Synodal Theology: Totality, Roots and Human Diversity

Totality, Roots and Human Diversity

Abstract

On the eve of African independence, the Christian theological discourse in Africa was still elaborated in the logical continuation of the foundation of Christianity, that of a pre-Christian culture in a historicist perspective. By 1956, African priests had begun to radically question the Christian colonial salvation, a fact which some have seen as the beginning of African theology. After nearly 65 years, one wonders where we are in the practice of this discipline, which was initially very promising. Indeed, African theology had the wind in its sails after the Second Vatican Council. During this assembly, Pope John XXIII opened the windows of the Church to the world. This change, with its almost unexpected turn, caused a cultural earthquake in the Church called to become more missionary with pastoral methods adapted to the non-western world.