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How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity

de Thomas C. Oden

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Africa has played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture from its infancy. Some of the most decisive intellectual achievements of Christianity were explored and understood in Africa before they were in Europe.If this is so, why is Christianity so often perceived in Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, indeed, how can Christians throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage?Theologian Thomas C. Oden offers a portrait that challenges prevailing notions of the intellectual development of Christianity from its early roots to its modern expressions. The pattern, he suggests, is not from north to south from Europe to Africa, but the other way around. He then makes an impassioned plea to uncover the hard data and study in depth the vital role that early African Christians played in developing the modern university, maturing Christian exegesis of Scripture, shaping early Christian dogma, modeling conciliar patterns of ecumenical decision-making, stimulating early monasticism, developing Neoplatonism, and refining rhetorical and dialectical skills.He calls for a wide-ranging research project to fill out the picture he sketches. It will require, he says, a generation of disciplined investigation, combining intensive language study with a risk-taking commitment to uncover the truth in potentially unreceptive environments. Oden envisions a dedicated consortium of scholars linked by computer technology and a common commitment that will seek to shape not only the scholar's understanding but the ordinary African Christian's self-perception.… (més)
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I loved this book and I am frustrated by it.

Overall, the book is a very repetitive persuasive essay that Africans should study the illustrious history of Christianity on their continent because it does exist. There are many documents in Amharic, Arabic, and other languages that document that history, but they are buried in dusty archives and haven't been translated into more widely known languages or had scholarly study of them in modern times. It frustrated me because I know that this long history exists already!

What I loved is that he makes the argument that we should not classify the Mahgreb & Egypt as "not African." He argues that much of the scholarly work done in Egypt and Algeria during ancient/early medieval times was based upon or inspired by the work being done in Ethiopia and southern Sudan. The flow of wisdom was going from the south to the north. I do know that the Christian history of Ethiopia is certain, and the Christian history of Sudan quite old along with Egypt. Also, we modern people have no idea what "race" (a scientifically untenable concept) most of these African scholars of any location were. The Romans had no concept of race, just citizen and non-citizen--and citizenship could be purchased.

The absolute best part of the book is the Appendix, which lists every known Christian historical event in Africa up to 1000 AD/CE. This is many, many, many pages long! Completely worth the cost of the book for sure!!!

I rate this book a 5-star book just because of the appendix. If it weren't for the appendix, I'd give it a 2 or 2.5 because the main body is mostly a call to action with a few interesting history tidbits thrown in, most of which I already knew, but I've studied this subject as much as I can. But that appendix!!!

I'm hoping that more research will be done to study old forgotten documents in Africa to shed more light on this subject. Much of this has been left in storage for centuries in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other libraries. ( )
  ChristinasBookshelf | Aug 1, 2022 |
While How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind started and ended with some interesting ideas the middle really dragged. I think Oden could have done just as well by writing an essay or journal article. The fact that many of the early church fathers lived and wrote in North Africa was not a surprising new idea. Oden's attempt to link North African church fathers such as Origen, Clement and Augustine with the rest of Africa just wasn't convincing. North Africa was part of the Mediterranean world in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was more linked to the rest of the Mediterranean world than to Sub-saharan Africa. The author takes many digs at the progressive kind of Christianity that I subscribe to, saying that the enlightenment view had failed. There may have been some dog whistle comments in here for people who think along the same lines as Oden. Do the thinkers and writers of the early Christian era in North Africa get less attention today than they deserve. Origen, Clement, Augustine and others are still read today. Perhaps Oden is trying to make a case that has already been made about something that is really don't there.

( )
  MMc009 | Jan 30, 2022 |
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Though clearly designed for a broad audience, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind will prove to be most helpful for new scholars interested in Oden's claim of Western Christianity's dependence upon Africa. Established experts in the field of early Christian history will sometimes find his assertions overly tentative and at other times too brash. All readers will be frustrated by the lack of footnotes referencing sources that could substantiate his claims. Many will find the work too ecumenical for their liking and as such will miss its call for us to discover that much of what we hold most dear was first formulated and refined on the African continent.
afegit per Christa_Josh | editaJournal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Kevin L. Hester (Mar 1, 2009)
 
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Africa has played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture from its infancy. Some of the most decisive intellectual achievements of Christianity were explored and understood in Africa before they were in Europe.If this is so, why is Christianity so often perceived in Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, indeed, how can Christians throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage?Theologian Thomas C. Oden offers a portrait that challenges prevailing notions of the intellectual development of Christianity from its early roots to its modern expressions. The pattern, he suggests, is not from north to south from Europe to Africa, but the other way around. He then makes an impassioned plea to uncover the hard data and study in depth the vital role that early African Christians played in developing the modern university, maturing Christian exegesis of Scripture, shaping early Christian dogma, modeling conciliar patterns of ecumenical decision-making, stimulating early monasticism, developing Neoplatonism, and refining rhetorical and dialectical skills.He calls for a wide-ranging research project to fill out the picture he sketches. It will require, he says, a generation of disciplined investigation, combining intensive language study with a risk-taking commitment to uncover the truth in potentially unreceptive environments. Oden envisions a dedicated consortium of scholars linked by computer technology and a common commitment that will seek to shape not only the scholar's understanding but the ordinary African Christian's self-perception.

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