ABSTRACT The Material in Salvific Discourse: A Study of Two Christian Perspectives David Tonghou Ngong, Ph.D. Mentor: Barry A. Harvey, Ph.D. African theology and Christianity are deeply concerned with promoting human material well being, especially in the present deteriorating African contexts. Because of this concern African theology and Christianity have uncritically appropriated the African traditional religious worldview which promotes an immanent and anthropocentric view of the material realm. This immanent and anthropocentric vision, it is claimed, cannot adequately lead to improved material well being but only to greed and corruption because the material realm is viewed as the highest good or an end in itself. This view of the material realm is especially evident in the popular Neo-Pentecostal Christianity or the ‘New’ Christianity spreading throughout the continent, growing on the promise of improved material well being of its adherents. This project claims that rather than dismissing this New Christianity as inordinately materialistic, as some African theologians do, we should rather suggest a more helpful understanding of the material realm that may aid not only the adherents of the New Christianity but also the African and global church. In doing this the project locates this New Christianity within the context of African theology and Christianity, suggesting that this New Christianity is not new, as some claim, but rather intensifies the immanent and anthropocentric view of the material realm characteristic of African traditional religious cosmology. It then attempts to overcome this immanent and anthropocentric vision of the material realm by appropriating the Augustinian theocentric vision espoused by Radical Orthodoxy, especially as represented by its proponents such as John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Philip Blond. This theocentric vision does not see the material realm as an end in itself but rather as finding its end in God so that it is not loved for its own sake but for God’s sake. Here the material realm is seen as a means to the end of enjoying God. This vision relativises the material realm and thus makes it possible for material well being to be enhanced because what is sought is not material well being for its own sake but as a means of creaturely participation in transcendent and eternal divine life. The Material in Salvific Discourse: A Study of Two Christian Perspectives by David Tonghou Ngong, B.A., B.Th., M.Div. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of Religion ___________________________________ William H. Bellinger, Jr., Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Barry A. Harvey, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ Bob E. Patterson, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Robert C. Miner, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School December 2007 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2007 by David Tonghou Ngong All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION The Project 1 Purpose, Significance and Methodology 4 The Context 7 Recent Literature on the Material 11 Development of the Dissertation: From Creation-Centeredness to Theocentrism 17 CHAPTER TWO. APPROPRIATING A WORLDVIEW: THE MATERIAL IN AFRICAN CHRISTIAN SOTERIOLOGY Introduction 23 Describing a Worldview 24 Theology of Inculturation and African Christian Soteriology 28 John Mbiti and Salvation in Africa: From Theocentrism to Anthropocentrism 29 Jean-Marc Éla: Toward Overcoming an Anthropology of Sickness and Adversity 34 Mercy Amba Oduyoye and the Theology of Life 41 Manas Buthelezi and the Search for Racial Fellowship 51 Theology and the Building of New African Societies 58 Conclusion 69 iii CHAPTER THREE. PERPETUATING A WORLDVIEW: THE MATERIAL IN THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE ‘NEW’ CHRISTIANITY Introduction 71 Identifying the New Christianity 72 Paul Gifford and the Political Economy of the New Christianity 81 Allan Anderson’s Pneumatological Soteriology and the New Christianity 99 Evaluation 104 Conclusion 107 CHAPTER FOUR. CRITIQUING A WORLDVIEW: ON BEING AN AFRICAN CHRISTIAN (THEOLOGIAN) Introduction 108 Kato and Adeyemo on the Material 110 Kato, the Bible, and Salvation 111 Adeyemo and Salvation in Africa 122 Critiquing Kato and Adeyemo 127 On Being an African Christian (Theologian) 133 Conclusion 145 CHAPTER FIVE. RADICAL ORTHODOXY AND THE SUSPENSION OF THE MATERIAL Introduction 147 Describing Radical Orthodoxy 150 John Milbank and the Gift of Salvation 163 Philip Blond and the Primacy of Theological Perception 178 iv Graham Ward: Rightly Ordering Desire in the City 187 Conclusion 198 CHAPTER SIX. CONCLUSION: A FUTURE FOR AFRICA? Introduction 