ANCIENT AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY

ANCIENT AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY "Some scholars of African culture have regrettably acquired a persistent habit of assuming that Christianity began in Africa only a couple of centuries ago, strictly imported from 'the West' or 'the North.' They appear to view Africa as only two or three centuries deep, not two or three millennia. This false start is repeated frequently in some well-intended African theological literature. Even the best of African theologians have been tempted to fall into the stereotype that Christianity came from Europe. This is a narrow, modern view of history, ignoring Christianity's first millennium, when African thought shaped and conditioned virtually every diocese in Christianity worldwide . "African theologians in the last half century have been singularly preoccupied with fighting the dominance of the modern West, especially during the period in which the struggle for political independence and national identity was crucial for African consciousness. They have fought, in part, by asserting the legitimacy of African traditional religious patterns , motifs , rituals, and memories. But they have fought without their best and nearest weapon: the ancient texts of African Christianity." P.25-26, "Introduction ," HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE AFRICAN MIND : REDISCOVERING THE AFRICAN SEEDBED OF WESTERN CHRISTIANITY by Thomas C. Oden (2007)