Eschatology in African Traditional Religion and African Christianity: Implications for Biblical and Theological Scholarship in Africa

Abstract

African traditional religion has many concepts that present alternative and a variety of contexts for Christianity, theology and biblical scholarship in Africa which can also provide appropriate answers to the many questions of African Christians. One of such concepts is eschatology. Eschatology in African traditional religions present deep insight into the philosophies of Africa’s indigenous cosmology and perspectives about life, death, and the hereafter. This article attempts to examine the concept of eschatology in Christian theology and explain the same within the African traditional and religious hermeneutical framework to decipher what implications can be derived for Christianity, theology and biblical scholarship in Africa and beyond. To achieve this the article reviewed various literature on the concept of eschatology within Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR). In this way, the article was able to compare the theology of escatology in Christianity and African Traditional Religion. The article looked at concepts such as time, death, end time, judgement, etc in both Christianity and ATR to discover their similarities and differences. The study revealed that the quintessential essence of African spirituality and cosmology is summed up in the concept of life as a cycle (unending); a person is born, grows to become a full member of the family, dies and gets admitted into the world of the ancestors. Even in death, life does not end, it continues actively and vibrantly in the world of the ancestors. This ideology evokes a kind of consciousness of life as a spiritual journey. Keywords: Eschatology, Christology, Ancestor, Christianity, Theology, Religion