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How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity

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Thomas Oden's "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind" was not the book I expected when I read the title. It was different, it was more, it was less, it was challenging, and it was and is important.

Oden, recently retired after a distinguished professorial career, is perhaps one of the most renowned Church historians of our day. His four-volume opus on the history of pastoral care is a classic, for instance.

Oden now sees as his life's work, for the remainder of his life, the uncovering of the buried treasure of African Christianity. Of course, what one means by "African" is crucial. Oden wisely steers clear of much modern and post-modern imbalance here. He avoids the Euro-centric approach that diminishes anything African as being simply borrowed from European culture and thinking. On the other hand, he equally avoids an "Africa first" framework that presumes that everything has its roots in Africa.

For Oden, and for "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind," the "Africa" he speaks of is anything that happened on the African continent and anyone who lived and ministered on that continent. This avoids the endless debate, for instance, about which Church Father was or was not "African." How does one define that? By skin color? And by what amount of pigmentation? By nationality? Why wouldn't any nation in Africa be by definition African? By ancestry?

The ancestry issue coupled with geographical/cultural impact is Oden's most important contribution. In sum, he argues that even if Augustine, for instance, had a father whose ancestry was Greco-Roman, would that mean that Augustine, living his entire life in Africa was not African? Additionally, given that his famous mother, Monica, was almost definitely of Berber (north African) descent, would that not make Augustine African? And just as important to Oden, can we wipe out the impact on Augustine's parents and on Augustine of living in the African geography and partaking of the African culture?

So, for Oden, "African Christianity" is the Christianity of any person who was born and/or lived on the African continent. Thus, for Europeans to claim Augustine, Origen, Tertullian, and others is a robbery of immense proportion in Oden's thinking.

Given this perspective, Oden's entire book is actually a call for others to build upon his small start. It is a call to take seriously the oral and written tradition of material spoken and penned on the African continent. It is then a call to explore the past, present, and future impact of that legacy.

For the past impact, Oden wants to examine how African Christian theology and practical Christianity shaped and interacted with non-African Christianity. For the present and the future, Oden hopes that such increased understanding of the enduring African Christian legacy will validate and encourage modern African Christians regarding their heritage, will open the doors for African seekers to understand that to convert to Christianity is not betraying their heritage, but returning to it, and to encourage all Christians to learn from and with modern day African Christianity.

Some will find in "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind" more ecumenism than they find palatable. However, one does not have to agree with Oden's entire perspective or agenda to learn from him and appreciate his fair and balanced historical perspective.

For anyone wanting to sort through the current debate in a scholarly way, Oden is the person to read. For anyone wanting to enliven their appreciation of the ancient African Christian faith, "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind" is the book to devour.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.

Thomas C. Oden has done a great service for the church by writing "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind." This book takes in great consideration Africa's contribution to Early Christian History. The book surveys various topics such as Christian intellectual history, the history of literature, Scripture exegesis, philosophy, physics, moral insight, discipline, etc. However, particular attention is given to Africa's contribution to Early Christianity. The book revisits what has been silent and untold in Church History for many centuries by both ecclesiological and secular historians. Oden writes with passion, conviction, yet with an irenic spirit. He states, "Christianity has a much longer history than its Western or European expressions. The profound ways African teachers have shaped world Christianity have never been adequately studied or acknowledged, either in the Global North or South" (p.10). The author posits some serious challenges to all educated Christians to reconsider the past. Early African History is nothing but ecclesiological history. The church cannot fully appreciate her rich history unless she is learned of her great African heritage. Although the book is directed toward Christians, yet non-Christians will profit from it significantly. Those who love the truth simply cannot ignore Oden's important work.

