News – Symposium on theology and the arts

Despite ongoing mission efforts across the continent, large areas of African culture remain untouched and unengaged by the gospel. This is perhaps most prominent in the area of the arts. By the arts, we refer to the whole realm of creative human endeavour including but not limited to the visual arts, music, dance, media arts, and drama. These are areas of great vibrancy and vitality in Africa, as in other parts of the world, but while some Christian scholars in the West have begun to explore these areas, they are still largely unexplored and unengaged by African Christian thought. This is chiefly the legacy of mission Christianity that demonized or dismissed African cultures wholesale. Primal cultures are holistic, with religion and culture intertwined, so that the arts are not viewed as independent and devoid of spiritual influences. Consequently, the Church in Africa finds itself not only ill-equipped to fully engage the culture, but also often uncomfortable in exploring the arts, for fear of tangling with the demonic realm.

In the conviction that no part of human culture is ever beyond God’s reach and that he has never left himself without a witness in any field of human creativity and endeavour, the Akrofi-Christaller Institute’s Gillian Bediako Centre of Primal and Christian Spirituality (CEPACS) hosts the Leonora Ewurasi Glover symposium with an eye towards bridging this cultural divide.

The annual symposium, held in collaboration with the University of Ghana School of Performing Arts, brings together Christian scholars and arts practitioners to provide a unique forum in which to discuss the relationship between the arts and Christian faith, and how to bridge the apparent gap in ways that will bring all of culture under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

This year’s third edition had the theme: “The Arts, Identity, and Christian Faith,” and took place at the Akrofi-Christaller campus in Akropong, and at the School of Performing Arts in Legon. Sessions included plenaries, devotions, emerging scholar presentations, scripture engagement, an open forum, a dance performance, and a discussion on “Discipling the soul of an artist.”