Original Research - Special Collection: Reception of Biblical Discourse in Africa

Material culture in the Old Testament: Conflict and propaganda with Missionary Christianity

Ucheawaji G. Josiah, Blessing Jeffrey-Ebhomenmen
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 80, No 2 | a9039 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v80i2.9039 | © 2024 Ucheawaji G. Josiah, Blessing Jeffrey-Ebhomenmen | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 21 May 2023 | Published: 30 April 2024

About the author(s)

Ucheawaji G. Josiah, Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria Department and Faculty of Religion and Art, University of Religions and Denominations, Pardisan Qom, Iran Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, School of Humanities, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
Blessing Jeffrey-Ebhomenmen, Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, School of Humanities, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

Cultural materiality as evident in the Old Testament (OT) was borne out of personal and corporate experiences of ancient Israelites with YHWH (Ex 16:32–34; 25–36; Nm 16–17, Jos 3–4). At the dawn of Christian Missions, certain indigenous religious objects became ‘idolatrous’, but across the Atlantic Ocean, they were works of art kept in museums and art galleries. This negatively impacted biblical reception by the locals. This work investigates select OT icons and wades into their ontological and existential significance in relation to the conflict and propaganda of Missionary Christianity towards indigenous icons. The narrative criticism and the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) including Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were engaged in the study while the Symbolic Interactionism was the theoretical framework. The objects preserved by ancient Israel were to serve as relics for future generations who were to have an existential knowledge of YHWH’s dealings with their forebears. Western missionaries claimed to have transmitted biblical messages to Africa, yet their approach led to conflicts in biblical reception by the indigenous people who struggled between being detached from their existential realities, and accepting the gospel with its Eurocentric biases. The Western missionaries’ inability to transmit the biblical understanding of cultural materiality in their dealings with Africans invites suspicion in the missionaries’ efforts with a pretentious display of ignorance of the ontological significance of indigenous materiality.

Contribution: This article offers insight into the conflict and propaganda inherent in the Western missionaries’ approach in transmitting biblical messages of cultural materiality, and challenges of biblical reception among indigenous people in Nigeria.


Keywords

Old Testament icons; African indigenous materiality; missionary Christianity; relic; biblical transmission; biblical reception

Sustainable Development Goal

Goal 10: Reduced inequalities

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