Thomas Oden writes, "Christianity would not have its present vitality in the Two-Thirds World without the intellectual understandings that developed in Africa between 50 and 500 C.E. The pretense of studying church history while ignoring African church history is implausible." (10) Yet, in his book "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind," Oden purports that for centuries Western intellectuals have in fact ignored or downplayed the momentous contributions of African Christians to church history and theology. According to Oden, today's Christian mind has its roots in the writings and teachings of the early church leaders from Africa, in the struggles of the early church martyrs from Africa, in the lives of the desert Fathers of Africa, and in the early Christians who fled Africa taking their faith throughout the Mediterranean cities. Oden suggests that it is critical for contemporary African Christianity to learn of its prestigious heritage--to learn that Christianity is a vital, traditional African faith rather than a foreign imposition.

He writes, "The profound ways African teachers have shaped world Christianity have never been adequately studied or acknowledged, either in the Global North or South." (9) This is a story that Oden believes needs to be told throughout African villages and cities and must especially reach the African child. He believes it is a story best told fully by young African scholars. The story of African Christianity conveys extraordinary faith, courage, tenacity and intellect that must serve as inspiration and guides not only for African Christianity but for universal Christianity today.

In its infancy, Christianity spread to Africa. Oden laments that even African theologians have been tempted to fall victim to the stereotypical idea that Christianity developed in and came from Europe. This mindset ignores the vast oral tradition and written evidence indicating that African thought shaped and conditioned nearly every Christian diocese in the first millennium of the faith.

Oden asserts that in Christianity's first 500 years, "the period of its greatest vitality," the African Christian intellect was the model that was sought and widely emulated by Christians of the northern and eastern Mediterranean shores. (29) Oden claims, "The Christian leaders in Africa figured out how best to read the law and the prophets meaningfully, to think philosophically, and to teach the ecumenical rule of triune faith cohesively long before these patterns became normative elsewhere." (29-30) Through the third, fourth and fifth centuries, African Christian ideas were flowing to the other centers of Christianity.

The book is divided into two main parts: "The African Seedbed of Western Christianity" and "African Orthodox Recovery." Oden also includes an Appendix that outlines the challenges of early African research and a literary chronology of the first 1000 years of Christianity in Africa. Oden focuses on seven ways that Africa from the first to the fifth century shaped the Christian mind. These seven ways provide the foundation for his thesis in the book:

1.The Western idea of a university and Christian scholarship was born in Africa, mainly in Alexandria which possessed an unrivaled library and a vast learning community of philosophers, scientists, writers, artists and educators. Influential figures include Clement of Alexandria and Pantaenus.

2.Christian exegesis of Scripture first matured in Africa by writers like Origen, Didymus the Blind, Tyconius and Augustine of Hippo.

3.African sources like Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Augustine and Cyril shaped early Christian dogma on subjects such as Christology and the Trinity. Many problems of Biblical interpretation and Christian definitions were worked out through African Christians' battles against the major heresies of Gnosticism, Arianism, Montanism, Marcionism and Manichaeism.

4.Early ecumenical decision making followed early African conciliar patterns that provided a practical model for ecumenical debate and resolution. African church leaders like Demetrius of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Optatus of Milevis and Augustine raised and helped settle issues on penitence, diocesan boundaries, episcopal authority and ordination and on Christian doctrine.

5.The African desert Fathers birthed worldwide monasticism through their patterns of personal sacrifice, ordering of the life of prayer, study, work, radical discipleship and balance of solitude and communal life. Oden elaborates on the example of how the monastic patterns of Antony, Pachomius and Augustine would have lasting influence in Italy, France and all the way to Ireland.

6.Christian neoplatonism emerged in Africa with Africans Philo, Ammonias Saccas and Plotinus being the central figures. Clement of Alexandria was among the earliest to convey the connections and distinctions between logos philosophy and the Christian teaching of God.

7.Rhetorical and dialectical skills were honed in Africa prior to advancement in Europe with Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius and Augustine excelling.

According to Oden, the time for Orthodox recovery in Africa is now and urgent for three reasons:
1.rapid numerical expansion of Christianity
2.a new hunger for intellectual depth
3.the perceived might of the Muslim world, and the concurrent exhaustion of modern Western intellectual alternatives.

