Africa and the New Face of Mission

In Africa and the New Face of Mission, Ebelebe argues that the mission theory and practice of the Irish Spiritans in Igboland (1905-1970) was forged in the socio-political and faith environment of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland; an environment that produced a Church that was sacramentized, devotional, conservative, and clerical. It was this Church that the Irish Spiritans took to Igboland, and the Church that has largely endured there until now. The author considers this regrettable and calls for inculturation as the only way forward. He highlights the significant contribution of the Igbo Catholic Church to the growing pool of missionaries from the South and argues that for this Church to be truly Igbo, it must be selective in what it reclaims from its Irish Heritage and must draw from the resources of Igbo traditional culture and religion. In this way, the Church can better equip its growing number of missionaries to other nations.

Not restricted simply to critiquing the past, Ebelebe's study outlines future pastoral initiatives that would solidify achievements and enrich other cultural contexts., American as well as Nigerian readers will find Ebelebe's arguments challenging and his style charming....[a] valuable contribution., Dr. Ebelebe brings to bear his respected and sharp intellectual acumen, extensive and dogged research, and felicitous expression....This book will reward the general reader, but professors and students of missiology and Catholic theology will find it especially valuable., This book opens with a powerful and poignant foreward. . . . It provides good insight into the cultural context in which the Christian message was eventually immersed. . . . This volume makes significant contributions to the larger discourse on mission studies. Ebelebe writes with clarity and conviction. His study provides an important African perspective on the theology and raison d'etre of mission, on which the future of the Christian church necessarily rests., This is a pioneer study. . .an intimate journey into the missiological soul of the Congregation.

Charles A. Ebelebe, C.S.Sp., Ph.D., is a Spiritan priest from Nigeria. He received his academic formation in the seminaries of the Spiritans in Nigeria and was ordained in 1995. He has served as a missionary among the Borana of southern Ethiopia (1997-2001) after which he went to Marquette University in Wisconsin for both his graduate and doctoral studies. He teaches theology at the Spiritan International School of Theology in Enugu, Nigeria.