Christianity in Africa

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will address the theme of how Christian faith interacts with its surrounding context as Christians reflect on scripture and tradition in light of their experience. How do Christian theology and practice respond to issues arising from particular religious, cultural, and political contexts? How has this caused Christianity to take different shapes in varied historical and social settings? The church has wrestled with these questions since its inception, as the Acts of the Apostles and other New Testament writings show. Grounded in this biblical witness and a framework provided by contemporary theologians, we will explore these issues through examples drawn from the church in Africa. We will consider the work of African theologians as well as the lived theology of African Christians. We will survey exemplary cases from the history of the Christianity in Africa, but the course will focus on recent Christian theology, worship, and social ethics. For example we will explore the development of African Christologies, how gender shapes the transmission and reception of Christianity, the Rwandan genocide, and the church's role in peacebuilding. Through this course, students will be exposed to some of the varied manifestations of Catholicism and the broader Christian tradition in African contexts, and they will be trained to reflect on how context has shaped Christian faith in all settings.