Yet another amazing find by John Stamper. An article by Matthew Parris in Saturday’s online edition of The Times [UK] entitled “As An Atheist, I Truly Believe Africa Needs God”. A few salient paragraphs:
Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
I used to avoid this truth by applauding – as you can – the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn’t fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.
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Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosophical/ spiritual framework I’ve just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.
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3 responses to “Atheist Endorsement Of Evangelism In Africa”
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hola mbirds:
very interesting article. i have commented on it today on my blog at caleb.typepad.com.
i don’t expect a big turn to the ethics of freedom in the particular law/gospel corner (nor do i hope for one) but there’s definitely something compelling in what he has to say.
love in the time of cholera,
cjdm
Always happy to alert the MB crew of anything I find, but a hat tip here has to go to Ken Harmon at Titus One Nine, which is where I found it.
Caleb (above) raises some fascinating questions at his blog. Great reading!
To my mind, one of the strange paradoxes of Luther’s thinking is how such a firm commitment to an anthropology of bondage and UN-freedom leads via Christ to great freedom of another sort. Thus the same fellow can write both THE BONDAGE OF THE WILL and THE FREEDOM OF THE CHRISTIAN.
A recent attempt to describe this Reformation understanding of freedom issuing directly from the blood of Christ is chapter three of PZ’s SHORT SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. Great book and great chapter — at least it was very helpful to me.
It may also begin to answer some of the questions Caleb raises: why is it that we do not see the same powerful effects here in the West as the atheist author describes in Africa. As I understand it, PZ suggests that the West in the 19th and 20th centuries DECOUPLED the freedom gained from its source: the power of the Blood. And I wonder whether this happens in conservative Christian circles just as much as in secular or liberal Christian ones.
Fitz Allison’s idea of “spiritual entropy” (RISE OF MORALISM, chapter 10) was for me also a hugely helpful and relevant insight.