By Joseph G. Healey

Here is our 25-year Timeline:

1995: writing the book with co-author Maryknoll Father Donald Sybertz, MM who served as a Maryknoll Missionary Priest in Shinyanga, Tanzania starting in 1955. He specialized in the oral literature of the Sukuma Ethnic Group – proverbs, sayings, stories and songs.

1996: Paulines Publications Africa (Daughters of St. Paul) Edition (Nairobi, Kenya) with a “Foreword” by Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Mwana a‘Nzeki, the Archbishop of Nairobi.

1997: Orbis Books Edition (Maryknoll, New York, USA) in the Faith and Culture Series (an Orbis Series on Contextualizing Gospel and Church) with a “Foreword” by American theologian Father Robert Schreiter, CPPS.

The book reflects what traditional African proverbs, sayings, stories and songs used in

Christian catechetical, liturgical, and ritual contexts reveal about East Africa, and about all of Africa. It includes appropriations of, and interpretations of, Christianity in Africa.

In the “Foreword” Archbishop Ndingi writes: “In particular, this book looks at the cultural riches of African Oral Literature such as proverbs, sayings and stories. I hope that these examples and reflections will help African priests, seminarians and other pastoral workers to rediscover their African roots and make connections to their preaching, teaching and evangelization.” This has been the dream of Don and myself for many years, but it is slow going. Many young East African priests and seminarians seem less interested in inculturation and don’t seem to value their cultural past.

In reviewing the book, a senior theologian in America said that Narrative Theology is a “slippery slope” because he was viewing it from the classic propositional theology lens of Western Theology. Well-known Ugandan theologian Father John Waliggo states:

Our [African] theological style is very concerned with narrative, expressing teachings in story. Our people listen better when you give them a story. This means using local expressions and rituals, linking the gospel to their story. Everything is brought into the story, the animals, the plants, the whole environment. It’s a way of doing theology that is almost dead in the West, but it’s very biblical.[1]

Sales of the Orbis edition inch along with reprints of 50 copies each time. William Burrows, the Orbis Books Theological Editor, thought that in the early years it was mainly bought by Protestant seminarians.

The Paulines Publications Africa edition has done better and is in its 5th Major Reprint. It is required reading/background reading in some of our theological courses in Nairobi, Kenya.

The paintings in the book are by Tanzanian artist Charles Ndege. Jesus Christ is always portrayed as an African. Examples are Jesus Sends Out Seventy Tanzanian Disciples, Washing of the Feet and The Journey to Makoko (an African version of the Two Disciples on the Road to Emmaus with the two disciples being an African man and woman – probably Cleophas and his wife). One year Fathers Laurenti Magesa and Innocent Maganya invited Charles to speak in their MSUC 303 “African Theology” Course at Tangaza on “African Inculturation.” Ndege explained he recognizes the importance of the Jesus Christ of history (“historical Jesus”), but he wants to paint the Jesus Christ of his African faith (“Jesus of faith”). Ndege movingly described his feelings while painting Jesus as an African.  He said that he experiences Jesus in a deeper and more meaningful way through African culture and symbols.  In his African paintings Ndege wants to portray how Jesus Christ becomes one of us in an African context. During a vote at the end of the classes, 60% of the students liked the African Christ while 40% liked the White Jesus.

Chapter Three on “Church as the Extended Family of God” has a section on “Theology of Small Christian Communities (SCCs) as a New Way of Being Church” that is used in the core theology course PTC 418: “Small Christian Communities as a New Model Of Church in Africa Today.” There are many Case Studies and stories of SCCs throughout the book. In developing local theologies Robert Schreiter states:

The natural forms of handing on central messages of the culture — proverbs, old stories and the like — are therefore legitimate vehicles for the developing of local theologies.  There is ample precedent for this in the Christian tradition as well as in other traditions. Perhaps more African theology will be done via proverbs which are important in communications in sub-Sahara cultures. Perhaps theology in African villages could best be expressed in proverbs rather than in Bantu philosophy.

Schreiter also points out that local theologies can be constructed with the local community as theologian:

The experience of those in the Small Christian Communities who have seen the insight and power arising from the reflections of the people upon their experience and the Scriptures has prompted making the community itself the prime author of theology in local contexts.  The Holy Spirit, working in and through the believing community, give shape and expression to Christian experience.

Rev. Joseph G. Healey, MM
Maryknoll Society
P.O. Box 43058
00100 Nairobi, Kenya
254 0723-362-993 (Safaricom, Kenya)
+ 1 973-216-4997 (AT&T, USA)
Email: JGHealey@aol.com
WhatsApp: 1+ 973-216-4997
Skype: joseph-healey

[1] John Waliggo in an interview with John Allen, “An African Perspective,”

 National Catholic Reporter (NCR), 14 July, 2006. NCR Website, retrieved on 2 July, 2017, https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/african-perspective