Abstract
In an ambitious feat, Robert Heaney’s recent book seeks to situate the works of John S. Mbiti and Jesse N. K. Mugambi as being worthy precursors to the emergence of critical post-colonial theology, while at the same time being ‘the first study of Kenya’s two most innovative Anglican theologians together’ (p. 218). Though Mbiti’s and Mugambi’s respective proposals are markedly different, that Mugambi ‘associates the genesis of his formal theological work with Mbiti’ (p. 4) and often ‘is seen as continuing the work begun by Mbiti’ (p. 6) is perhaps the strongest warrant Heaney cites for his choice to jointly place both (albeit, sometimes in a way that conflates the two) in dialogue with post-colonial theology.
The argument proceeds by defining post-colonialism (ch. 1) before describing how Mbiti and Mugambi directly critiqued ‘mission Christianity’ and its colonialist features (ch. 2). From here, Heaney makes much of a methodological shift that he discerns in Mbiti, which carries over into the work of Mugambi. Namely, Heaney is the first to point out that the contextual particularity found in Mbiti’s doctoral thesis at Cambridge (on Akamba eschatology) is not retained in his later writings, which engage instead with a more abstracted conception of the African context to the detriment of Mbiti’s (and Mugambi’s) thought (ch. 3). This shift results in abstracted metaphysical engagement with ‘African Traditional Religions’ (ch. 4) while similarly having negative implications for christology (ch. 5) as well as Mugambi’s proposed ‘reconstructionism’ (ch. 6). Throughout these middle chapters, Heaney offers four constructive moves to counter what he sees as Mbiti and Mugambi’s shortcomings (cf., p. 7; pp. 202–205): (1) revert to Mbiti’s initial method (ch. 3); (2) emphasize ‘experiential dialogue’ with particularities so as to criticise abstracted forms of African theology (ch. 4); (3) integrate symbol and christopraxis so as to reclaim a more locally participationist and practical christology (ch. 5); and (4) observe the need for power analysis (ch. 6), which can be effectively teased out through a ‘thoroughgoing comparison of Mbiti’s and Mugambi’s work with post-colonial theology’ (ch. 7).
Heaney’s work is an important contribution to the conversation surrounding Mbiti, Mugambi, African theology, and World Christianity. One wonders, however, if his incessant call to begin and end the theological task with and amidst contextual particularities means that Christianity, at core, has no normative shape, but instead merely consists of divine accommodations to specific circumstances.