FOUNDATION OF AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY

Abstract

Popular Christian theology has historically tended to make a clear-cut distinction between the “spiritual” and the “worldly.” It understands the two as being not only in different realms of existence — above and below — but as also diametrically opposed: to be “worldly” is interpreted as antithetical to being “spiritual” and vice versa. This dualistic approach to human existence in the world has had adverse practical consequences for the practice of religion, particularly with reference to the environment. In this view, the physical environment does not have much religious and spiritual and, therefore, salvational significance. But this perception contradicts biblical theology, all the way from Genesis to Revelation, where human salvation is skillfully interwoven with cosmological teleology: all creation will find its perfection with humanity in God. The dualistic perception likewise endangers the cause of the environment because it divorces it from the realm of morality and ethics. For this reason it needs to be changed or, at the very least, modified for the sake of ecological and human survival. Perhaps the more unitary and, therefore, ecologically-friendly, traditional African spirituality might be one place to look for guidance in the endeavour. As a leader in this endeavour, it is important for the priest in Africa to be familiar with this latter approach to existence. Since it also directs the worldview of many Africans, it just makes good pastoral sense for him to understand the fundamentals underpinning their flocks’ motivation for belief and behaviour as part of “Year for Priests.”