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Out of Africa
Thomas Oden reminds us of classical Christianity's debt to Africa in How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind.
David Neff
Christianity Today
2/29/2008
A few years ago, an African-American friend and I were discussing a popular black pastor whose doctrine of the Trinity just wasn't orthodox. My colleague thought Christianity Today should give the man a pass. After all, he was doing good ministry and the fine points of the Trinity were just more of that dead-white-European-male baggage.
I hadn't thought of it before that moment, but suddenly I had a flash: Athanasius, the architect of Trinitarian orthodoxy, was African, not European. (So, of course, was Arius, the heretic who drove Athanasius to distraction.)
I took the opportunity to remind my colleague that orthodoxy arose out of the African context.
Indeed, many of the shapers of Christian orthodoxy were African. Names like Augustine, Tertullian, Origen, Clement, Anthony, and Pachomius were familiar from my undergraduate church-history survey. But my professor had not presented them as Africans ministering and teaching in the context of an African culture.
That common omission is what theologian Thomas C. Oden wants to address with the Early African Christianity Project as well as with his book, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind (IVP, 2007).
For the rest of the story click here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/februaryweb-only/109-52.0.html
