Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 35:1 (Apr 2023)
Article: Book Review: "Who Do You Say I Am? Christology In Africa"
Author: Anonymous

Conspectus 35:1 (April 2023) p. 90

Book Review: Who Do You Say I Am? Christology In Africa

Reed, Rodney L., and David K. Ngaruiya, eds. 2021. Who Do You Say I Am? Christology in Africa. Carlisle: Langham Global Library. xv + 459 pp. ISBN: 978–1–83973–532–5. Approx. 630 ZAR ($34.19 USD). Paperback.

This volume complements previous editions of the annual conferences of the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology (ASET). The editors, Rodney L. Reed and David K. Ngaruiya, compiled the best papers at the 2020 ASET conference and grouped them into three parts, also adding a collection of five papers (part 4) paying tribute to the late Prof. John S. Mbiti, whose contribution to and influence upon ASET was thought to deserve special recognition.

Part 1, “Christ in the Bible,” comprises eight papers investigating New Testament passages on how they portray Jesus. But how should one read the Jesus stories? How should one relate to Jesus, a first-century Jew, from a contemporary African perspective?

Telesia K. Musili argues for a rereading of John 7:53–8:11 in the sense that Jesus extends an invitation that “brings out transformation, not only for the [adulterous] woman but also for all men and demeaning social structures” (p. 20). In an exegetical study of Luke 11:1–13, Timothy J. Monger evokes the honor-shame template of the parable that strikes a chord with East African cultures. Arguing that anaideia means “shamelessness” rather than “persistence,” the sleeper will extend hospitality to avoid his shamelessness in denying the friend’s request to go public. Jesus then purposely applies this to God, the “Father to reveal his nature: he will always act to preserve the honor of his name” (p. 38). Lydia Chemei, appraising John 4:1–42, purports “Eurocentric approaches in the analysis of the Christology of John’s gospel” lack “practical replication” of Jesus’s “inclusivity within the church leadership in Africa” (p. 43). In the encounter with the Samaritan woman, Jesus emerges “as the inclusive one, the nonjudgmental one, the teacher and the nurturer” (p. 43). She then deploys the concept of hybridity to relay these qualities “in imaging Christ as the egalitarian leader to formulate an African Christology that addresses the need for egalitarian leaders who model authentic servanthood as Christ did” (p. 44). Elizabeth W. Mburu avers that Western Christianity has “presented Christology in a particular way” which “has stunted the growth of a robust Christianity in Africa” (p. 57). Exploring Galatians “through the lens of an African Hermeneutic,...