Christ, the Image of Social Transformation. Towards a Transformative Christology in the African Context

The central claim of this dissertation is this: christological images like healer, liberator and king, which are popular in the grassroots Christian communities, have a socially transformative dimension and potential. The potential, however, is not yet constructively explored nor fully actualised in the African Christian landscape and theological milieu. It is then argued that distilling the potential consists in retrieving three closely interwoven christological notions: relationship, agency and praxis.  To spell out this argument, the work draws on insights from Jon Sobrino’s Christology. Sobrino’s historical Christology, with its model of Christ’s existence as “incarnate divinity,” allows him to lay out certain themes for disclosing how belief in Jesus Christ – as a single reality regardless of whatever image he is proclaimed – could provide resources for Christian engagement towards bringing about a more just social order. Three of the themes which are relevant for the line of inquiry in the study are: (1) Jesus’ relationship with the Father and other people, (2) Jesus’ service of the Kingdom of God, and (3) Jesus’ call to discipleship and hope for a transformed reality on the basis of his resurrection. 

These themes offer the systematic-theological structure for working out the christological trajectories for social transformation in Africa. The trajectories, or what is called the historical correlates of the aforementioned themes are: (a) enhanced relationship of Christians with Christ and with other fellow human beings, (b) empowered human agency of Christians as an outflow of this relationship, and (c) embodied practices of solidarity, both within and beyond ecclesial communities, as the form of Christian discipleship. It is from this line of reasoning, the dissertation concludes, that we can understand how belief in Jesus Christ presents resources for Christian commitment to social change, or simply put, how Christ is the image of social transformation.