How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind : Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity

by Oden, Thomas C.

ISBN13: 9780830837052

ISBN10: 0830837051

Format: Paperback

Pub. Date: 2010-09-01

Publisher(s): Ivp Academic

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Summary

If this is so why is Christianity so often perceived Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, indeed how can Christians throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage?

Author Biography

Thomas C. Oden (Ph.D., Yale University) is the director of the Center for Early Africa Christianity and formerly Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at the Theological School of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He is general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the Ancient Christian Doctrine series on the Nicene Creed. He is the author of numerous theological works, including a three-volume systematic theology.

Introduction	p. 9
Toward a Half Billion African Christians	p. 10
An Epic Story	p. 11
Out of Africa	p. 13
The Pivotal Place of Africa on the Ancient Map	p. 14
Two Rivers: The Nile and the Medjerda-Seedbed of Early Christian Thought	p. 18
Affirming Oral and Written Traditions	p. 23
Self-Effacement and the Recovery of Dignity	p. 26
The Missing Link: The Early African Written Intellectual Tradition	p. 28
Why Africa Has Seemed to the West to Lack Intellectual History	p. 30
Interlude	p. 32
The African Seedbed of Western Christianity	p. 33
A Forgotten Story	p. 35
Who Can Tell It?	p. 35
Pilgrimage Sites Neglected	p. 37
Under Sands: The Burial of Ancient Christian Texts and Basilicas	p. 39
Seven Ways Africa Shaped the Christian Mind	p. 42
How the Western Idea of a University Was Born in the Crucible of Africa	p. 43
How Christian Exegesis of Scripture First Matured in Africa	p. 45
How African Sources Shaped Early Christian Dogma	p. 46
How Early Ecumenical Decision Making Followed African Conciliar Patterns	p. 48
How the African Desert Gave Birth to Worldwide Monasticism	p. 52
How Christian Neoplatonism Emerged in Africa	p. 55
How Rhetorical and Dialectical Skills Were Honed in Africa for Europe's Use	p. 56
Interlude: Harnack's Folly	p. 57
Overview	p. 59
Defining Africa	p. 62
Establishing the Indigenous Depth of Early African Christianity	p. 62
The Stereotyping of African Hellenism as Non African	p. 66
Scientific Inquiry into the Ethnicity of Early African Christian Writers	p. 67
The Purveyors of Myopia	p. 69
The African Seedbed Hypothesis Requires Textual Demonstration	p. 72
A Case in Point: The Circuitous Path from Africa to Ireland to Europe and Then Back to Africa	p. 73
A Caveat Against Afrocentric Exaggeration	p. 76
One Faith, Two Africas	p. 78
The Hazards of Bridge Building	p. 78
The Challenge of Reconciliation of Black Africa and North Africa	p. 79
The Roots of the Term Africa	p. 80
Overcoming the Ingrained Lack of Awareness	p. 82
Excommunicating the North	p. 83
Arguing for African Unity	p. 84
Defining ôEarly African Christianityö as a Descriptive Category of a Period of History	p. 85
How African Is the Nile Valley?	p. 86
Temptations	p. 89
Tilted Historical Predispositions	p. 89
The Catholic Limits of Afrocentrism	p. 91
Ignoring African Sources	p. 94
The Cost of Forgetfulness	p. 95
Overlooking African Voices in Scripture	p. 96
How Protestants Can Celebrate the Apostolic Charisma of the Copts	p. 97
The Christian Ancestry of Africa	p. 99
African Orthodox Recovery	p. 101
The Opportunity for Retrieval	p. 103
Surviving Modernity	p. 104
The Steadiness of African On Orthodoxy	p. 106
The New African Ecumenism	p. 107
Pruning Undisciplined Excesses	p. 109
Burning Away the Acids of Moral Relativism	p. 110
Orthodoxy Global and African	p. 112
Historic Christian Multiculturalism	p. 113
Refraining Modern Ecumenics within Classic Ecumenics	p. 115
How the Blood of African Martyrs Became the Seed of European Christianity	p. 117
Whether Classic Christian Teaching Is Defined by Power	p. 118
How the History of African Martyrdom Shaped Christian Views of Universal History	p. 120
Recalling the Exodus as an African Event	p. 122
Amassing the Evidence	p. 122
The Challenge of Young Africa	p. 124
Right Remembering	p. 126
Remembering the Scripture Rightly Through the Spirit	p. 127
The Heart of African Orthodoxy	p. 128
Transcending Material Worldliness	p. 131
Avoiding Racial Definitions of Apostolic Truth	p. 132
Seeking the Reconciliation of Christianity and Islam Through Historical Insight	p. 134
The Risks Scholars Take	p. 135
Conjointly Studying the History of Islam and Christianity	p. 137
The Rigorous language Requirements of African Research	p. 138
Learning from Primary Sources	p. 140
A Personal Challenge	p. 140
Appendix: The Challenges of Early African Research	p. 143
Three Aims of Future Research	p. 143
The Precedent	p. 144
The Scope	p. 146
The African Center of the International Consortium	p. 147
The Consortium of Scholars	p. 148
Assembling the Pieces of the Puzzle	p. 148
Academic Leadership	p. 149
Maximizing Digital Technologies	p. 150
Publishing Outcomes	p. 151
Conclusion	p. 154
Literary Chronology of Christianity in Africa in the First Millennium	p. 157
Bibliography	p. 198
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How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind : Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity

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