts, conversion, feminism and Islam, to mention just four. This response to Jahnel’s “Critical Concepts in the Study of African Theologies” appreciates the Network African Theologies’ initiative to bring together black African and White European theologians to explore methodologies of African theologies. This timely collaboration goes a long way towards deconstructing white European biases against black Africans not only in material or political terms, but also in mental or theological terms. In other words, the European-African collaboration brings the conceptual African theological map closer to reality. However, the Network African Theologies needs to ensure that it does not succumb, albeit inadvertently, to the usual power imbalances between white Europe and black Africa in this commendable task.","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114278939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"South African Universities and the Question of Decolonization","authors":"R. Malinowski","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.19575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.19575","url":null,"abstract":"Ernst Wolff, in his paper “South African universities and the question of decolonization,” addresses the issue of colonial legacy and decolonization in the context of philosophy. This response takes the argument of Wolf further, using the example of Church History Discipline. African Church History, or general history, is studied as long as it is useful to Western Legacy (Augustine, Origen) or has elements of Western participation (Portuguese missionaries, nineteenth century to Africa); besides this, African history is ignored and trivialised. Overcoming this prejudice will not only be an act of historical justice but also will create opportunity for African history philosophy to demonstrate its full potential.","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"2008 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130660741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Maps are all we Possess”","authors":"Claudia Jahnel","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.19367","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.19367","url":null,"abstract":"“Africa,” “ancestors,” “animism,” “authenticity,” these and other terms have shaped the scholarly research on African religions as well as the discursive field of African theology(ies). Over and above, they are still prevalent in stereotypical images of life and culture in “Africa.” A network of scholars of religious studies and of intercultural theology from Europe and Africa called “Theology(ies) Africa” has focused on analyzing the genealogy of terms that have become crucial in the study of religion and theology. The guiding assumption is that there are no simple terms. Terms are products of powerful and even conflicting processes of generating meaning, creating knowledge and exerting epistemic violence. The essay at hand displays guiding assumptions and crucial insights of the network group that is unique in the German speaking academic context. Established in 2017 its goal is to further the exchange between scholars who work on the religious and theological negotiations between Africa and Europe and to further especially young scientists in the field.","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133813495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ghost Stories","authors":"J. Gruber","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.19366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.19366","url":null,"abstract":"A crucial issue in methodological reflections on African theologies is the question how we can define “African” identity. Since Contextual Theologies first emerged in the early 1970s, it has become clear that the search for cultural identity cannot be pursued independently from the legacies of colonial power/knowledge regimes that continue to shape imaginations of Africa. Starting from a case study of the post/colonial relationship between Belgium and the DRC as it is imagined in the exhibition of the Africa Museum near Brussels, this contribution argues that postcolonial historiographies can have both, de- or recolonizing effects. It also brings theology into the conversation, arguing that core themes in postcolonial historiographies resonate deeply with central motives of the Christian tradition. Based on this interdisciplinary commentary, the article aims to contribute to a framework for conceptualizing post/colonial African identity in the wake of colonial trauma.","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130795372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interreligious Studies: Dispatches from an Emerging Field, edited by Hans Gustafson.","authors":"Younus Y. Mirza","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.20564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.20564","url":null,"abstract":"Interreligious Studies: Dispatches from an Emerging Field, edited by Hans Gustafson. Baylor University Press, 2020. 295 pp., Hb., £35. ISBN 978-1481312547","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"148 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123400433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Interritual Practices Demonstrate Religions’ Theologies of God? Toward a Critical Assessment","authors":"Najib George Awad","doi":"10.1558/ISIT.20563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ISIT.20563","url":null,"abstract":"Can people of different faiths worship the same God and pray inter-religiously? Can this worship demonstrate that the religions believe in the same God? Does the participation in interreligious prayer verify that the participants believe in one God? The essay tackles these inquiries by pointing to theological voices claiming that Christian-Muslim interreligious worship is a reliable basis for concluding that Christianity and Islam believe in the same God. It also offers an assessment in light of a personal interreligious worship experience. The essay shows whether or not there is an authentic, open, epistemic trajectory between religions and their followers’ religiosity, and whether the data collector can certainly rely on this relationship to construct a reliable epistemological perception of the religion’s interpretation of God. In sum, it examines critically whether it is the case that interreligious worship is always a reliable epistemic medium of the religious faith of the worshipping subjects.","PeriodicalId":323507,"journal":{"name":"Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116372603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}