Kristus i tropisk Afrika I spændingsfeltet mellem identitet og relevans

Sammanfattning: The title of this thesis is Christ in Tropical Africa - in the Tension Between Identity and Relevance. Within a few years Africa will be the greatest Christian continent, and African Christianity will then no longer see itself as a mere continuation of Western Christianity. On the threshold of the 21st Century, this insight challenges Christian theology and missiology which have for a long time answered the helm of the Western missionary movements. This contribution to the scholarly debate on cultural and religions identity issues deals with the question how the recent development ought to be integrated in a systematic reflection, and how Africans - especially African theologians - themselves attempt to highlight the necessity of a relevant and authentic African Christianity and theology.The post-colonial and partly post-missionary era has resulted in a sense of departure and transition which has created space for a renewed and adjusted conception of the question of identity. This dissertation present a critical discourse on African themes and questions concerning identity issues in the perspectives of studies in the areas of theology, anthropology, philosophy, and religion. The discourse shows the complexity of what is called identity, africanity etc. and threw critical light on a tendency of making generalizations and constructions. Dangers of constructions of which Christian African theologians have not always been sufficiently conscious. The interdisciplinary perspective of this study is widening the question of identity while it still constitutes a hermeneutical key to understand the concerns of Christian theology in the tropical part of Africa.African theology is situated in the tension between identity and relevance. This become obvious in African christological proposals. The thesis put a critical test question to the theologians who have contributed with new Christ-titles and -models: Have they both managed to give grounds for the significance of christology for human freedom and identity (the relevance of christology), and at the same time secured the continuity and agreement with the original theological content of christology (the identity of christology in the New Testament)? The question can only partly be answered affirmatively. In some cases the actual understanding of life and conception of reality in a certain context provides the decisive criterion in the interpretation of Biblical concepts and christological titles. This creates hermeneutic problems which are dealt with in the close of the thesis.