John Mbiti

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Samuel Mbiti (born November 30, 1931 in Mulango , Kenya ; † October 5, 2019 in Burgdorf BE , Switzerland ) was a Kenyan Anglican priest and religious philosopher with teaching activities at various universities around the world, extensive publication activities and professor emeritus at the University of Bern . He belonged to the Akamba (also Kamba ) ethnic group . Mbiti represented an ethnophilosophical school and Christian theology and is sometimes called the "father of modern African theology". He lived in retirement as a parish pastor and appointed professor of theology in Burgdorf , Switzerland.

Life

family

John S. Mbiti was born as the first of six children in Mulango near Kitui in Kenya. His parents were Samuel Mutuvi Ngaangi (1899-1993) and Velesi Mbandi Mutuvi (1908-2010). Both belonged to the Kamba ethnic group. The father was a farmer and businessman by profession, the mother was a housewife. John grew up in a pastoral setting east of Nairobi , a nature-loving childhood that aroused his great curiosity and sharpened his mind. Mbiti himself attaches great importance to this background for his work.

During a later study visit to Cambridge, Mbiti met a Swiss language student with whom he was married from 1965. He and her, the language teacher Verena Mbiti-Siegenthaler, had four children. The children all work in the artistic field as industrial designers, drawing teachers, ceramists and sculptors. The family's center of life is Switzerland, but they still have strong ties to Mbiti's homeland, Kenya.

The polyglot Mbiti spoke not only his mother tongue Kiikamba and the two official languages ​​of Kenya ( Kiswahili and English ) but also German . He also spoke some French , Kikuyu and read Greek and Latin .

school

Mbiti attended the Mulango Elementary School in three years instead of six. After that he had to walk five kilometers a day to the elementary school in the town of Kitui.

From 1946 to 1949 he was a student at the famous Nairobi Protestant Alliance High School, which has produced many of the country's leading figures.

His writing began here in 1954, and the East African Literature Bureau in Nairobi published a first short story in his native Kiikamba with the title "Mutunga Na Ngewa Yake" (Mutunga and its story). The manuscript of a longer story was lost through the fault of the missionaries in charge of its publication.

Education

After graduating from high school, John Mbiti went to Makerere University College in Kampala in 1950 , which at the time trained the intellectual elite of Anglophone Africa. He studied English and geography , but also took courses in economics , history , sociology and art . He was heavily involved in the community life of the Christian student body and is said to have received the inner call to become a priest during this time. A course in theology was not offered at Makerere at that time.

Mbiti was one of the first students to receive a BA in 1953 and then taught for six months at his first school in Mulango. During this time (1954) he laid the foundation for a lifelong enthusiasm for collecting traditional stories , fairy tales , proverbs and sayings .

In the USA - at the now closed Barrington College in Barrington - he studied theology. In 1956 he received the degree of AB (Arts Baccalaureate) and in 1957 the degree of Th.B. (Bachelor of Theology).

From 1960 he studied theology at the University of Cambridge , where he received his doctorate in 1963 with the New Testament dissertation "Christian Eschatology in Relation to Evangelization of Tribal Africa" published in 1971 . In the year of his doctorate in 1963 Mbiti was ordained an Anglican priest.

activities

Mbiti has taught as a visiting professor at various universities in Africa, Europe, the United States and Canada. From 1957, returned to Kenya, he worked in the teacher training college (Teachers' Training College) of Kangundo and also took regular preaching services. In 1959 he accepted an invitation to the "William Paton Lectureship" in Birmingham , England, where he taught as a visiting professor at Selly Oaks College until 1960 . He also taught at Harvard University and at the University of Bayreuth , the University of Geneva , the University of Zurich a . a. He also gave numerous lectures and seminars in many countries around the world.

After receiving his doctorate in England (1963), Mbiti worked for a year and a half in St Albans , near London, as the parish priest of the St. Michael Congregation. First from 1964 as a lecturer and from 1968 as professor, he taught at Makerere University, Kampala , Uganda , New Testament, religious studies and theology. He also helped as a student pastor . From 1974 to 1980 Mbiti worked as a professor and director of the Bossey Ecumenical Institute , an institution of the World Council of Churches , in Bogis-Bossey , Céligny (Switzerland).

