Towards a Functional Christology Among AICs in Ghana

Abstract

AbstractThis article explores the means by which Christ is encountered and appropriated in the everyday lives of African Indigenous Church adherents in Ghana. Drawing upon an extensive Christological questionnaire that surveyed 2500 people across the ten regions of Ghana, as well as making use of the ethnographic data gathered through focus groups discussions and interviews, it seeks to understand the way Christology functions in the lives of adherents of AICs in Ghana.The study reveals that Akan AIC experience of Jesus Christ is not one that is confined to personal piety or private devotions but rather one that is shared and experienced in the public arenas of life. It appears that Akan AICs possess a functional Christology that aids life and protects from anti-life forces. They have no concept of a Christology as a mere philosophical or theological construct, they know only how to serve Christ through their daily encounter with Him through daily living. This African functional Christology reminds us that we do not find Christ in the flight of the alone to the Alone, escaping from turmoil to tranquillity, but only in the community of the banalities of ordinary life in which we need others to help us make sense of the meaning and significance of the Christ event.