Abstract
From the foreword, introduction, to the six chapters and the conclusion of the book, the closing bell to a paradigm of the ‘African Church’s Wrong Identity’ is consistently ringing. And so be it that we shall celebrate an end to the season of the wrong identity of the Church in Africa.
Any religion and its upheld faith comes to meet a culture and a history in any context. Such is the case with the Christian religion and faith in the African culture and history. The understanding of the right identity of the African Church, purposed in the book, is not all about the Catholic Church or about being a Catholic. Rather, it is about waking the Churches in Africa to becoming true salt and light in order to make the African people experience, express and enjoy abundant life desired by God for mankind.
The contributors write with accuracy and with the motive of addressing Christians and Christian Churches in Africa in particular (and the world in general), to position the African Church, and the Christian religion and faith in Africa where it is biblically placed by the Lord of the Church – i.e. representing Christ, the Saviour and Lord of the Church, as Salt and Light, rather than maintaining the status quo, the culture, and the history of Africa into which the Christian religion and faith was born.
Their observation that the ministry of Jesus is total and all encompassing, evident in the caring, healing, empowering, and developing of people, shows an example of the Christian religion and faith Jesus wants practised in any culture, especially in Africa where there is a high need for Christianity to respond to the sufferings and needs of the people of the Continent. The message is clearly stated by the writers that the ethnocentric position of the African culture and history, which has adversely affected socio-economic relationships and stability, governance, accountability, justice, and transparency, has to be swallowed up in the Biblical and Christian culture, ethics, and Christ’s agenda of shalom.
The writers leave us with the heart-cry and question of ‘Why is the Church in Africa not ready or able to do what it takes to better the lives of her flock?’ But they also leave with us the action and solution to be engaged in by the Church in Africa. The Church in Africa has to maintain her saltiness and also keep her light glowingly burning.