ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a decade-long argument in Africa: that to ensure the survival of the Church in the bowels of mother Africa, there is a need for Christian theology to enter into dialogue with African Traditional Religion (ATR). It argues that unless Christian theology is contextualized in Africa, its message will continue to be irrelevant to the African people. The chapter defines ATR and discusses the encounter of ATR with Christianity, focusing on the negative attitude that missionaries and colonial governments had toward this world religion. It examines the attempts that have been made by various theologians to engage Christian theology with ATR as a way of making the former relevant and acceptable to the African people. The chapter explores how Canon Ronald Wynne, an Anglican clergyman in Botswana in the 1970s, attempted to contextualize Christian theology among the Hambukushu in Botswana as a model worthy of emulating.
