(a) Background and Object of the Study

 My memories of my first contact with the Bible goes back to my days as a toddler in a typical Nigerian Igbo village. My father could not read or write, yet he owned a Bible. In fact, he owned the only Bible in the village, an enormous red-edged book. Nobody ever read my father's Bible. It was not acquired to be read like ordinary books. No. My father's Bible was always carefully wrapped in white cloth and kept under lock and key in a wooden cabinet in which my father kept things he particularly treasured. Whenever you saw my father open the cabinet and bring out the Bible, you know that there is big palaver in the village. There must certainly be a dispute which has defied the ingenuity of the village elders and the only way to settle it would be for one of the contending parties to swear an oath. And for this my father's Bible was the most reliable means. For those first generation Christians my father's Bible had replaced the sacred staff (f) of the traditional religion as an object of oath taking, thanks to the example of the colonial court-room formality.

 I have begun this paper with this personal reminiscence fully conscious of how bizarre it must sound to most of you. The purpose is to warn you beforehand that the journey we are about to undertake in this essay will take many of you through fairly unfamiliar territory. The "bizarre" personal recollection is meant to invite you to this unknown territory. In this sense it can be compared to the "once upon a time" of traditional folklore which functions to invite the audience out of their everyday world to a different world where it is simply natural for animals and trees to move and talk with humans. Our opening story invites you to mentally leave your familiar Euro-American world behind and follow me to a world, that of first or second generation Christianity that we have in present-day Africa.Error! Bookmark not defined.

 The growth of Christianity in Africa has been very spectacular. Africa is on record as the continent with the highest numerical Christian growth rate in the world.Error! Bookmark not defined. And the Bible has been identified as "a major contributor" to this phenomenal growth of Christianity in Africa.Error! Bookmark not defined. The Bible is certainly very much valued and used by African Christians.

 Given the oral tradition that forms the background of these African Christians and the literary tradition that the Bible represents, the question of the relationship between the Bible and culture in African Christianity becomes an intriguing one. How is the Bible used in the cultural environment of Africa by African Christians? Here we shall not content ourselves with simply describing the present situation of Bible-culture interaction in Africa. As theologians we need to go further and ask more probing and critical questions with an end to assessing the appropriateness of this way of relating the Bible to culture. If we find the present model of Bible-culture relationship in African Christianity inadequate, as we most certainly shall, then we shall suggest or prescribe another model which we believe will prove more appropriate for the realization of the mission of African Christianity.
 

(b) Definition of Terms
 

St. Louis University historian, Thomas P. Neill, is quoted as saying, "How can you have a good fight if you define your terms?"Error! Bookmark not defined. Since the purpose of this paper is to provoke not a good fight but a good reflection, it might be necessary to offer some working definition of the main terms embodied in the topic "Bible and Culture in African Christianity" before we get into the discussion proper, even at the risk of possibly boring the reader.
Bible. This paper uses the term "Bible" in two ways, closely related yet distinct, to refer to either the book or the message. As book suffice it to say that it refers to the books of the Old and New Testaments held by Christians as the inspired Word of God.Error! Bookmark not defined. As message, it refers to the teaching of this collection of books, and as such it could be synonymous with the terms "gospel," "good news," "biblical tradition," "biblical revelation," etc.

Culture. To expect a human person to define culture is like expecting a fish to define the water in which it lives. For "As water is to the fish, so culture is to the human person."Error! Bookmark not defined. The best we can hope for is a more or less exhaustive description of the all-encompassing reality we call culture, such as the one proposed by the Greek Orthodox bishop, Anastasios Yannoulatos, who has isolated seven "constant elements" found in every culture. These are:

(i) formation of a system of contact, of a code of understanding, that is of a language; (ii) solutions given to the very first needs for humankind's survival, concerning shelter and maintenance, that is, developing of an elementary technical skill and economics; (iii) regulation of the living together of the basic human unity, man-woman, for the perpetuation of the human species; (iv) organization of a clan, race, nation, which means a regulation of social relations; (v) definition of what is good or bad, in other words, making social rules; (vi) artistic expressions of the beliefs and problematics of the individual and of society; and (vii) experience of the "Holy," of what is beyond everyday reality, through a form of religious beliefs.Error! Bookmark not defined.