African Christianity does not have the comfort to invest in the Western idea of ecumenism and unity that equates all ideologies and rejects absolute truth and moral superiority of the historic doctrines. Likewise, a faith devoid of the supernatural is of no use to African Christians who rely on miraculous intervention. Oden asserts that African Christianity is rejecting a "permissive ecumenism" and tolerance for sin in favor of the truths found in its wellspring of classical exegesis that deals with the problem of sin through penitence and humility. (116) Oden sees in the heart of African Orthodoxy a model for a contemporary Christianity revitalized by a corrected perspective on the relationships between tradition and Scripture and between faith and charity inspired by the Holy Spirit.

He presents what is basically the tip of the iceberg of evidence for his thesis. He admittedly limits himself to the task of being a catalyst to ignite African and other scholars to take the initiative to fully develop his ideas. The book is sufficient to whet readers' appetites and pique interest in discovering the rest of the iceberg not seen in this book.

Oden writes, "Among the benefits of reading early African Christian teaching are the courage to face complex tasks, reduced anxiety and the consolation of knowing that suffering can be transcended by hope. Seemingly impossible obstacles do not intimidate." (135) If a lesson for all Christians stands out from early African Christianity, it may be what is articulated by Alan Paton's seminal South African novel "Cry, the Beloved Country:" "there is one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power." Oden has illustrated that African Christianity has been characterized, since it inception to the present, by power sourced in a keen sacrificial love flowing with grace, faith, hope, and courage while remaining anchored in truth and community.

Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays

It is not often recognised that a number of the early church fathers were Africans, and there was a strong African formative influence on the early years of Christianity. That is essentially the message of Thomas Oden's book. It is a message which forces a rethink of the way most people perceive the role of Africa within the Christian faith.

It is an interesting message and certainly one worth telling. Unfortunately the substance of the book is disappointingly brief. I would have liked to have heard about the lives of the African church fathers Augustine, Tertullian, Cyprian and others, and I would have liked to hear more about the history and spread of Christianity in Africa in the first few centuries, as well as the particular distinctives of early African Christianity as compared with, say, early European Christianity.

Instead, the author has taken enough material for a magazine article and stretched it out to form a book. He asserts that a new generation of African scholars need to take responsibility for conducting the research and fleshing out Africa's contribution to Christianity. I found the book dry and at times patronising towards Africans; mercifully it is relatively short at 108 pages plus introduction and appendices.

As a longtime reader of the Church Fathers, I found this book delightful. Oden's observations about Eurocentric interpretation of Church history are right on. I highly recommend it.

I was very disappointed in this book.

I conclude that the book was not written for me, as I am not a university theologian. I do not normally read university theology books, but I was interested in the subject as I have a heart for the people of Africa and their spiritual lives.

About 10 pages of this book directly describe how Africa shaped the Christian mind. The rest of the book is Oden's constant re-iteration (100+ pages worth of constant) that Africa did shape the Christian mind, that revisionist European history minimized the impact of the thinking of North African church leaders on Christianity, and that he alone appears to have the intellectual insight into this reality.

I strongly suspect that Oden is correct in his main premise of the book. However, as a lay person, I don't remember being overtly taught any of the heresies that he supposes underlie my Christian faith. Maybe that's his point: that the heresies are so subtle, that I have not realized that I have been taught them. On the other hand, if I had bought into these heresies, then I would have disagreed with his main thesis, which I didn't.

Having said all of that, the 10 pages of content directly related the title are interesting, and I loved the literary chronology of Christianity in North Africa that is provided at the end of the book.

In parallel to this book, I started reading "The Lost History of Christianity" by Philip Jenkins. So far (about 13% of the way in) Jenkins makes the same points as Oden, but with more detail, and from a global basis (including the influence of the Eastern Church on both Western Christianity and Islam). If you are attracted to the title of this book, I recommend you get the Jenkins one instead.

