Faith in African Lived Christianity brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith shapes the understanding of social life in Africa. It offers discussions on positionality, method, and political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality.

At a time when Africans, like other peoples, are facing the shock of technological and cultural modernity, liberation of the oppressed must be the primary condition for an authentic inculturation of the Christian message. This is the central axis of the papers in this book, which begins with the questions of faith posed by cultural variables, an internal dimension of the African's condition. In order to understand what is at stake, we need to place these matters in the overall context of a society and a history marked by conflicts-which lead to a rereading of our African memory. The basic issue of the Credibility of Christianity is being raised from with in the dynamic which allows Africans to escape from the inhumanity of the destiny to which certain factors would condemn them. So critical reflection on the relevance of an African Christianity requires us to identify the structures or strategies of exploitation and impoverishment against which Africans have always struggled, finding their own specific forms of resistance within their cultures.

Faith in African Lived Christianity – Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives offers a comprehensive, empirically rich and interdisciplinary approach to the study of faith in African Christianity. The book brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people’s faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality.

This book provides a new, constructive and critical approach to African traditional religion, from the standpoint of Christian faith.

Over the past century, Christianity's place and role in the world have changed dramatically. In 1900, 80 percent of the world's Christians lived in Europe and North America. Today, more than 60 percent of the world's Christians live outside of that region. This change calls for a reexamination of the way the story of Christianity is told, the methodological tools for its analysis, and its modes of expression. Perhaps most significant is the role of Africa as the new Christian heartland. The questions and answers about Christianity and its contemporary mission now being developed in the African churches will have enormous influence in the years to come. This volume offers nine new essays addressing this sea-change and its importance for the future of Christianity. Some contributions consider the development of "non-Western" forms of Christianity, others look at the impact of these new Christianities in the West. The authors cover a wide range of topics, from the integration of witchcraft and Christianity in Nigeria and the peacemaking role of churches in Mozambique to the American Baptist reception of Asian Christianity. The Changing Face of Christianity shows the striking cultural differences between the new world Christianity and its western counterpart. But with so many new immigrants in Europe and North America, the faith's fault lines are not purely geographical. The new Christianity now thrives in American and European settings, and northerners need to know this faith better. At stake is their ability to be good neighbors-and perhaps to be good Christian citizens of the world.

Thomas C. Oden surveys the decisive role of African Christians and theologians in shaping the doctrines and practices of the church of the first five centuries, and makes an impassioned plea for the rediscovery of that heritage. Christians throughout the world will benefit from this reclaiming of an important heritage.