It is important, from the outset, to know that this paper uses the term culture in this very broad sense, not in the narrow, popular sense as "the appreciation and understanding of literature, arts, music, etc."Error! Bookmark not defined.

It seems impossible to talk of culture in Africa today without coming against the question of whether one should speak of African culture or cultures. As a matter of fact that question has long been settled since African scholars reached the consensus that both usages are in order depending on the case at hand.

We discussed whether we should speak of culture or cultures. It seems to us that on the one hand there exist so many different cultures in Africa that they justify the use of these terms in the plural, on the other hand, the history and culture of Black Africa have a fundamental unity which permits us to face the values, problems and perspectives of this huge part of humanity as if it were one body.Error! Bookmark not defined.

African Christianity. There is an African Christianity that was and there is an African Christianity that is. The former African Christianity flourished geographically in the northern third of Africa in the first seven centuries of the Christian era and produced such Christian giants as Clement, Justin Martyr, Origen, Athanasius, St Monica and her renowned son, St Augustine. That Christianity all but disappeared in the face of the Islamic expansionism of the 7th century c.e. leaving only a remnant in the Egyptian Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox churches. Present-day African Christianity, however, is geographically prominent within the southern two thirds of the continent and is only between one and two centuries old.

Today African Christianity is said to have four different strands, and these are: (i) Ancient Christianity, with a history dating back to the earliest era of Christianity, today represented by the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, (ii) Missionary Christianity, founded between the 18th and 20thcenturies by European and later American missionaries, now largely indigenous, comprising all mainline Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical confessions, (iii) Independent Christianity, founded by Africans who had benefitted from, but were unsatisfied by, the teachings and practices of missionary Christianity, and who have no allegiance to any mother Christian churches outside Africa; (iv) Immigrant Christianity, founded by European immigrants with no missionary interest, no interest in native African membership, but only in sustaining the vested interests of European immigrants, exemplified by the Dutch Reformed Church that sustained the apartheid policy in South Africa.Error! Bookmark not defined.

The terrain of African Christianity is, therefore, a vast one, and it would be almost impossible to do justice to all the variety in African Christianity within the limited scope of this paper. Our discussion, therefore, will concentrate on the strand of missionary Christianity to which I belong and on the strand of independent Christianity which is a non-negligible factor in today's African religious scenario.
 

(a) Two Models of Relationship: Dialectic and Dialogic

 Judging from the various ways in which, down through the ages, the gospel or the biblical message has been understood by Christians to relate to cultures, it is possible to distinguish, without necessarily separating, two major tendencies or models, namely, the dialectic and dialogic models.Error! Bookmark not defined.

 According to the dialectic model, the gospel and culture are opposed to each other, in perpetual conflict with each other, and are ultimately irreconcilable. This polarity is often expressed in the language of contrasting spatial, temporal, and circumstantial metaphors, such as these: the gospel is from "above," culture from "below"; the gospel is "divine," culture "human"; the gospel is "light," culture "darkness"; the gospel is "eternal," culture "time-bound"; and so on. According to the advocates of this view, the dichotomy between the gospel and culture can be resolved in only one possible way, by culture yielding to the demands of the gospel.

 This contrasts with the dialogic model which views culture and gospel as two compatible entities that could and that should be reconciled. According to this view culture and gospel could blend harmoniously. They could dialogue, and such a dialogue would result in their mutual enrichment and efficiency.

 These are paradigms, and paradigms are rarely found in their pure states in real life. In real life, the way Christians perceive the interplay between gospel and culture could be located anywhere between the extreme poles of the purely dialectic and the purely dialogic models. But my submission is that in African Christianity , we are operating an overly dialectical approach to the critical issue of the relationship between the Bible and African cultures.

