by Joe M. Kapolyo
The principal value of this book was to make me consider how to present biblical truth in an African context. Joseph Kapolyo is a Zambian who has taught theological students in both Ndolo and London.
InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426, 2005, 176 pages, $14.00.
—Reviewed by Jack Robinson, visiting professor, Bangui Evangelical School of Theology, Central African Republic, and missionary with WorldVenture (formerly CBInternational).
The principal value of this book was to make me consider how to present biblical truth in an African context. Joseph Kapolyo is a Zambian who has taught theological students in both Ndolo and London.
In this book, he sets forth an evangelical view of human nature and redemption that is solidly biblical. What is distinctive about this presentation is his way of using the lens of his own culture to view what scripture teaches about creation, fall and salvation. He also suggests ways of communicating these truths so that they connect powerfully with core values of Africans. In the preface, Kapolyo writes that his purpose is “not a reinvention of historic Christian beliefs but a recasting into more culturally-friendly categories.”
In Chapter One the reader is offered a view of human beings from four standpoints: the Bible, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and the African Bantu. Chapter Two unpacks Kapolyo’s understanding of human beings being created in the image of God in order to show God’s design for the humans he created. Kapolyo sees the divine image as combining capacities such as relational ability, rationality and creativity, with functions such as stewardship and love. The origin, consequences and universal scope of sin are presented in Chapter Three. Here Kapolyo also points out how tribalism, shame and spiritism in his culture press people into conflict with God’s will.
Chapter Four presents seven core values fundamental to the Bemba people’s vision of human life. These values appear in other African worldviews as well. They include the lack of dichotomy between sacred and secular, commitment to the group and the priority of relatives. This last one can result in nepotism on the political and social landscape and can lead to relational tensions and injustices, including the dispossession of widows in the extended family. A particular notion of inheritance is especially interesting.
After the death of an individual, a younger relative is nominated to inherit the person of the deceased. Thus, the deceased is believed to take up residence in the body of the nominee who will then represent the departed individual among the community of the living.
Kapolyo comes back to the notion of inheritance in the fifth and final chapter on salvation. Because of the death of Christ and through the new birth of the believer, it is not material goods that are inherited by the believer. Instead the person of Jesus Christ is inherited in a way that resembles the Bemba idea of inheriting the person of a living-dead individual. Since Christ can have no competitors in his abode, this would spell the end of inheriting Bemba forebears. Kapolyo suggests that a ceremony, not unlike a traditional inheritance ritual, might be appropriate for initiating young Bemba believers into Christian discipleship.
I found Kapolyo’s book rich in African anthropological material, faithful to scriptural teaching and suggestive of ways for communicators of the gospel to build more effective bridges of biblical understanding in African cultural contexts.
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