ISAIAH’S CONCEPT OF SALVATION AND ITS RELEVANCE TO AFRICAN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
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Date
2016-01-14
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Voyages: Journal of religious Studies
Abstract
The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz was one of the Old Testament prophets who ministered in the eight century. The content of his message can be summarized as focusing on sin and salvation. For Isaiah, as a result of the sin of the people of Israel and Judah, the judgment of Yahweh over them was inevitable. However, their salvation shall come from the Lord. Salvation in the context of Isaiah’s message connotes spiritual redemption and physical deliverance from their enemies. In other words, salvation and liberation goes together. Today, based on the colonial experience of different nations and the present situation of the economy of most African countries, the message of salvation (Spiritual) cannot be relevant to the Africans if divorced from liberation (physical). African Christian theology must then be able to meet both the spiritual and physical needs of Africans. The Christianity that came through the western missionaries has ended up in another form of slavery for Africans. In Africa, conversion to the Christian faith was introduced by the modern missionary movement as the inward or spiritual basis for acculturation into the Western way of life-the cultural heritage of those missionaries who came to evangelize African people. Today, there still remain reflections of Western culture in most churches in Africa especially in Nigeria. Also, in Africa today, the poor are still being oppressed by the rich, politics still remain a dirty game, corruption is still on the increase, and Africans still need liberation from the power of sin and social-political liberty. Historical and analytical method of approach was used to achieve the objective of this paper. This paper upholds the fact that, for the message of salvation to be relevant within the context of African Christian theology, it must not only concentrate on the spiritual life of the people but also their physical life, salvation must also mean liberation from poverty and the like. This paper thus applies Isaiah’s concept of salvation to African situation.
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ISAIAH’S CONCEPT OF SALVATION AND ITS RELEVANCE TO AFRICAN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
Keywords
ISAIAH’S CONCEPT, CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, AFRICAN, SALVATION