Search Results
Abstract
The task of this article is to interrogate and reconstruct Fabien Eboussi Boulaga’s theory of the Christic model as a pragmatic response to negative messianisms among African Pentecostals. Taking the hint from the two-natures messianic metaphoricity, the article argues that the messianic structure of Christ as an eternal myth is infinitely culturally demythologized into different historical and cultural contexts. It concludes by demonstrating that the two-natures messianicity captures a dialectic connection between divine infinity and human finitude. A pragmatic reconceptualization of the two-natures messianicity serves as a structuring principle or functional messianic model in the search for a balance of power and accountability in the struggle against menacing dominant hegemonies. It is critical because African Pentecostalism functions with the power-over as a structuring principle which makes congregants vulnerable to abuse of spiritual power and objectification, sexualization, and exploitation of a mystified mass.
Abstract
This article employs Pentecostal mediation to engage the divergent views of Mbiti and Sanneh on the question of what translates between ‘the Gospel’ and ‘Christianity’. This approach is dialectical and dialogical imaginative Pentecostal third space inquiry which affirms paradoxical meaning makings. It is also embedded in the pneumatic principle as the power behind translatability. This approach demonstrates that both scholars were seeking to make sense of how Christianity can be said to have become a distinctive African religious reality in its practices, beliefs, and theological expressions. It concludes that the translatable Gospel is a Christian-producing Gospel and a Christian-producing Gospel is a translating and translatable Christianity. This frame of thinking makes sense, at least, within Pentecostal theological and missiological thought in which, ontologically, the Gospel and Christianity are already translated.
Abstract
The article argues for missional masculinities from an incarnational framework as the foundation for imitatio Christi among Pentecostal men in Africa. It suggests that since masculinities are defined by societal ideals that men are expected to embody, Pentecostal men should reclaim the divine vision of the new ‘manity’ in Christ. Here, Christ serves not only as the epitome of new humanity but also as the exemplar, setting the standard and modeling what it means to be human. Jesus is the primordial model, the definition, the determination, the illustration, and most importantly, the beginning and the end of what it means to be human. Therefore, missional masculinities, modeled after Christ, are primed to exhibit kenotic, relational, agapeic, redemptive characteristics, and are everyday prophetic performances of abundant life for humanity and creation.