Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the influence of African spirituality and cosmology in shaping how African people understand life and formulate God-images, and how this challenges the formulation of practical theology, particularly pastoral theology, and the practice of pastoral ministry in Africa. The presupposition is that the effectiveness of doing pastoral ministry in Africa depends heavily on a deliberate accommodation of African cultural understandings of life and African world-view(s). I contend that these cultural understandings of life, broadly shared among African people, are embedded within a framework of African spirituality. Thus the following basic questions form the core arguments of this article:
– How are practical theology and pastoral ministry informed by the ways African people understand God, life, and human relationships? This question is a step toward defining African spirituality.
– In what ways are practical theology and pastoral ministry among African people influenced by their understanding of the cosmic life-force, the living dead (ancestors), and ancestral spirits? This question helps to define the composition of African cosmology.
– How are God-images defined within an African spirituality and cosmology? With this question, we begin to define a theological ethos that is intertwined with African spirituality and cosmology.
– And most important, how do these understandings influence the practice of pastoral ministry in Africa? This question builds on the former ones to outline challenges for conceiving pastoral theology and practicing ministry.
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
