"There is, however, a precolonial African Christianity that does not depend upon either Western or European sources . it is a rich and thoroughly African written intellectual tradition of the highest quality.
"In the period of its greatest vitality in the first half of the first millennium, the African intellect blossomed so much that it was sought out and widely emulated by Christians of the northern and eastern Mediterranean shores. Origen, an African, was eagerly sought out by the teachers of Caesarea Palestina. Lactanius was invited by Emperor Diocletian (245-313) to be a teacher of literature in his Asian palace in Bythinia. Augustine was invited to teach in Milan. There are dozens of similar cases of intellectual movement from Africa to Europe.--Plotinus, Valentinus, Tertullian, Marius Victorinus, and Pachomius among them.
"This point must be savored unhurriedly to sink in deeply. The Christians to the south of the Mediterranean were teaching Christians to the north. Africans were informing and instructing and educating the very best of Syriac, Cappadocian, and Greco-Roman teachers. This flow of intellectual leadership in time matured into ecumenical consensus on how to interpret sacred Scripture and hence into the core of Christian dogma."
P. 28, "The Missing Link: The Early African Written Intellectual Tradition," HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND: REDISCOVERING THE AFRICAN SEEDBED OF WESTERN CHRISTIANITY by Thomas C. Oden (2007)
Thursday, March 24, 2016
ANCIENT NORTH AFRICAN CHRISTIANS
"There is, however, a precolonial African Christianity that does not depend upon either Western or European sources . it is a rich and thoroughly African written intellectual tradition of the highest quality.
"In the period of its greatest vitality in the first half of the first millennium, the African intellect blossomed so much that it was sought out and widely emulated by Christians of the northern and eastern Mediterranean shores. Origen, an African, was eagerly sought out by the teachers of Caesarea Palestina. Lactanius was invited by Emperor Diocletian (245-313) to be a teacher of literature in his Asian palace in Bythinia. Augustine was invited to teach in Milan. There are dozens of similar cases of intellectual movement from Africa to Europe.--Plotinus, Valentinus, Tertullian, Marius Victorinus, and Pachomius among them.
"This point must be savored unhurriedly to sink in deeply. The Christians to the south of the Mediterranean were teaching Christians to the north. Africans were informing and instructing and educating the very best of Syriac, Cappadocian, and Greco-Roman teachers. This flow of intellectual leadership in time matured into ecumenical consensus on how to interpret sacred Scripture and hence into the core of Christian dogma."
P. 28, "The Missing Link: The Early African Written Intellectual Tradition," HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND: REDISCOVERING THE AFRICAN SEEDBED OF WESTERN CHRISTIANITY by Thomas C. Oden (2007)
