Modern trends in christianity

Abstract

You are welcome to this Unit titled CRS 561: Modern Trends in Christianity. It is a Course that has a close affinity with Unit CRS 560: Christian Theology in Africa. For practical purposes, the Unit will give you a brief global setting with regard to Modern Trends in Christianity then pick and examine at least nine major Trends in African Christian Theology (henceforth ACT) which will assist you to adequately understand and benefit from the fundamental orientations in Christianity. First and foremost, awareness will be created to the fact that Modern Trends in Christianity are global and local- i.e. universal and indigenous as well. They are found not only in non-African Christian Theologies in Latin America, Asia, Europe…and America. But we also find them in ACT too. For practical purposes, after a brief global rooting, the accentuation of this Unit will be on Modern Trends in Christianity in ACT. You need to be aware that in our contemporary Africa, ACT is no longer emerging. It is actually in vogue and is asserting itself with vivid Trends. We have numerous orientations and a pluriformity of vibrant approaches. This is not merely in the general sense. It is also factually in the technical/ narrow understanding of it. If you visit Bookshops, College libraries, Higher Institutions of learning, African theologians’ private studies and even Seminaries you will no doubt find them somehow saturated with serious works on and about ACT imbued with interesting theological approaches. A good number of Private as well as Public Universities’ Archives have all kinds of serious related theses, dissertations, projects, periodicals …and journals as well as related Units on the same. Make an effort also to encounter African theologians of the triple levels namely popular level, pastoral level and erudition/scholarly level and you can expect to come up with remarkable orientations in ACT. A cross examination of these secondary sources and a reasonable perusal of primary sources manifests explicit Trends in ACT that illumine and inspire Christianity, and indeed, the Church in Africa which are indispensable for you to examine as a springboard into coming up with your own from such enrichment. With this finality, our Unit will educate you to focus on some of the most outstanding ones through the lenses of the following Ten Lectures: