God’s self-revelation in the Old Testament and African concepts of God

Abstract

This article has a twofold purpose: Firstly, to demonstrate that, contrary to what has been written about the subject so far, there is not only a single, generally valid concept of God in Africa, but that at least six models of concepts exist: God as an impersonal power, or as the first ancestor, or as the far-away Creator-King, or as the benevolent cosmic Grandfather, or as a transcendental, involved God, or as one of a pantheon. Secondly, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate that all these models, except to a certain degree the fifth one, differ radically from what God reveals about himself in the Old Testament, since he is a personal God, not part of creation, not genealogically related to man, yet near in his fellowship with man, but that he also judges those who sin against his will. Finally, he is unique.