Re-Imaging Modernity

This is a book about Christianity in one particular region in Kenya. It walks into churches, listens to sermons, dances to music, and interviews the people sitting in the pews, all with the aim of understanding how spiritual power enables these churches to function as agents within their contemporary society. Ecclesiastical communities in Africa draw upon divine power in order to engage in modernity-related topics. Humans are not unresponsive to global flows of meaning; they are integrative agents who fashion their world by living in it. The kind of modernity arising from these churches does not blindly follow Western forms, but flows from its own internal logic in which spiritual power occupies central hermeneutical function. Theological resources contribute to the formation of sociological expressions. Divine power pertains directly to human constructs, which then allows the churches to actively “image” God for the development of unique forms of modernity arising on the continent. “This is precisely the kind of extended and comprehensive, sympathetic yet critical, theological yet socially aware micro-study that we need to grasp the complex reality of Africa’s emerging Christianity.” —Paul Gifford, Emeritus Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London “I warmly recommend this book. It is a profound and illuminating search concerning the human condition, human agency, and vulnerability, love, and power. . . . This is contextual theology of a high order, full of insights in its weaving of local, national, and continental debates.” —From the foreword by Kevin Ward, Senior Lecturer, African Religious Studies, Leeds University Gregg A. Okesson taught at Scott Christian University, Kenya, for thirteen years. He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, UK, in the field of African Christianity and is currently an associate professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky.