Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 39:1 (Apr 2025)
Article: Book Review: "Making Disciples in Africa: Engaging Syncretism in the African Church hrough Philosophical Analysis of Worldviews"
Author: Anonymous

SATS 39:1 (April 2025) p. 103

Book Review: Making Disciples in Africa: Engaging Syncretism in the African Church hrough Philosophical Analysis of Worldviews

Chalk, Jack P. 2013. Making Disciples in Africa: Engaging Syncretism in the African Church Through Philosophical Analysis of Worldviews. Carlisle: Langham Global Library. xi, 192 pp. ISBN: 978–1–907713–71–2. Approx. 411 ZAR (22.87 USD). Paperback.

Jack Chalk, who has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of South Africa, spent 25 years working in the American corporate world before being called as a full-time missionary. He and his wife served in Mexico, Sierra Leone, and Scotland, and he is now leading a church plant in Spain. During his six years in Africa, he served as Dean of Students, Chaplain, and Senior Lecturer in Theology, Apologetics, Anthropology, and Missions at the Evangelical College of Theology, Sierra Leone.

While in Africa, Chalk became bothered by what many missionaries to Africa have acknowledged—if 65% of people living in Africa claim to be Christian, why does Christianity seem to make such an insignificant impact upon African culture? To best understand this phenomenon, Chalk turned to evaluating worldviews to understand why the system of traditional African belief and behavior largely remains unchanged. Noticing a scholarly cavity in worldview analysis—comparing Christian and African worldviews from a philosophical perspective—Chalk closed this gap by presenting this critical examination of these two important worldviews. First, he examines the philosophical elements of a biblical worldview and then similarly inspects the philosophical elements of an African traditional worldview. After comparing where these two views conform and where they conflict, his goal in writing this book was to help the Christian church in Africa identify and correct syncretistic beliefs and practices amongst Christian converts. His book ends with specific beliefs and practices uncovered in his analysis that need to be corrected among Christian converts, as well as recommendations on how the Christian church can combat syncretism in order to shape its members’ worldview along a thoroughly biblical orientation.

Chalk assesses the problem of syncretism through a different lens— not one of theology per se, but one of philosophy. By asking directed and specific philosophical questions (e.g., What determines what is moral and immoral? Why does man exist? What is the meaning of history? What can we know and how can we know it?), Chalk aids the reader in dissecting the thinking and belief systems underlying both religious worldviews. Consequently, Chalk’s framework is extremely valuable for readers to better understand the traditions, histories, stories, and beliefs that undergird the mysterious actions one see...