Panel: CHRISTIAN HYMNS AS HISTORICAL SOURCE. AFRICAN LITURGICAL MUSIC AND THEIR THEOLOGICAL CONTENT.



259.5 - AFRICAN RELIGIOSITY, GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS, CULTURE AND WORLDVIEW AS A SOURCE OF AFRICAN HYMNOLOGY AND RICH THEOLOGICAL CONTENT EMBEDDED IN THE AFRICAN INITIATED CHURCHES. A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MUGODHI APSOSTOLIC CHURCH IN ZIMBABWE AND AFRICA.

AUTHORS:
Zangairai F. (Arrupe Jesuit University ~ Harare ~ Zimbabwe)
Text:
African hymns and Christology are not as hollow and meaningless as they could appear. Their hymns, theology and ways of being Christians do emanate from their experience, reflections, daily lives and their daily consciousness about God as the fodder. In fact the Africans exist in the God-filled universe that is densely populated by spiritual meanings, gestures and symbolisms, they exist in a sacred world that only need a contemplative mind to decipher what the Supreme Being says. It is therefore in the names of places, children that depicts this deep religious orientation. Their hymns and theology usually emanate from this rich God- populated environment and experience. These also become the sources of their hymns and theology which reflects how deep, home-grown and rich their Christianity becomes. This paper seeks to unlock the relationship among African Christian hymns and theology as being fed from the African worldview and religiosity as the source. Finally it is these African hymns that are a bed rock and springboard and as a source of their theology in addition to the Biblical theology.