Kamba Concept of God and Christianity
Loading...
Date
1996-02
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
In my life as a student. I have done several courses on African
studies. The first time I dealt with this course in school was when
I was in secondary school. The course at this time was treated
under the title 'African heritage'. In my training as a priest,I
did this course in philosophy and again in my first year in
theology. I have also done an elective course under the title
"African theology" During these periods I have come to realise
that many books, articles, and papers have been written on the
issues related to african heritage. The key theme on this course
has always been "African Traditional religion". Whatever the topic
being treated about african these three words have always dominated
the discussions. A wide research on african traditional religions
has been done by scholars both africans and foreigners alike.From
this wide complex field they have come out with different titles on
their works. Such titles are like African Theology,Black Theology.
African Christian Theology etc. Whatever names they entitle their
works, they have a common and central theme namely, to try to dig
deep into the african culture. The way of thinking, the way of
doing things, religious practices and the perception of God by the
at
The aim of these works is to find a way of evangelizing the
African people so that christianity can be received well in the
minds and hearts of the people. The reason why such efforts have
been made is that many people have come to realize that something
must have gone wrong somewhere when christianity was preached to
africans in the beginning.The missionaries and other European
writers on african traditional religions bladed it as animism,
ancestral worship,full of superstition which was incompatible with
christianity. It had therefore to be done away with. This was a big
mistake which dealt a terrible blow to christianity for although
the Africans embraced christian faith they remained deeply Africans
in their. These people who write on this topic try to correct the
mistake by trying to understand the African mind and to construct
a systematic kind of an idea which makes the african mind
understandable and to find a right and effective method which can
be used in evangelization.
My aim in writing this paper is not to try to do something
different from what they have done. It is the same thing but done
on specific people of a particular area where I have experienced
the same problem. My aim is therefore to try and penetrate deep
into the religious beliefs of the Kamba people especially their
notion of God with the purpose of discovering some positive values
in their beliefs with a purpose of making christian faith more
rooted and planted in the minds of this people. The ultimate
purpose therefore is pastoral hence the paper is pastorally
oriented. It aims at showing the possibility of intermarrying the
African traditional religions with christianity.
Description
Keywords
Kamba, Concept Of God, Christianity, Notion of Christianity, Mulungu, Characteristics of the Supreme Being, God is Transcendent and Mysterious, God is Immanent