Abstract
The landscape of global Christianity has changed significantly in recent decades. This notion is the foundational premise of Odozor’s book, Morality: Truly Christian, Truly African, and he draws upon scholarship that suggests that the centre of global Christianity is shifting from Europe and North America to Africa, Asia and Latin America (pp. 1–2). Odozor contends, in the words of Andrew F. Walls, that ‘the theological sector has not yet come to terms with the fundamental shift in the center of gravity of the Christian world whereby the Southern continents have become the heartlands of the Christian faith’ (quoted on pp. 1–2).
This shift in the epicentre of Church membership has consequences not only for the kind of theology that is required to answer questions faced in those particular contexts, but also for the theological project in its entirety as new contributions emerge from these places that shape how we understand our faith in its entirety. This contention makes Morality: Truly Christian, Truly African a worthwhile contribution to the scholarly discourse and particularly helpful for readers of Studies in Christian Ethics. As Odozor suggests, these shifts are bringing our thinking into new territories where the established and accepted theologies of the Church do not have answers, in part because the dominant Western perspective has not yet begun to understand the questions (p. 2).
Odozor deals specifically with the development of moral theology / Christian ethics in the African theological context. I shall say a little more about this broad conceptual frame later in the review. However, Odozor undertakes the ambitious task of explicating an African theological contribution to Christian moral theology and at the same time argues for its orthodoxy—this twofold task is expressed in the title of the volume.
I found the premise of the volume to be convincing and sound—one need only consider the impact recently of African moral thought on complex issues such as gender and sexuality in the Anglican communion to see how significantly African moral theology is present in global theological ethics (and ultimately doctrine and Church polity, which are addressed in this volume in chapters 8 and 9 respectively). As the numerical prominence of African Christianity grows it will become increasingly important to critically and carefully develop theological language, methods and resources to critically and constructively engage the global contribution of African Christian thought. Hence Odozor’s ‘foundational, methodological and theological’ considerations are timely and necessary.
Of course Odozor is not the first theologian to undertake such a task—as he acknowledges (p. 2). However, his contribution is valuable for a number of reasons. First, Odozor’s approach to African Christian ethics is well executed, presenting a credible and textured insight into contemporary ethical scholarship from the African theological context. Second, it is a timely contribution precisely because it engages the subject matter at a time in history where we can see the influence of African Christianity growing.
Odozor is mindful that what Africa is today, indeed what one would regard as African, is located within a historical continuum that includes ‘contact between Africans and Europeans from the fifteenth through the twenty-first centuries’ (p. 3). Moreover, this encounter has led to mutual development in religious identity between African religion and Christianity ever since the fifteenth century. Each of these traditions has been challenged and considered in the presence of the other. After Vatican II there came a strong encouragement to inculturate the Christian faith in the variety of contexts and cultures of the African continent. The volume also takes seriously the fact that African Christians and African Christianities have developed different relationships of accountability to tradition and orthodoxy—Odozor’s discussion is within the ambit of what it means to be Catholic in the African context. Finally, the volume is cognizant of shifts in geo-politics that have a bearing on religion in general, and Christianity in particular.
The foundation for this complex intersection of historic and contemporary theological, religious, cultural and geographic realities is considered and developed in careful detail in Part I of the book, ‘The Nature of African Theology’ (pp. 9–53). Three of the emphases in this section are valuable, and help to clearly develop the argument: the discussion on theology and culture (with reference to inculturation), the nuanced understanding of the growth of African theological independence after Vatican II, and the relationship between these aspects and the development of African Christian moral theology. It is important to mention that one of the delimiting aspects of this book is that it concentrates specifically on Catholic theological development in the various African contexts. One does wonder what role African Pentecostal, Evangelical and Protestant traditions play in the development of African moral theology. In many contexts these ‘newer’ traditions are much more influential and prominent than Catholicism.