Oden clearly cares about getting one big idea out there: Africa is the seedbed of Christianity, spawning biblical and theological studies, universities, monasticism, and various other things which most have come to consider as medieval European inventions. He makes the case clearly, and I think fairly well.

However, there are a couple problems with this book:

1. It is very repetitive. Oden gets the basic thesis and overview of the entire book done within the first 1/4 of the book. The rest seems repetitive, rambling, or a reworking of the same idea.

2. It is very short on actual evidence. Now, I understand that Oden's goal was not to write the dissertation, but to write the fountainhead book, hoping that others will delve into the details. But when you write a book like this, with this bold of a thesis, you've got to provide the reader with SOME details and evidence. Describe the beginning of universities in Africa, using primary sources. Actually show us the development of particular doctrines, and exactly how they traveled from African leaders to European leaders. And many more examples.

I give this book three stars, because if he's right (and I think he is), then this is a very important book. However, it was not written very well (stylistically or technically), and could have easily been converted into a long article or op-ed piece that could have been published in multiple places.

****
"On that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of Hosts. One of these will be called the city of the sun (Heliopolis)." Isaiah 19:18



Oden Tells the Story:
Here, Oden reminds Christians that there were once major cultural and religious centers in North Africa, especially in present day Tunisia where Carthage and Hippo were located. The Mediterranean coast of North Africa had a thriving civilization and culture that produced vivid literature and fine art. The Nile River descending from the mountains of Ethiopia, passing through Nubia, and ending in lower Egypt is still the main location of a living Christianity. These Christians were able to survive the Arab invasion, even hinder Islamic cancerous growth into their areas. Another vocation that Oden points out as having a great influence on Western Asia, from Syria to Capadocia and Southern Europe was monasticism, which started in the deserts of Egypt and eventually moved east and west up to Ireland.

African Paleo-Orthodoxy:
Professor Thomas Oden, founder of Paleo-Orthodoxy, represents a portrait of Christian community in North Africa, in line with Patristic scholars in Europe, which is being catching up in this country through the North American Patristic Society, in the last thirty years. He challenges prevailing notions on the historical development of Christianity from its early buds to its later developed expressions. He asks some fundamental questions: If this is so, why is Christianity so often perceived in Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Africa, and throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage? His analysis convinced him that the pattern should be reversed the other way around. His impassioned plea to uncover the vital role that early African Christians played in developing the modern university, applies only to Alexandria. From Clement to Dedymus, the Alexandrine Catechetical school thrived, and the scriptorium produced the most accurate Codices. Origen matured Christian exegesis of Scripture, shaped early Christian dogma, and above all modelled conciliar patterns of ecumenical consolation, by arbitration in matters of faith, between disputing bishops and their Churches from Caesaria, Palestine to Rome. Early monasticism, which started by the Jewish Therapeutae who became the first Messianic Jews, established the vocation and its traditions. Alexandrine Egyptians led by Ammon Saccha and his clan Plotinus, Longinus and Origen, and others of his pupils developed Neoplatonism, while refining rhetorical and dialectical skills.

Oden Disciplined Investigation:
Professor Thomas Oden calls for "a wide-ranging research project to fill out the picture he sketches. It will require, he says, a generation of disciplined investigation, combining intensive language study with a risk-taking commitment to uncover the truth in potentially unreceptive environments." Oden envisions a dedicated scholarship, devoting common commitment endorsed with cyber technology, that will seek to shape "not only the scholar's understanding but the ordinary African Christian's self-perception." Thomas Oden proposes that contemporary Christian Africans need not synthesize any new theology, of African liberation type, but to first rediscover the patristic theology that started on the continent with the Church Fathers before the advancement of Islam. However, surviving Copts in Egypt, Christians in Ethiopia, and Eritrea already stick firmly to their Oriental Orthodoxy.