200 Problematizing an Ontology 201 Radical Unilateralism and the Gift 211 Re-imagining the Supernatural 215 Rightly Ordering Desire in the City 220 Areas for Further Investigation 230 Conclusion 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY 239 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project is the culmination of years of formation and help from numerous sources. It was in St. Anthony’s Catholic School and Church and Jordan Baptist Church, all in Owe, Muyuka, Cameroon, that I was initiated into the Christian life about which I now speak as one with some authority. It was at the Mundemba Baptist Church in Ndian, Cameroon, that I was called to the ministry which I now attempt to embody. To these sources of formation, I am deeply grateful. I am immensely grateful to Reverends Trevor Nthlola and Gavin Sklar-Chik who were my spiritual mentors during my time in South Africa where I began my pilgrimage into theological discourse. I wish to thank Grandview Baptist Church of Kansas City, Kansas, and Lake Shore Baptist Church of Waco Texas, for being communities that help shape my thought here in the United States. Special thanks go to Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Kansas, for the initial gesture of granting me a full scholarship to study there. It was at Central that my love for theology grew, especially under the tutelage of Dr. Molly T. Marshall. It was she who first introduced me to Baylor University where this project has been born. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to the members of my dissertation committee: my mentor, Dr. Barry Harvey, my second and third readers, Dr. Bob Patterson and Dr. Rob Miner, respectively. This work has benefited significantly from their insights and the fact that they kept pressing me to make my points succinct and clearer. Whatever errors remain in the work are purely due to my own limitations. vi I dedicate this work to the memory of my late father but I want to offer it to my mother, Ma Juliana Mouh Ngong, as a different kind of gift from what she might be expecting from me. Probably God offers different kinds of gift from what we may be expecting too! Last and most importantly, I want to express my deep gratitude to my wife, Prudencia Eshangke Tonghou, the woman who continues to bear my follies. vii DEDICATION In Memory of My Late Father Pa Peter Ngong Gweshomo, The man who first taught me to love the world in a measured manner. viii CHAPTER ONE Introduction The Project Like African Christianity, African Christian theology1 has been perennially concerned with human material well being in its soteriological discourse.2 This concern, even more evident in recent theological reflections from Africa,3 has been intensified by the increasing human suffering on the continent. However, two limitations characterize these recent theological reflections. The first is that these theological reflections do not 1“African Christianity” and “African Christian theology” as used in this project refers mainly to the Christianity of, and Christian theology done in, sub-Saharan Africa. Also, the two are not separated in this project. 2The above observation is based on the fact that like modern African Christianity, modern African theology was born in the context of colonial- and neo-colonialism. This is a context which many Africans saw as having undermined African humanity. The rise of the Independent Churches could be seen as an attempt to revaluate African humanity. This is also the case with the rise of the theology of inculturaion and liberation. See Gwinyai H. Muzorewa, The Origins and Development of African Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985); Emmanuel Martey, African Theology: Inculturation and Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 1-35. Of course, not all expressions of African Christianity have emphasized the material in their salvific discourse. Missionary Christianity is the prime culprit here. See for example, Ngidu Mushete, “The History of Theology in Africa: From Polemics to Critical Irenics,” in African Theology En Route, ed. Kofi Appiah-Kubi and Sergio Torres (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979), 23-4; Kodwo E. Ankrah, “Church and Politics in Africa,” in African Theology En Route, 156-7. 3Some recent theological projects from the African continent that attempt to address issues of material well being includes: D. A. Oyeshola, “The Church and Development in Africa: A Critical Assessment of the Praxis of the Roman Catholic Church in Development in Black Africa” (Ph.D. diss., University of Bradford, 1989); Joseph D. Zalot, The Roman Catholic Church and Economic Development in sub-Saharan Africa: Voices Yet Unheard in a Listening World