(b) Evidence of the Dominance of the Dialectic Model in African Christianity

 There is evidence that African Christians generally assume a one-sided view of the Bible and the way it relates to their cultures. The average African church-goer, asked "What is the Bible?" would most likely reply that "The Bible is the Word of God" and forget to add the other equally important aspect, "in the words of men".Error! Bookmark not defined. The popular view of the Bible in Africa approaches the Islamic view of the Koran -- composed by God in eternity and for all eternity, then revealed to mortals in time through divine inspiration understood as dictation. This has led to the popularity of a fundamentalistic viewpoint among African Christians according to which every statement in the Bible is held to be literally backed up by God's own authority and, therefore, not subject to re-examination on the grounds of scholarship, common sense, or experience.

 Yes, the dialectic model of perceiving the relationship between the Bible and African cultures pervades African Christianity and it is engaging the keen interest of African theologians. Two papers presented by two African biblical scholars in a consultation held in Glasgow, Scotland on the theme "Interpreting the Bible in African Contexts" are revelatory of this concern. Justin Ukpong read a paper on "Inculturating Biblical Hermeneutic: Rereading the Bible with African Eyes," and Kris Owan read the paper "The Word of God in Human Language: Towards a Culturally Pluralistic Interpretation of the Bible". Both papers argue for a more dialogic understanding of the relationship between the Bible and African cultures.

 The report presented by Ukpong of a survey conducted in Port Harcourt, Nigeria to determine the dynamics affecting popular interpretation of the Bible pointed to the same conclusions. According to the report, African Christians are largely dogmatic in their approach to the Bible. The belief that the Bible is the Word of God and divinely inspired has acquired magical dimensions.

 The Independent African church... remain conservative in believing that the Bible is universal and not subject to cultural interpretations. Thus such accompaniments to worship as hand clapping and dancing are seen as biblical, not cultural.Error! Bookmark not defined.

 That the dialectic model of perceiving Bible-culture relationship is dominant in African Christianity is no longer in question among African scholars. What is in question is what gave rise to it and what can be done to ameliorate the situation.

 (c) Why the Dialectic Relationship?

 To cure a malady it helps to know the cause. Why do African Christians adopt a dialectical attitude to their cultures in relation to the Bible? Without excluding other possible causes, I will like us to focus on two basic factors, one external and the other internal, which I regard as contributing immensely to Bible-culture polarization in African Christianity. These are: (i) missionary theology and strategy, and (ii) the novelty, in African experience, of the written word.

 Christian missionaries sent to Africa in the early days of the missionary movement were apparently theologically ill-equipped for the task ahead of them. Many of them were recruited the same way that the Crusaders of the Middle Ages were recruited, namely, for war. They were made to see themselves as "Christian soldiers" marching as to war against demonic powers and the forces of darkness in order to liberate the land for Christ and save the hell-bound souls of its helpless inhabitants.

 Africa together with all its cultures and religions represented for them so much fetishism, the kingdom of Satan, fit only to be overthrown and brought to subjection to the superior power of the Cross of Jesus so as to raise the banners of the kingdom of Christ. The first voices of sanity began to be heard in the second quarter of the twentieth century from such avant-garde scholars as Edwin W. Smith who had this to say in 1929:

 It used to be said that Africans had no religion, but plenty of superstition. Some writers who admitted the presence of rudimentary religion supposed it to consist of no more than a mass of entangled fears and irrational taboos. They talked obscurely of Satanism, devil-worship, fetishism. We are as yet very far from a complete understanding of African faith and practice, but we can confidently assert that these are much more respectable than used to be thought.Error! Bookmark not defined.

 A lopsided theology gave rise in practice to a missionary strategy that emphasized not dialogue but authority, not love but power. This is, of course, in keeping with the missionaries' self understanding as soldiers of Christ. The missionaries knew they had no authorization from the local constituted authority, so they claimed that their authorization came from God.