Whose religion is Christianity? That’s the question we seek to find out in this 2003 book written by Lamin Sanneh, a Gambian professor of missions and world Christianity at Yale Divinity School. This book review will have three sections: a summary of the important points in the book, an evaluation of the arguments presented in the book, and a reflection as to how this book relates to the ministry context that I do at Every Nation Philippines.
Important Points
There are only two major points that Sanneh argued for in the book. He made a case that the current resurgence of Christianity in Africa is precipitated by the loosening of colonialism and the translation of the Bible into indigenous languages.
Sanneh opens the book in a somber note, saying that because of the irreversible tide of secularization, skeptics are now talking about the end of a once Christian society. They say that we live in the era of modern humanity. Christianity is driven to a corner and is now reduced to individual piety. The kingdom of mammon put an end to the kingdom of heaven. Church is no longer a relevant institution, and after the dust of colonialism has settled, religion was leaving the field to its rightful secular successor.
This all sounds bad for the church, except that when you look at the numbers, you will actually see that the skeptics are dead wrong. A quick glance at statistics will show that in 1900, at the start of colonial rule, there were only under 9 million Christians in Africa. In 1960, at the end of the colonial period, the number reached 60 million. By 2005, the numbers skyrocketed to roughly 393 million, which is about 50% of Africa’s total population. Latest statistics show that in 2021, there were 685 million Christians in Africa (Johnson, Zurlo, and Hsu 2020).
What happened?
Lamin Sanneh gave interesting answers. He claimed that the resurgence of Christianity in Africa is first due to the crumbling down of the colonial institutions. When the colonizers left Africa, rapid social and cultural changes swept the continent and to the surprise of local church leaders, their churches proved to be the only remaining viable structures left standing. With the widespread political instability and disenchantment with institutions came the indigenous people’s search for cohesion and meaning, ushering in a resurgence of the Christian faith previously unheard of in the continent. Conversions rose in an unprecedented rate. In 1985, as many as 16,500 would convert to Christianity in a day, yielding an annual rate of over 6 million.
The collapse of colonial institutions was originally believed to be death of Christianity in Africa. With a continent-wide view of the cultural sociological currents, Sanneh built a case that the exact opposite happened. As soon as the colonizers went out of the picture, Africans stepped up to lead the growth without the disadvantage of foreign interference. Young people, especially women, were given roles in the church and in society.
While it is true that growth happened because the locals rose to the leadership challenge of the day, the biggest reason for the explosion of Christianity in Africa, according to Sanneh, was the translation of the Bible into various indigenous languages. There’s a catch though. While Bible translators in other regions struggle to settle at a local name for God without loading it with syncretistic elements, African translators adopted the indigenous names of God with wide open arms. In Nigeria, for example, Yoruba converts to Christianity came to know Jesus as Olugbala. The Olugbala name, however, is preloaded with older Yoruba theological notions of deity. In the Nigerian translation, the name accedes to the Jesus of the Bible without necessarily dumping off its pagan associations.
A large portion of the book was spent defending the notion that it was the translation of the Bible to local vernaculars that caused the resurgence of Christianity in Africa. When the Bible is read and the gospel is preached in the local dialect, the logic of religious conversion becomes an internal dynamic, not an external imposition. Faith is decolonized. Coming to church that uses the language of the people in the liturgy feels like coming home.
Evaluation of Major Arguments
Lamin Sanneh’s sociological, historical, and cultural analyses are compelling in many places. He is clearly a brilliant scholar who can weave together a highly convincing case for Bible translations and the collective African grit (he calls them ‘African agency’) as the precipitating factors for the Christian resurgence in the continent.
The biggest strength of Sanneh’s work is his erudite articulation of the merits and superlative value of Bible translation. Translation, he says, is the birthmark of the church and the benchmark of our mission. To separate the church from the work of translation is unthinkable, in fact, Sanneh argues that Christianity is unique in that it is “the only world religion that is transmitted without the language or originating culture of its founder.” Its roots are Jewish, yes. But it is also at home in all cultures.
