Syncretism in African Christian Mission: Assessing the Role of Historical-critical Method of Hermeneutics

Abstract

Christianity in Africa is experiencing significant exponential growth. Its vastness in terms of numbers is indeed broadening yet its actual spiritual depth remains illusory and elusive. While Africa is rapidly becoming one of the world regions for benchmarking Christianity, syncretism is among its major threats. Syncretism calls into question the authenticity of African Christian identity in the light of the historic Christian faith and hinders its spirituality. Although a degree of syncretism is unavoidable in Christian mission it has the propensity to confuse and mar God's agenda in His mission. There is need, not only to decry its negative effects but also dig it up to its roots and deal with situations that motivate it. African Christian mission apparently still grapples with some of the errors caused by methods of hermeneutics that occupied the Western worldview at the time of missionary expedition. This study is library based and uses secondary data gleaned from archival print and electronic media sources. Due to the vastness of African Christian landscape, purposeful data collection procedure was used to gather relevant data and, because of their exponential growth, only Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have been surveyed. The study traces syncretism in African Christian mission to the historical-critical method of hermeneutics which in itself was a product of a major shift that occurred in the West especially from around the 18^th century, the age of Enlightenment, and which was popularized at the time when European missionaries were gaining foothold into the African mission field. It shows that historical-critical method of hermeneutics has furthered the cause of philosophical approach to biblical interpretation and attempted to silence God, the Author, from speaking through the Scripture, His written Word. Subsequently, a kind of gospel has been presented to Africa deprived of its transforming power and denied opportunity to confront and interrogate African cultural milieu so as to manifest meaningfully in the lives of its recipients. This paper thus, suggests a dialogical approach to the prevailing syncretic situation with a view to engaging the following tools; 1) seeking to understand a foreign mission front through cultural relativism, 2) evaluating it through biblical theology, and 3) discerning it through prayer. This will contribute significantly not only to dealing with the ensuing syncretism in the African Christian landscape but also benefit those who intend to do mission cross-culturally.