From 1981 until his retirement in 1996 Mbiti held a full-time pastor's position in the Swiss Reformed Churches in the parish in Burgdorf in the canton of Bern and until 2003 worked as a visiting professor for missiology and non-European theology at the University of Bern .

plant

The work of Mbitis goes far and deals primarily with philosophy and theological aspects, but also folklore such as native stories, African proverbs, oral literature or poems in Kiikamba and English. Mbiti's work and research focus is on ecumenism , missiology , theology and Christianity in Africa and Asia or religious studies in Africa, e.g. B. "Family Christology ".

Theo Sundermeier, professor for the history of religion and missiology from Heidelberg, says about his work : “Mbiti has created indispensable reference works with high informational value. If he wanted to prove that there was no inferior, inferior concept of God in Africa, then he succeeded without a doubt. "

His groundbreaking work is the book published in English in 1969 under the title African Religions and Philosophy (African Religion and Weltanschauung, Berlin 1974). Here he proves for the first time and on the basis of extensive field studies all over Africa that the usual and prejudice-laden accusation in the Christian understanding that Africa's faith is "demonic and anti-Christian" is incorrect. He is occasionally criticized for his own primarily Christian perspective on traditional African religions. The book has been translated from English into many languages: German, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

Basic theological statements

From 1960 Mbiti advocated in his writings and readings that the relationship between the Christian gospel on the one hand and African culture and traditional religion on the other hand would be given more attention. He argued that Africa reflected the gospel message of individual joy and spirituality, providing hope, healing and assurance for the well-being of individuals, society and land. He emphasizes the importance and place of the Bible in the development of theology and everyday life of a Christian.

Mbiti's main impetus and contribution to his publications and teaching has always been in the context of African heritage and biblical, ecumenical and interreligious insights. He claims that the Bible is the guide and indispensable tool for theological reflection and expression. He considers the people of Africa to be largely and deeply connected to religion in their attitudes and practices. He regards the theological task in Africa as enormous and believes that theologians can best master it by following the adage: "No one can hold a baobab tree alone".

Honors

Due to his high academic achievements in the field of theology and religious studies, he received four honorary doctorates:

Publications

In addition to the titles listed below (listed by year of first publication), Mbiti has published more than 400 smaller papers, including articles, essays, poems, radio reports and reviews.

author

  • Mutunga Na Ngewa Yake. (Mutunga and his story; a story in Kiikamba, Mbiti's mother tongue.) Nelson / East African Literature Bureau, London / Nairobi 1954 (several new editions).
  • Kithamani kya uthwii. East African Literature Bureau, Nairobi 1954. (Abbreviated translation of Robert L. Stevenson's "Treasure Island" in Kiikamba.)
  • English-Kamba Vocabulary. East African Literature Bureau, Nairobi 1959. (21981).
  • The People of God. World Student Christian Federation, Geneva 1962.
  • The wanderer from country to country. (Translated into German by Dore Marx and Peter Sulzer.) Swiss Evangelical Mission Council, Zurich 1963.
  • Akamba Stories. Oxford Library of African Literature . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1966, ISBN 0-19-815120-9 .
  • African religion and worldview. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1974. (English: African Religions and Philosophy. African Writers Series. Heinemann Educational Books, 1969 (21990), ISBN 0-435-89591-5 .)
  • Poems of Nature and Faith. East African Publishing House, Nairobi 1969.
  • Concepts of God in Africa. Praeger / SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) / Acton Publishers, New York / London / Nairobi, 1970, ISBN 0-281-02347-6 . (22010).
  • New Testament Eschatology in an African Background: A Study of the Encounter between New Testament Theology and African Traditional Concepts. Oxford University Press / SPCK, Oxford / London 1971. (21978).
  • The Crisis of Mission in Africa. Church of Uganda Press, Mukono-Kampala 1971.
  • The Voice of Nine Bible Trees. Uganda: Church of Uganda, Mukono-Kampala 1972. (as a continuation in German in “Die Gemeinde”, No. 31–39, 1983.)
  • Love and marriage in Africa. Longman, London 1973.
  • Death and the Hereafter in the Light of Christianity and African Religion. Inaugural and farewell lecture. Makerere University, Kampala 1974.
  • The Prayers of African Religion. SPCK, London 1975, ISBN 0-281-02871-0 .
  • Introduction to African Religion. Heinemann Educational Books, London 1975, ISBN 0-435-94002-3 . (21991).
  • Prayer and Spirituality in African Religion. Charles Strong Memorial Lecture, Australia August 1978. Bedford Park: Australian Association for the Study of Religions, at Sturt College of Advanced Education, 1978.
  • Bible and Theology in African Christianity. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1987. ISBN 0-19-572593-X . (Engl .: Bible and Theology in African Christianity. Oxford University Press, 1986.)
  • Translation of the Greek New Testament into Kiikamba, his mother tongue, in 2009. Published in 2015.
  • "Concepts of God in Africa" ​​2nd and enlarged edition, Acton Press, Nairobi 2012. ISBN 9966-888-31-4 .
  • "Weteelete Ndakusaa." Vide-Muwa Publishers, Nairobi 2012, ISBN 9966-773-90-8 .