Seeking truth or Ecumenism?
Thomas C. Oden, author and general editor of The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, presents how this rediscovery can be done. He encourages young African scholars to take the lead in this project and set up a website: [...]
Oden tries to be ecumenical in his approach of rediscovering how Africa shaped Christian theology, but Africa is reduced in reality to Egypt. One nation in Africa lead by the great city of Alexandria has played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture, that outweighs all African nations combined. The Church of Alexandria, where the Hebrew bible translation was started in the third century BC, into the Greek Septuagint, became and still is the ecclesiastical holy Scripture of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. All fundamental Christian doctrines and the most formative intellectual achievements of Christianity were explored and developed in Alexandria, which controlled provinces east of today's Tunisia, of the archaic Roman Empire.

Oden's Continental Ecumenism:
Although Oden creatively recovered all known and proven facts, he stopped short from acknowledging the true champions of Christian Orthodoxy. Oden cannot call Egypt Africa, or deny to make an absolutely simple statement,
"Alexandria was the mind of Western Civilization, and the Egyptian Desert the soul of Christianity!"
In spite of trying to be inclusive, his emphasis is Protestant, a fact which Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B., does not seem convinced. His presentation that Africa had a great influence on Christianity is correct, but Africa in the early days of the Church, could be reduced to Egypt, and Egypt to Alexandria. Exton statement that "forgetting is mostly due to racial prejudices which Oden and others highly suggest is not appropriate," refreshes the Black Athena debate.

Eminent Scholar & Author:
Thomas C. Oden is Professor of Theology and Ethics, Emeritus, at Drew University Theological School from 1980 to 2004. in addition to being the senior editor of Christianity Today, he is the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and author of The Rebirth of Orthodoxy, between many other theological and exegetical works.

This review originally appeared at Boston Bible Geeks on 3/2/09.

Thanks to Adrianna of IVP for a review copy of this book.

It is still a prevalent but hopefully decreasingly common (thanks to the efforts of scholars such as Phillip Jenkins) view that Christianity is a "Western" (American or European) religion. Whereas Jenkins spends most of The Next Christendom showing that Christianity is growing most in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Thomas Oden's new book, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, helps show the long history of Christianity within Africa, arriving long before both Islam and the camel. But Oden's goal isn't simply to show that Christianity has existed, or even thrived, for centuries in some places within Africa. Such a thesis isn't remarkable for those who have even a superficial knowledge of church history.

Instead, Oden sets out to show that "Africa played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture" (p9). Historians have been getting it wrong for some time by claiming that the greatest achievements in the early church were from Europe, especially Rome. Oden argues: "Well-meaning European and American historians have a tilted perception of the relation of African and European intellectual history in the third and fourth centuries, and thus at the apex of African influence" (p31).

"This is what the book is about: to state the African seedbed hypothesis in a measured way and begin to sort out the facts that support it" (p31). In doing so, Oden hopes to swing the pendulum back to appreciating Africa's vital role in shaping Christianity as we know it.

In "Part One: The African Seedbed of Western Christianity" (chapters 1-5) Oden lays out the foundation of the rest of the book. Topics covered include the need to recover ancient texts and excavate ancient Christian sites in Africa (chapter one) and "Seven Ways Africa Shaped the Christian Mind" (chapter 2). He also argues for his definition of "African", rejecting the idea that skin color should be the determining factor, but rather "if a text was written in Africa it will be treated as African" (p69). The same goes for the theologians/monastics/bishops he surveys. If they were from Africa (whether North African or Sub-Saharan), he counts them as African.

Oden wants his reader to understand that he is not trying to overstate his case, or to discount non-African contributions to the formation of Christianity. His desire is "ecumenical" (which he'll admit is a bad word in some circles). His desire is to include Africa and Africans into the conversation, allowing their voice to be heard, not create an insular spirit among African believers. "If Africans were saying that they want their sources to come from Africa alone and not from anywhere else, then that would be deficient in the catholic spirit. But this is not the direction of African expectations. They seek a fair hearing for valid arguments based on evidence" (p93).

