Some thoughts after a discussion on African Spirituality yesterday, 9-9-09.

Pondering African Spirituality, wondering if an African Christian would be tempted toward works righteousness after being in the habit of appeasing spirits to ensure safety, I wondered
"Do African Christians have a tendency to act in a way in which prayers, blessings and invocations are a way to 1) appease an angry God 2) control a domestic God or 3) ease their conscience about the first two?"
And as I circled these issues, I debated works righteousness, and whether a stereotypical African convert would think themselves in control of a God by prayers and behaviors. But as I realized that Western Christians will wrestle and have wrestled with the issue of salvation by works or grace, I realized that African concepts of spirituality have the equipment to handle the discussion. Because there is a recognition of the Holy Spirit as the ultimate benevolent spirit, with active power, God's reconciling work through Christ can still be given credit for drawing people to God. There is no need in either approach to assume that humans hold the chips of salvation. I am not surprised to report that African spirituality is capable of describing the intricacies of Christian doctrine, with perhaps different linguistic biases. For, as our lecturer said, language is a bridge to wisdom. Different languages have different wisdom.