editor

  • African and Asian Contributions to Contemporary Theology. Report of Consultation held at the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute Bossey, 8-14 June 1976. Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Céligny / Geneva 1976.
  • Confessing Christ in Different Cultures. Report of a Colloquium held at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, 2-8. July 1977. Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Céligny / Geneva 1977.
  • Indigenous Theology and the Universal Church. Report of the consultation of the same title 16–22 June 1978. Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Céligny / Geneva 1978.
  • Christian and Jewish dialogue on Man. Report of the Jewish and Christian study seminar at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey, March 12-16, 1978. Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Céligny / Geneva 1980.
  • With Erwin Fahlbusch , Jan Milič Lochman , Jaroslav Pelikan and Lukas Vischer : Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 5 volumes 1986–1997. (English translation: William B. Eerdmans: The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Grand Rapids, USA, 5 volumes from 1999.)
  • African Proverbs. University of South Africa (UNISA Press), Pretoria (South Africa), 5 volumes 1997.
  • With Mutua Mulonzya: Ngaeka Waeka: Anthology of Kiikamba Poems (Myali ya Kiikamba). Akamba Cultural Trust, Nairobi 2010.

literature

  • Kibujo M Kalumba, Parker English (Ed.): African Philosophy: A Classical Approach. Prentice Hall, New Jersey 1996.
  • Olupona, Jacob K., and Sulayman S. Nyang : Religious Plurality in Africa: Essays in Honor of John S. Mbiti. In: Journal of Religion in Africa. Vol. 28, 1998, pp. 247-250. And: Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin and New York, 1993.

swell

  • John Mbiti (1980): The Encounter of Christian Faith and African Religion. Christian Century (August 27 – September 3): pp. 817-820. Retrieved March 23, 2006. Online version published by Religion Online http://www.religion-online.org
  • Kibujo M Kalumba: A New Analysis of Mbiti's "The Concept of Time". In: Philosophia Africana. Vol. 8 (No. 1), 2005, pp. 11-20.
  • Parker English: Kalumba, Mbiti, and a Traditional African Concept of Time. In: Philosophia Africana. Vol. 9 (No. 1), 2006, pp. 53-56.
  • Theo Sundermeier : We can only live together. The image of man in black African religions. Lit Verlag, Berlin u. a. 1997, ISBN 357900784X , ISBN 9783579007847 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Sandomir: John Mbiti, 87, Dies; Punctured Myths About African Religions. In: The New York Times , October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ Theo Sundermeier: We can only live together. The image of man in black African religions. Mohn, Gütersloh 1990, ISBN 3-579-00784-X .
  3. ↑ Kibujo M. Kalumba: A New Analysis of Mbiti's "The Concept of Time". In: Philosophia Africana. Vol. 8 (No. 1) (2005), pp. 11-20.
  4. ↑ Summary of the "Theological Basic Statements" according to Dr. Jurie van Wyk, Director of DACB (Directory of African Christian Biography) for South and East Africa, Lusaka in Zambia.
personal data
SURNAME Mbiti, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mbiti, John Samuel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan Anglican priest, religious philosopher and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Mulango , Kenya
DATE OF DEATH 5th October 2019
Place of death Burgdorf BE , Switzerland