Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

First Advisor

Lois Malcolm

Abstract

In this dissertation, 1 seek to lay the groundwork for developing an African inculturation of biblical pneumatology relevant to the Tanzanian context. The Neo- Pentecostal phenomenon is a strong reality in Tanzania today. Neo-Pentecostal churches and groups are mushrooming, emphasizing the work of the Holy Spirit and drawing on the heritage of African spirituality and worldview. Many mainline Protestants, including Lutherans, participate and worship in these churches and groups, yet they maintain their formal membership in their mother churches. This could be due, in part, to the fact that Lutheran theology and teaching in Tanzania has tended to pay little attention to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, much of what Neo-Pentecostals offer with regard to pneumatology is a mere fraction of what could be included in a comprehensive biblical understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, I intend in this dissertation to lay the groundwork for developing an African inculturation of biblical pneumatology. In doing so, I will draw not only on contemporary biblical scholarship and theological reflection on the Holy Spirit, but also on an understanding of African spirituality and the cultural contexts in which it emerges. My primary sources for developing this argument include the work of Ogbu Kalu, Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, and other scholars who have studied the African history of Christianity; Jurgen Moltmann and his biblically rooted eschatological pneumatology; and recent biblical scholarship on the Holy Spirit. Like John Mbiti, I am convinced that “the Bible should be primary source of African Christian Theology.”1

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