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Given the largely Eurocentric nature of moral theology in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, what will it take to invest the theological community in the history and moral challenges of the Church in other parts of the world, especially Africa? What is to be gained for the whole Church when this happens in a deep and lasting way? In this timely and important study, Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor brings greater theological clarity to the issue of the relationship between Christianity and African tradition in the area of ethical foundations. He also provides a constructive example of what fundamental moral theology done from an African and Christian (especially Catholic) moral theological point of view could look like.
Following a brief history of the development of African Christian theology, Odozor examines responses of African theologians to African tradition and Christian responses to the reality of non-Christian religions. In a context where the African religious experience and heritage are powerful sources of meaning and identity, Christian evangelization raises questions both about the African primal religions and about Christianity itself and its claims. Odozor takes up the subject of moral reasoning in an African Christian theological ethics and concludes with case studies that show how the African Church has tried to inculturate moral discourse on a religiously pluralistic continent and relate the healing gospel message to African situations. Students and scholars of moral theology and ethics and church leaders will profit from the issues raised in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African.
“The landscape of global Christianity has changed significantly in recent decades. This notion is the foundational premise of Odozor’s book . . . and he draws upon scholarship that suggests that the centre of global Christianity is shifting from Europe and North America to Africa, Asia and Latin America. . . . This shift in the epicenter of Church membership has consequences not only for the kind of theology that is required to answer questions faced in those particular contexts, but also for the theological project in its entirety as new contributions emerge from these places that shape how we understand our faith in its entirety.” —Studies in Christian Ethics
Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor, C.S.Sp., is associate professor of moral theology, the theology of world church, and Africana studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Moral Theology in an Age of Renewal: A Study of the Catholic Tradition since Vatican II and Richard McCormick and the Renewal of Moral Theology, and editor of Sexuality, Marriage, and Family, all published by the University of Notre Dame Press.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. The Nature of African Theology
1. African Christian Theology
Part 2. African Tradition and Traditional Religion as Foundational Issues in African Christian Theology and Ethics
2. Tradition, Rationality, and Morality
3. African Theological Evaluations of African Religion
4. Issues in the Theology of Non-Christian Religions
Part 3. Foundations of an African Christian Theological Ethics
5. African Moral Theology and the Challenge of Inculturation
6. God and Morality in African Theology
7. Anthropology in African Theological Ethics
8. Moral Reasoning in African Theological Ethics
9. Moral Theology Christian and African: The Ecclesial Dimension
Notes
Bibliography
Index