Against Theology

Bediako criticizes other African theologians who claim that there is no African theological tradition. There is, he admits, not much if we’re looking for school theology. But focusing on that lack misses the real action – the “grassroots” theology expressed in songs, worship, sermons, personal evangelism, etc. And this is the real location of “authentic” theology. Theology is authentic when it is “a task, not of scholars alone, but of a community who share in a common context” and when the task is “bringing the Gospel into contact with the questions and issues of their context.”

There is a historiographical point here as well: Assessing African theology by attending only to its publications misses most of African theology. Likewise, assessing patristic (or medieval, or Reformation) theology by attending only to its tomes misses most of patristic (or medieval, or Reformation) theology.