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‘Neither Jew nor Greek’: The Church in Africa and the Quest for Self-Understanding in the Light of the Pauline Vision and Today's Context of Cultural Pluralism

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 8; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14742250802353768

1747-0234

Bernard Ukwuegbu,

Religion, Society, and Development

Abstract The foundation of Paul's vision of the Christian community as ‘neither Jew nor Greek’ is his radical appreciation of the Grace of God at work in the Christ-Event. This radical notion of divine grace enables Paul to affirm Jews and Gentiles in their cultural particularities as well as to humble them in their cultural hegemonic pretensions. In this way, Paul lays the foundation for mutual tolerance and respect between Jews and Gentiles in the Christian community. This article argues that a re-presentation of the Pauline vision in today's context of cultural pluralism could serve African theologians as a biblical-ecclesiological model in their quest for a proper self-understanding of the African Church, that will lead to the formation of a local Christian culture and local Christian churches existing alongside other local churches and sharing the same status in terms of access to salvation and other aspects of the Church's life. Keywords: GalatiansApostle Paul‘neither Jew nor Greek’Christian identityecclesiological modelsAfrican ecclesiologyAfrican Churchchurch autonomyinculturationchurch authority structurescultural pluralism Acknowledgements I acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Sr. Teresa Okure who first alerted me to the central theme of this issue of the IJSCC and invited me to make a contribution. I also thank two of my students: Innocent Ezenwoko, for articulating the problematic of the relationship between the African Church and the Churches of the West, and Dominic Ekweariri, for extracting research materials from the worldwide web that helped me to jump-start my writing. Notes 1Cited in Ela, Africa Cry, 30. 2Herbert, ‘The Mission of the Church’, 386–7. 3Okure, ‘The Church in the Mission Field’, 23. 4See Boulaga, Christianity without Fetishes. 5Okure, ‘Christian Identity and the Challenge of Authenticity’, 182. 6 Lumen Gentium, 17; Ad Gentes 35–41. 7Kanyandogo, ‘Rethinking African Ecclesiology’. 8Kalu, ‘Unconquered Spiritual Gates’, 29. 9Bujo, ‘On the Road Toward an African Ecclesiology’, 149. 10For the relevance of Paul's vision to the gender-equality debate, see Ukwuegbu, ‘Is there really no male and female in Christ?’. 11The ‘Christ-Event’ is a technical phrase that in Paul covers mainly Jesus' vicarious death on the cross and God's validating act of raising him from the dead. 12Stuhlmacher, Paul's Letter to the Romans, 100. 13Gaventa, ‘Is Galatians Just a “Guy Thing”?’, 272. 14Barclay, ‘“Neither Jew nor Greek”’, 211. 15Braxton, No Longer Slaves, 94. 16Okure, ‘The Church in the Mission Field’, 24; see also Magesa, African Religion. 17Cf. Hebblethwaite, ‘A synod ‘of Africa,’ ‘for Africa,’ or ‘New Pentecost’?’ 2. 18Uzukwu, A Listening Church, 52. 19The author writes as a member of the Roman Catholic Church and this also colours his view of the universal Church. 20For the emergence of Christian identity from its Jewish roots, see Ukwuegbu, The Emergence of Christian Identity, 416–8; idem, ‘Towards an Alternative Hermeneutical Impulse’. 21Bujo, Foundations of an African Ethic, 11–12. 22Alberich, ‘Is Universal Catechism an Obstacle?’, 92. 23For very recent discussion see Bekye, ‘Inculturation and Revelation Theology’; Shorter, ‘Inculturation of African Traditional Values’. 24Hinga, ‘Inculturation and the Otherness of Africa’, 10–18. 25Ela, ‘The Church – Sacrament of Liberation’, 31. 26Cf. Barrett and Johnson, ‘Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 2004’, 25. 27See also Gifford, ‘Trajectories in African Christianity’ and LenkaBula, ‘The Shift of Gravity of the Church’. 28Bujo, ‘On the Road Toward an African Ecclesiology’, 148. 29Ukwuegbu, ‘On Apostles and Apostolic Succession’, argues that this model is more at home with biblical traditions than the secretive model operative in the Church today. 30Uzukwu, Listening Church, 60–1. 31Okure, ‘Christian Identity’, 187. 32Ukwuegbu, ‘What has Religion got to do with the so-called “Religious Conflicts”?’, traces most of the ethnic-cum-religious conflicts in Nigeria to the historical burden of colonialism (see especially 35–6). 33Mhagama, ‘Pauline Churches as God's Family’, 190–1. 34Okure, ‘Christian Identity’, 189. 35Tomko and Schleck, Instructions, Article 3. 36See Allen and Schaeffer, ‘Reports of abuse’, a cover story on allegations of Aids exacerbating the sexual exploitation of nuns, which appeared in the March edition (2001) of the Kansas City National Catholic Reporter. Okure, in ‘The Church in the Mission Field’, 13–14, offers a subtle analysis of the insult to the continent portrayed in this report. Ironically, it was not long after the generalisation about Africa that the media in the West revealed how very rampant for almost a century sexual abuse by clergy and pastors was in the western churches. 37Cited in Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria, I Chose You, 28–9. 38John Paul II, Ecclesia in Africa, 11; Lumen Gentium, 13. 39Orobator, The Church as Family, 109–61. 40Okure, in ‘Christian Identity’, 186, remarks that even in the much celebrated apology rendered by John Paul II for the ‘Divisions among Christians’ (cf. Accattoli, When a Pope Asks Forgiveness), nothing was said about the damages which the fruit of that division did and continues to do to Africans. 41Ukwuegbu, ‘By the Waters of Babylon’. See also ter Haar, Halfway to Paradise. 42Meeks, The First Urban Christians, 97.