Having laid this foundation, Part II of the book delves into African tradition and the tradition of the Catholic Church (chapter 2, pp. 57–86). It then offers a very insightful discussion of the encounter between African Christianities and various aspects of African religion (chapter 3, pp. 87–115). The final contribution in this part of the book considers the encounter between African Christianities and other non-Christian religions (chapter 4, pp. 116–50). This is a very helpful, and important, discussion when one considers the impact of interreligious conflict on the continent (particularly the conflict between Christianity and Islam in various African countries).
The final part of the book, Part III, pays particular attention to African Christian foundations in relation to issues of moral and ethical concern, framing them in a manner that Odozor describes as both African and Christian. This section of the book offers a substantial contribution to contemporary discourses in moral theology since it brings some of the unique cultural, religious and social aspects of the African context and mindset into focus.
Chapter 5 (pp. 151–75) offers a helpful survey of African moral theologies (with particular reference to the work of Bujo). What is of particular interest in this chapter is the intersectional complexity of the engagement between the values of African cultures and the values of influential Western Christian cultural paradigms. Odozor starts with the premise that Africa is not theologically or morally illiterate. Thus any engagement with African Christian moral theology will need to be sensitive to the contribution (both positive and negative) of the African religious and cultural framework.
In the following chapter, the notion of God is considered as it relates to moral discourses in Africa (pp. 176–205). The assumption of this chapter is that Christian ethics stems from a theocentric position. African beliefs concerning the nature and will of God, as well as God’s relationship to the world, are brought into dialogue to present a textured understanding of how such convictions could inform both descriptive and normative moral theologies. This allows for a very helpful discussion on the rich heritage, and complexity, of different theological approaches, beliefs and categories that form African Christian moral theologies, and the contribution that such theologies can offer to the broader theological discourse.
Chapter 7 (pp. 206–236), which the reviewer found very helpful, brings the discussion back to the human person. Issues of human dignity are of critical importance on the African continent, and are complicated by the influences of globalisation and the challenges of wars, dictatorships and dysfunctional nation states. Odozor helps the reader to understand the importance of the human person as a moral actor in African Christian ethics.
In chapter 8 (pp. 237–68), the author presents a detailed and textured insight into moral reasoning in the African Christian context—this is valuable discussion that will not only serve as a descriptive ethic for African Christians to understand complex methodological considerations in relation to moral reasoning, but will also assist global Christianity to understand the African moral mindset (or at least aspects of it).
The final chapter (pp. 269–98) in this section brings the discussion back into the ecclesial sphere—here Odozor moves from a primarily theological discussion to concentrate on the implications of moral theology for Catholic Church polity and aspects of public theological concern. This is particularly helpful for those ecclesial traditions that have a strong operative church polity that informs both doctrine and practice (such as the Catholic tradition). It would have been most helpful if this discussion also reached to the more recent ecumenical, and independent, church movements that are less centrally structured and have a more informal polity. This concludes the contribution of this volume.
My one concern with a project of this nature is that it could be exceedingly ambitious—how is it possible to deal adequately with such an extensive period of African Christian history, particularly when one considers the radical diversity of cultures, and religious traditions, that exist across the African continent? Yet this work is tackled with modesty and sobriety. Odozor is clear that he aims to make a particular contribution, one which may not include all of African Christian history, the diversity of African moral thought, or the diversity of Christian traditions, contexts and cultures on the continent.
It is the considered opinion of the reviewer that the value of this book is precisely that it presents an idea, rather than an entire, systematized schema. Odozor seeks to initiate the reader into understanding that a shift is taking place in global Christianity, and so too in Christian moral thought. His choice of examples and contributions is delimited by the fact that he focuses almost exclusively on the encounter between Catholic theologies and the African context.
I am confident that this book will be recognized as offering a unique and important contribution to the understanding of the dialogical significance of African Christian moral thought and traditional Catholic moral reasoning. I would recommend it to any Christian ethicist who wishes to gain a helpful and nuanced insight into the importance, development and contribution of African Christianities to global Christian ethical discourse.