This will involve a certain turning away from culture, ahistorically conceived, as the main point of engagement for the African theologian. The premise of much post-independence theology has been that African Christian identity will be secured only when the faith is interpreted in terms of traditional cultural categories. The task to which academic theologians have applied themselves has been, accordingly, to show how the message of Jesus Christ has resonance within the categories of a traditional African worldview. A formidable body of scholarship has been built up as theologians in different parts of the continent have sought to fulfil this task. Yet such efforts at theological construction have been limited in terms of their uptake at the popular level.
Theology is essentially a dialogue between the biblical text and the vernacular world in Africa.
Certainly, this is a rich and dynamic field. However, it is one where little attention tends to be paid to the concrete historical circumstances of the believing community within which this dialogue occurs. A 'faith and culture' approach tends to posit an engagement between a static religious entity and a timeless sphere of culture. What is missed here is the fact that the community in which the meeting between Christian faith and traditional culture takes place is a community that is moving through a particular history. It is precisely within the dynamic history of the encounter of African peoples with Christian faith, amidst social change, that African cultural identity can be properly understood in theological terms.