School of Theology

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Browsing School of Theology by Author "Amooti, John Mungereza"

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    Towards An African Christian Job
    (Tangaza University College, 1998-02-21) Amooti, John Mungereza
    Since the third phase of Africa's systematic evangelization begun in the nineteenth century,a lot of work has been done by missionaries and promoters of the African mission. However we must point out that much emphasis was put on Sacramentalization other than in depth evangelization. And so we have ended up with masses of nominal Christians baptised but not efficiently evangelised. On the other hand,Africa is experiencing many and diverse problems,famine,drought,ethnic conflicts,economic dependence,political turmoil,disease and solutions do not appear on the horizon. Many of the Baptised Christians,having failed to find answers of their struggle and suffering,slide back to their traditional beliefs which apparently seem to offer some help and consolation. As a missionary,having grown up among my people,the Batagwenda,l have shared in their struggles of life in situations of suffering. In my theological training,I was amazed to discover that Job of the Old Testament was as well struggling with his own suffering but does not seem to offer us a meaningful answer. It is clear to me that many people in Africa can identify themselves with Job of the Old Testament As Job needed Christ to give him a meaningful answer to his sufferings,my people also and indeed many Africans should look up to Jesus to give them meaningful consolation in their sufferings. As Missionariesi started asking myself during my theological training what we could offer to the majority of the people suffering in Africa Which consolation do we give and how do we preach to them? Many have been confused by the traditional beliefs and now how do we correct them and how do we bring them back to the faith?. This paper is a long reflection on the whole question of suffering. My conviction is that even amidst suffering,we are able to remain faithful to our faith. However this does not mean that we passively suffer,but where possible we should denounce situations that bring suffering and always actively promote life.