Preparing for South Africa... I guess everyone has their own way of preparing for a short term mission. Kellie has read a couple of books about South African culture. Me, I 'm reading about how the gospel first arrived in Africa. No it wasn't from Western missionaries with colonialist views, rather it arrived in the first century. Wow, the Christian tradition in Africa is as old as anywhere else... As old or older than Rome and the Greek church.
In fact, while Africa is a big continent, in the Nile valley and the Maghreb the gospel was quite extensive since the first half of the first century. The contributions to Christian thought are quite impressive from Africa. “The concept of the European university was conceived there, with Origen the exegesis of Scripture matured, the language of the Trinity was fleshed out, the councilor patterns for ecumenical decisions used there was adopted by the northern church.”
Maybe there are only a few erudite friends out there who will appreciate this but I find it fascinating...
"There is, however, a precolonial African Christianity that does not depend on either Western or European sources. It is a rich and thoroughly African written intellectual tradition of the highest quality."
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