Stan Chu Ilo’s recent contribution to African theology is a masterpiece and a must-read for both African theologians and ministers. His tone, as he invites fellow Africans to commit anew to the urgent task of theology, is persuasive. His call for African theologians to embrace a “hermeneutic of multiplicity” to more adequately attend to Africa’s vast and vibrant Christian life, while remaining open to insights from other disciplines and faith traditions, is convincing (69). The ongoing need to evaluate theological methods to ensure their adequacy in meeting “the changing and complex problems and opportunities facing the faith and wider society” cannot be overemphasized (68).
What is most important about Ilo’s work is his careful outline of the theologian Africa needs today, considering the significant challenges the continent has continued to face since independence. The best way to grasp Ilo’s suggestions in this book is to pay close attention to his precise definition of the identity and role of the theologian in general, and the African theologian specifically. According to Ilo, a theologian is “one who points to God’s presence and absence in all things” (39). He clarifies that by pointing “to God’s presence in all things, and God’s absence in those things which do not reflect God’s will,” the theologian, in solidarity with people both inside and outside the church, takes part in the implementation of God’s will in every society and in the broader world (61).
To stay true to their vital role in the church and society, theologians must be willing to abandon their armchairs in Western and even African theological faculties and departments and stand alongside God’s people in villages, streets, buses, ghettos, and slums. They need to immerse themselves in the struggles of ordinary people “to live again, by confronting the social context that has persisted in Africa and that continues to kill people and bury the dreams of the young in Africa and destroy God’s plan for our continent” (16). This will ensure that theologians are eyewitnesses to what they write about and keep their theologies relevant and accessible to the people (247).
Theologians must always be open to new questions, especially those that do not fit neatly into the traditional concerns of Western theology or easily align with Western epistemological frames and methods (21). While attentive to the living, breathing faith of the people, theologians must be doubly committed to the truth and transformative power of the gospel (158). This requires “a nose to perceive the fragrance of God in all things, and motivation to follow the stories of God’s mighty deeds by following the daily stories of people—the living and the living-dead” (31).
African theology must be contextual, practical, and analytical, while also being “critical, constructive, and creative.” If it is not rooted in the lived and real faith of ordinary Africans, it cannot claim to genuinely support their flourishing. African theologians have a vital role to play in this, and to do so effectively, they must be able to “analyze, interpret, and understand” both what is working in Africa and what is not (69). They must be well-versed in the Bible, church traditions, the witness of the saints, the heritage of ancestors, and equally important, the lived experiences of suffering and smiling Africans today (32).
Just as African theologians need prophetic vision to perceive God’s presence in the “suffering and smiling,” “suffering and struggling,” and “suffering and believing” of African people, they must also possess prophetic courage to denounce the absence of God wherever God’s name is invoked to “justify or legitimize human distortions of cultures, religions, or social life” (62). While remaining receptive and respectful of the lived faith of the community, it is the task of the theologian to critically examine every claim about God and to guide the people in speaking and acting rightly regarding God (80).
In everything, the work of the theologian must be accountable to, and bring hope for, Africans who suffer and smile today. This involves helping them reject what Ilo calls the “pleasant poetics of hope,” which “empties the gospel of its force, saving truth, and power,” and instead embrace the “prophetic ethics of hope,” focused on the practices and priorities of the Lord Jesus, especially at the foot of the cross (262). In this way, the theologian empowers Africans to reclaim their agency and face, with courage and purpose, the dark forces affecting their social, political, and economic lives.
Finally, moving beyond theodicy narrowly understood as making God “look good” in the face of suffering and smiling, the African theologian must guide God’s people toward a more robust understanding of theodicy as explaining God’s work in our history and offering critique against the tendency to blame God for the outcomes of human actions and inactions.
Publication Details
- Book Title: Where Is God? An African Theology of Suffering and Smiling
- Author: Stan Chu Ilo
- Publisher: Orbis Books, 2024
- ISBN: 978-1-62698-629-9
- Price: $40.00
- Length: 272 pages