Roczniki Teologiczne, 2006, T. 53, z. 9

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Przeglądaj Roczniki Teologiczne, 2006, T. 53, z. 9 wg Temat "Africa"

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    Afrykańskość chrystologii afrykańskiej
    Grodź, Stanisław (Wydawnictwo Towarzystwa Naukowego Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, 2006)
    The article presents conclusions reached by the author after his extensive research on African Christology that is to be published soon in its entirety. Explicit contextuality of African Christology calls for its deeper analysis. Several dimensions of the problem need to be considered in order to answer the question to what extent African Christology is really rooted in the African cultural context. African theologians have been accused (though more often in the past than now) of “Christianizing” African religious traditions, i.e. expressing beliefs and describing rituals of indigenous religions using Christian concepts. This very process can, however, be also seen as an asset on the side of African Christian theologians by the fact that they managed in that way to present African traditional religions to their Christian audience and at the same time find local means for expressing Christianity to the adherents of African traditional religions. One gets an impression that some African theologians do not pay too much attention to details when they take and use indigenous concepts. It is obvious that if the African concepts are to be used as means of expressing Christian beliefs they need to be modified. Analysing the process of modification of three indigenous concepts (ancestor, healer, ruler) the author indicates that the element of mediation between the human world and the Divine is often emphasized together with a conviction that Jesus Christ fulfils all the best aspirations of ancestors, healers and rulers in the most perfect way. Many other elements, sometimes quite important (e.g. ambivalence surrounding the mode of ancestors’ existence, or the fact that a healer is believed to be able to launch a mystical counterattack against the evildoer and sometimes he is actually expected to do so, or that ruler commits grave crimes during his installation ritual though he is considered to embody law and order) are overlooked, or omitted because they to not fit in the new Christian context. Nevertheless, Christology created by the African theologians is African in a real sense because many concepts are still easily recognizable by many Africans and the reformulation or change of meaning of indigenous concepts is undertaken by the Africans themselves in a very African manner.
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    Geneza śmierci w tradycji mitycznej ludów Afryki subsaharyjskiej
    Zimoń, Henryk (Wydawnictwo Towarzystwa Naukowego Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, 2006)
    Death is a common and mysterious experience of man. Many myths of African peoples explain the genesis of death, which is perceived as something unnatural and undesirable in man’s normal life. Referring to the myths, the Africans try to give a causative explanation of human life marked with death and the latter’s universality and inevitability. Certain myths concerning the idea of return to life justify mythically such observations of nature as rising and disappearance of the moon, revival of vegetation, shedding off the skin by snakes, and they undertake the subject of death and its inevitability only in a marginal way. African myths express the primaeval tradition and the cultural heritage of humanity, which is testified to by the occurrence of particular motifs and their variants in the worldwide scale. Five out of seven main causes of the appearance of death have been discussed and this was done in a brief manner. It should be stated that certain myths contain characteristic threads of more than one motif. Death is a phenomenon consistent with God’s will since it is God as the giver of life who also has the ultimate power over man’s death. Many African myths emphasize the fact that the Supreme Being wanted to transfer to people the gift of immortal life but some messenger (it is often a snake, a lizard, a chameleon, a dog or a goat) passed the wrong message in this way making it impossible to fulfil its intention. In the mythical tradition of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa the appearance of death is usually caused by man himself and it results from his weakness (e.g. the overslept message of immortality, stupidity or lightheartedness), the wrong choice and disobedience. The result of man’s fault is death sent by God as a punishment. The paradox of death among the African peoples consists in death being the end of passing earthly life but at the same time it is the source of life and the gate leading to the community of the living and the immortal ancestor spirits in afterlife.