SALVATION IN AFRICAN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY: A CRITICAL COMPARISON OF THE VIEWS OF JOHN MBITI AND MERCY AMBA ODUYOYE

Abstract

John S. Mbiti and Mercy Amba Oduyoye have contributed much to theology in Africa. Their immense contributions to the formation of academic African theology cannot be underestimated. The interest of this study is in their theological reflections on salvation in African Christianity as presented in their published works. Mbiti and Oduyoye approach salvation from inculturation and feminist perspective respectively. The study seeks to find out the key features of John Mbiti and Mercy Amba Oduyoye views of Salvation and in what forms do the two views converge and diverge. Textual and conceptual analysis was used for the study. Primary attention was given to their published works as well as the works of their critics. The finding of the study is that Mbiti and Oduyoye agrees on most aspects of salvation. Their differences are basically Oduyoye’s additions from feminist perspectives. The two share a view of salvation that embraces deliverance from sin and reconciliation with God as well as deliverance from the spiritual oppression. They also agree that God, the father of Jesus Christ, whom African Christians worship, is not different from the God they had known in their pre-Christian religion. However, while Mbiti focuses more on spiritual deliverance Oduyoye focuses on material impediments. For her, the African understanding of salvation as rooted in human rescue from material impediments must be maintained. But some African indigenous religious beliefs and practices, including some church practices that undermine human material well-being, especially the well-being of women, must be criticized and rejected. Central to Oduyoye agenda as a feminist liberation theologian is the critique of patriarchal tendencies in African Traditional Religion and Christianity.