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Faith and Culture
Elochukwu Uzukwu and the Making of an African Sacramental Theology
African Christian Studies Series
Foreword by George Worgul
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
The recognition of the intersection of faith and culture has become a significant trend in contemporary theology. Cultures are locations of divine activity. The Sacramental Theology of Elochukwu Uzukwu in Light of Vatican II and Its Application in African Context brings freshness to the dominant Catholic sacramental thinking by offering an African appropriation of the Christian faith through African cultures. It demonstrates the historical interaction of the Christian faith with multiple anthropologies that resonates with different peoples to celebrate rituals that convey divine activity. This work engages the theology of Elochukwu Uzukwu, a recent African sacramental/liturgical theologian whose work reflects the elements of sacramental and liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council, especially in its openness to a plurality of cultures. This book retrieves resources from the African universe to offer a contextual appropriation of the interface between faith and African cultures. It highlights the African view of the body in its expressive worship and significance of relationality as an undergirding existential philosophy of life.
Consequently, it offers a flexible theological methodology that avoids polarities. It provides an additional resource to the philosophical and theological approach to the perennial problem of duality and theologies constructed on this template. This study moves beyond monocultural sacramental expression to engage symbols and indigenous resources to articulate an African sacramental theology.
Reverend Emmanuel Osigwe obtained a PhD in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He serves at Sacred Heart of Mary and Saint Martin de Porres Church in Boulder. He also serves as an adjunct lecturer at Saint John Vianney Seminary, Denver.
“This work sheds light on the ways the sacramental life of the church in Africa can be reimagined to allow for the centering of African cultural and epistemological heritages. This work captures the best of the spirit of Vatican II—a spirit that demands from Catholics today to read the signs of the times. Osigwe has offered the academe and the church a new way of doing sacramental theology that births forth life for all.”
—SimonMary Aihiokhai, University of Portland
“Osigwe’s work opens a wide door into the great gift of theological brilliance accomplished in the sacramental theology of Elochukwu Uzukwu. His careful treatment of Uzukwu’s insights invites the reader to understand the capaciousness of African theology . . . . Scholars working in the areas of pneumatology, sacramentology, liturgy, and ecclesiology will no doubt find a challenging rethinking of the human encounter with the divine.”
—Rufus Burnett Jr., Fordham University
“The evangelizing mission of the church today is frustrated by deep social, political, and ecclesial fractures. Osigwe expertly offers up the wisdom of African scholar Uzukwu, whose contributions to the study of human cultures and Christian faith exemplify God’s gift of Blackness reflected in local churches throughout the African diaspora—good news for the whole people of God.”
—Kathleen Dorsey Bellow, Xavier University of Louisiana
“Emmanuel Osigwe has made a decisive case for the need to critically engage Elochukwu Uzukwu’s work on the inculturation of Catholicism in Africa. He demonstrates with compassionate zeal why African theological perspectives matter in current efforts to institutionalize inculturation. . . . This is a refreshing contribution on the intersection of anthropology and theology.”
—Jude Fokwang, Regis University
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