Conrad Mbewe was the only speaker at the Strange Fire conference who had anything worthwhile to contribute to the issue at hand. Mike Riccardi transcribed most of his presentation:
Mbewe highlights the dangers of syncretism, as charismatic theology merges with indigenous religion. I think his warnings should be taken seriously.
That said, there are obvious limitations to his presentation. Africa is a huge, culturally and theologically diverse continent. Imagine an international conference in which one speaker represented the North American perspective, another speaker represented the Latin American perspective, yet another speaker represented the European perspective, still another speaker represented the South Asian perspective. Clearly one man can't speak for all of African Christianity. For instance, Mbewe is Baptist, but Anglicans have a huge footprint in Nigeria.
Indeed, two African left comments on the Mbewe post taking issue with his overview.
Likewise, Craig Keener is married to a native African: Médine Moussounga Keener, who holds a Ph.D. from University of Paris. She's one of his sources in his monograph on miracles. For his part, Craig Keener is coauthoring a book with a Nigerian professor and pastor on charismatic theology. African Christianity has many voices. Just as Mbewe's firsthand observations ought to be taken seriously, so should theirs.
No comments:
Post a Comment