Sanneh’s arguments provide a rich theological and philosophical grounding for the ministry of translation. Translation dignifies all people groups. Every language has an intrinsic merit for communicating the divine message. Each one is a worthy vehicle of the gospel. Nothing God wanted to say could not be said in any vernacular. This means that no culture is so exalted that it can claim exclusive advantage to the truth of God. Inversely, no culture is so marginal and inferior that it can be excluded. The vernacular is thereby given the kiss of life.
It is only a mild exaggeration to say that Sanneh is almost singing the praises of translation in every chapter. However, one cannot read this book without raising their eyebrows a few times. I will mention only two.
First is the adoption of the names of some African deities to the God of the Bible. Sanneh made a case that the rise of Christianity in Africa was largely due to this translation choice. But if the names of these deities are preloaded with characteristics that are sometimes not consistent with the Yahweh of the Bible, one can’t help but wonder if a fundamental syncretism is at play here. Sanneh’s interlocutor is right to ask, “What if Africans embraced Christianity precisely because it looked pretty much like one of their old cults?”
I find Sanneh’s answer inadequate. He basically said it won’t happen because unlike the old cults, Christianity demands transformation of the whole person. I can understand that in Sanneh’s conception, the religious conversion of a person will eventually be confirmed in actual discipleship. But I think he was far too trusting that people won’t revert back to their previous idolatries. In the case of ancient Israel, for example, scholars argue that the long history of Israel’s slide to Baalism didn’t happen because the people made a one-time conscious switch from Yahweh to Baal (Bright 2000, 512-17). They backslid because over a period of time, the characteristics attributed to both Yahweh and Baal sounded almost the same (Albright 1957, 219). Coopting the name of local deities might get many followers. But how does anyone ascertain that it was Jesus they worship and not the old African deity who is not really god?
This brings me to my second point. Sanneh’s articulation of the doctrine of conversion is too vague even when his interlocutor pressed him to clarify. Conversion, he says, is the turning of our whole selves to God, a refocusing of the mental life and its cultural and social underpinnings. It was like Sanneh cloaks his answer with sociological jargon when it would have been clearer to appeal to Scripture and theology. The argument became more muddled when his interlocutor asked him to distinguish conversion from syncretism. Sanneh simply refused to affirm classical Christian doctrines. This is a bit jarring, especially that the question goes right to the heart of the Christian gospel. Where it mattered, Sanneh left the door open for syncretism. His interlocutor sees the open door very clearly; Sanneh didn’t close that door.
Personal Reflection
This book is a difficult read. Sanneh’s writing style is a bit too dense for my taste and the organization is disorienting. The things I learned, however, are all worth the trouble. Three things stand out to me.
First, I am amazed at the historical location of the events Sanneh described in the book. Colonialism was dying, the political power of the West was waning in the global south, social structures are crumbling, and yet the church is flourishing. If anything, this is a historical proof that the church will in the end outlast all human institutions. I would like to take this to mean that even after some decline of public trust in the institutional church in the post-pandemic world, I can be confident that the church will flourish again.
Second, theological ambiguities aside, it is very instructive and theologically satisfying that at the heart of the translation work is the question of the proper name of God. The name of God, Sanneh argues, is basic to the structure of traditional societies. All their lives are governed by the name of God: agriculture, birth, death, fertility ceremonies, naming rules, ethics, filial obligations, etc. Take out the name of God from the picture and you have a society that no longer has a name for many things, including the transcendent. This is so beautiful and profound. I can see the same sentiment among older Filipinos in the provinces. Their conception of God is embedded in old vernaculars that are no longer used by younger generations. I lament the fact that we are losing that part of our culture.
Lastly, Sanneh’s impassioned argument for Bible translation confirms what I have been seeing in the last few years: preaching and teaching in vernacular is very helpful in the life of the church. Ever since I started doing this a few years back, I noticed how the message gets received more warmly by the congregation. Sanneh is right. Our congregations need to hear the voice of God in their vernacular. This is partly how they feel at home in the family of God.
References
Albright, W.F. From the Stone Age to Christianity: Monotheism and the Historical Process. 2d ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1957.
Bright, John. A History of Israel. 4th ed. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000.
Johnson, Todd M., Gina A. Zurlo, and Becky Yang Hsu. World Christian Encyclopedia. Edited by David B. Barrett and George Thomas Kurian. 3rd ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020.
Sanneh, Lamin. Whose Religion Is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003.
Jojo Agot 