The Power of Interpretation: Imagined Authenticity - Appropriated Identity

The papers presented in this volume inspect new forms (and the analysis of new forms) of African Christian life. These forms are the result of interactions between European and African Christianities in a realm both “beyond” or “trans” and very “amidst” their specific contexts due to processes of glocalisation and transnational migration. Taken as a whole, the contributions point out that the analysis of new forms of Christian life can no longer successfully claim the power of interpretation by simply holding on to hitherto established hegemonic discourses emphasising the advancement of “African” traditions or of plain Africanisation processes – or of the rejection of “European” traditions in combination with a revitalisation of “African” religious practices, institutions, beliefs, etc. Rather, this analysis may achieve a new power of interpretation by taking into account the impact of new hermeneutic orders as a result of a complex transconfiguration. Thereby, new forms of Christian life in Africa are created in the image of a new African vision beyond essentialist and dichotomic culturalist discourses.