How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity »

Thomas C. Oden (Ph.D., Yale University) recently retired as Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at The Theological School of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He is general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and author of numerous theological works, including a three-volume systematic theology.

Thomas C. Oden surveys the decisive role of African Christians and theologians in shaping the doctrines and practices of the church of the first five centuries, and makes an impassioned plea for the rediscovery of that heritage. Christians throughout the world will benefit from this reclaiming of an important heritage.

Publishers Weekly

Where is the cradle of Christianity-Europe or Africa? After teaching historical and systematic theology, Oden is surprisingly just discovering what other scholars have argued for some time: that the earliest contours of Christianity can be easily traced to Africa. After all, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Plotinus and Augustine-to name only a few early Christian thinkers-were Africans. In this tiresome and repetitious book, Oden belabors the already well-established notion that Christianity's roots can be found in Africa. He does draw helpfully on his work on the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series to demonstrate that the intellectual contours of Christianity-academics, exegesis, dogmatics, ecumenics, monasticism, philosophy, and dialectics-developed in Africa. However, Peter Brown (Augustine of Hippo) and other writers have clearly recognized this contribution, and Oden's naïve and hyperbolic book is more embarrassing than enlightening. Oden's study is most suited to those who are entirely new to the debate and who will benefit from resources such as a time line of early African Christianity and a reading list for further investigation of the subject. (Jan.)

Introduction 9

Toward a Half Billion African Christians 10

An Epic Story 11

Out of Africa 13

The Pivotal Place of Africa on the Ancient Map 14

Two Rivers: The Nile and the Medjerda-Seedbed of Early Christian Thought 18

Affirming Oral and Written Traditions 23

Self-Effacement and the Recovery of Dignity 26

The Missing Link: The Early African Written Intellectual Tradition 28

Why Africa Has Seemed to the West to Lack Intellectual History 30

Interlude 32

Part 1 The African Seedbed of Western Christianity 33

1 A Forgotten Story 35

Who Can Tell It? 35

Pilgrimage Sites Neglected 37

Under Sands: The Burial of Ancient Christian Texts and Basilicas 39

2 Seven Ways Africa Shaped the Christian Mind 42

How the Western Idea of a University Was Born in the Crucible of Africa 43

How Christian Exegesis of Scripture First Matured in Africa 45

How African Sources Shaped Early Christian Dogma 46

How Early Ecumenical Decision Making Followed African Conciliar Patterns 48

How the African Desert Gave Birth to Worldwide Monasticism 52

How Christian Neoplatonism Emerged in Africa 55

How Rhetorical and Dialectical Skills Were Honed in Africa for Europe's Use 56

Interlude: Harnack's Folly 57

Overview 59

3 Defining Africa 62

Establishing the Indigenous Depth of Early African Christianity 62

The Stereotyping of African Hellenism as Non African 66

Scientific Inquiry into the Ethnicity of Early African Christian Writers 67

The Purveyors of Myopia 69

The African Seedbed Hypothesis Requires Textual Demonstration 72

A Case in Point: The Circuitous Path from Africa to Ireland to Europe and Then Back to Africa 73

A Caveat Against Afrocentric Exaggeration 76

4 One Faith, Two Africas 78

The Hazards of Bridge Building 78

The Challenge of Reconciliation of Black Africa and North Africa 79

The Roots of the Term Africa 80

Overcoming the Ingrained Lack of Awareness 82

Excommunicating the North 83

Arguing for African Unity 84

Defining "Early African Christianity" as a Descriptive Category of a Period of History 85

How African Is the Nile Valley? 86

5 Temptations 89

Tilted Historical Predispositions 89

The Catholic Limits of Afrocentrism 91

Ignoring African Sources 94

The Cost of Forgetfulness 95

Overlooking African Voices in Scripture 96

How Protestants Can Celebrate the Apostolic Charisma of the Copts 97

The Christian Ancestry of Africa 99

Part 2 African Orthodox Recovery 101

6 The Opportunity for Retrieval 103

Surviving Modernity 104

The Steadiness of African On Orthodoxy 106

The New African Ecumenism 107

Pruning Undisciplined Excesses 109

Burning Away the Acids of Moral Relativism 110

Orthodoxy Global and African 112

Historic Christian Multiculturalism 113

Refraining Modern Ecumenics within Classic Ecumenics 115

7 How the Blood of African Martyrs Became the Seed of European Christianity 117

Whether Classic Christian Teaching Is Defined by Power 118

How the History of African Martyrdom Shaped Christian Views of Universal History 120

Recalling the Exodus as an African Event 122

Amassing the Evidence 122

The Challenge of Young Africa 124

8 Right Remembering 126

Remembering the Scripture Rightly Through the Spirit 127

The Heart of African Orthodoxy 128

Transcending Material Worldliness 131

Avoiding Racial Definitions of Apostolic Truth 132

9 Seeking the Reconciliation of Christianity and Islam Through Historical Insight 134

The Risks Scholars Take 135

Conjointly Studying the History of Islam and Christianity 137

The Rigorous language Requirements of African Research 138

Learning from Primary Sources 140

A Personal Challenge 140

Appendix: The Challenges of Early African Research 143

Three Aims of Future Research 143

The Precedent 144

The Scope 146

The African Center of the International Consortium 147

The Consortium of Scholars 148

Assembling the Pieces of the Puzzle 148

Academic Leadership 149

Maximizing Digital Technologies 150

Publishing Outcomes 151

Conclusion 154

Literary Chronology of Christianity in Africa in the First Millennium 157

Bibliography 198