Abstract
In Western theological discourse in modern times, there has only been one “KB.” Now Tim Hartman, assistant professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, suggests that there are two to be considered as he brings the work of Kwame Bediako into dialogue with that of Karl Barth. Both are presented as prophetic theologians who anticipated the disintegration of Christendom and undertook a fundamental rethink about how to do Christian theology in a context of pluralism and secularization. Both, suggests Hartman, proposed that “through a fresh approach to revelation, Christian theology could once again be rooted in the story of Jesus Christ, over against the religion of nineteenth-century European Protestants” (6).
Through a careful and creative juxtaposition of the contributions of the two theologians regarding revelation, religion, and culture, Hartman explores ways in which contemporary theological reflection can be Christological, contextual, cultural, constructive, and collaborative. He demonstrates how both were contextual theologians and offers a dazzling display of how, from very different contexts, their concerns speak to one another in a way that points toward a new universal horizon for theology.
A weakness in the book is Hartman’s tendency to conflate Western colonialism and the modern missionary movement. Of course, the two were closely intertwined, but as we learned from Lamin Sanneh, the mission-inspired renewal of vernacular resources would ultimately challenge the premises of the colonial enterprise—as Bediako’s work vividly illustrates.
The publication of the book as the first in the Notre Dame Studies in African Theology series is something of a back-handed compliment to Hartman. Of course, it is an honor and a distinction to have one’s book inaugurate a new series, and it would be a grudging review that did not offer congratulations. Nor would this reviewer wish to begrudge congratulations to Notre Dame Press for turning its attention to African theology in this way. However, one main point of the book is that a theologian like Kwame Bediako cannot be relegated to an exotic category of African theology while normative theology continues to be done elsewhere. Rather, the entire enterprise of Christian theology must be reconfigured in light of the end of Christendom and the emergence of World Christianity. It is to be hoped that the unfortunate categorization of the book will not hinder it from bringing a challenge that the entire theological academy needs to consider, for Hartman’s urgent and important point is that Western theologians need the contributions of theologians like Bediako in order to be better equipped to meet their contemporary crisis. African Christian theological scholarship, in Bediako’s words, “is no longer merely for Africa. It is for the world” (53).