I'll admit that this section of the book became a bit repetitive at points. Barely a page goes by without the reader being reminded that Christianity has long existed in Africa, that Africans were dealing with theological and pastoral issues before Europeans made them famous and so on. All valid points, to be sure, and indeed this is the very thesis of the book; but the repetition could have been avoided and trimmed this section a bit more.

In "Part Two: African Orthodox Recovery", Oden points out why the retrieval of early African Christianity is important. "It is precisely from the ancient African sources that global Christianity can relearn that the church guided by the Spirit is never irretrievably fallen away from the truth" (p103). Rediscovering early African Christianity can also be instructive for the various forms of emerging African Christians. "They now have the benefit of learning about conflict resolution from their ancient African mentors. From that history they learn that not every difference of opinion is demonic and not every union is of God" (p107). As African Christianity grows, "The brilliant instruction and guidance of early African Christian texts and witnesses stand ready to nourish this regrounding" (p109).

For example, Oden notes that many of the early martyrs in the church were Africans, such as Perpetua and Felicitas in Carthage (modern day Tunisia). These African martyrs helped propel the church throughout the world. Also, the early African martyrs can prove inspirational to modern African Christian suffering persecution. "The meaning of the struggle of the early African martyrs begs to be understood in modern Africa" (p120).

Oden ends this section of the book with a biographical note of his growing interest in African Christianity, as well as an impassioned plea for others, particularly Africans, to pick up his vision of voicing the strength of early African Christianity. He confesses he'd love to do more, but admits his life "may be shortened by congestive heart disease" (p141, though we pray this is not true). He actually has helped set up a consortium called the Center for Early African Christianity (website: earlyafricanchristianity.com), to help facilitate this study.

Herein lies the true goal of the book, to spur on the next generation of African scholars to take up the challenge of studying early African Christianity. Oden makes many assertions throughout this book, but admittedly offers only a small amount of evidence to support his claims. What he does offer is provocative and enough to admit that he is probably correct. But much more needs to be done. For instance, it is one thing to show that African church leaders dealt with a certain issue a century before the Europeans did, it's another thing to show the European church leaders relied on the Africans in forming their decisions. This book is a challenge, a shot across the bow of young historians. If Oden is correct, that Africa did in fact play a more decisive role in the formation of Christianity than just about everyone realizes, then the Church will profit from the investigation he calls for.

This is a tremendous book and is worthy of being read by anyone who enjoys church history, or even African history. Thomas Oden has served the Church over the last few decades by editing the Ancient Christian Commentary Series (through IVP) and reminding us of the necessity of remembering our roots in the early church. This book continues his service to us all, may his vision be realized soon.

Thomas Oden's motivation for writing How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind is two-fold. First, he hopes to present an African tradition of Christianity that will both encourage the growing African Christian population today and counter claims that Islam naturally has stronger ties with the African people. Second, he hopes to convince Western Christians of the important contributions that African theologians made to the development of Western Christianity. On the second point, I believe he makes a convincing case, although another more in-depth analysis is needed. On the first point, he's extremely weak...not on combating Islam, since that's easy enough to show that it's not an indigenous religion, but on giving Africans their own ancient Christian heritage. Oden dismisses race as irrelevant and bemoans the schism between the Coptic Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox traditions of North Africa and the Western traditions of Sub-Saharan Africa, presenting it more as an accident of Westernization rather than anything tied to the realities of the ancient past. He prefers geographical identification based on the modern definition of "continent" rather than actual social contact. Were Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, and others "African"? Sure, if you want to define it that way. Should Christians study the works and lives (martyrdoms) of these "Africans"? Of course! But is there a special meaning for Christians of "Negro," "black African," "Niger-Congo," or Sub-Saharan heritage? No. And that was Oden's central claim.