By Nchumbonga George Lekelefac
All roads and flights led to Bamenda Metropolis where the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa, A Constituent College of the Catholic University of Cameroon Bamenda (CATUC), located in Bamenda organized an International Theological Colloquium that saw people come from within Cameroon and overseas. The theme of the International Theological Colloquium was titled: “Introduction to Christianity: Engagement of African Scholars” which elucidated Joseph Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity.” This exceedingly momentous event took place from November 23 to 25, 2022 at the Paul VI Pastoral Centre, in Bamenda.
The opening ceremony was formulaically performed by Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea [B.Phil. (Rome), S.T.B. (Rome), Dip. Eccle. Juris. (Rome), JCL. (Rome), JCD. (Rome), D.D.], Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda Metropolis and Chancellor of CATUC in the presence of the international coordinator of the Benedict XVI institute, our own Cameroonian philosophy and theology scholar in the persona of Rev. Fr. Dr. Prof. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai [Bachelor in Philosophy, Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, Roma; Bachelor in Theology (S.T.B.), Hekima University College, Kenya; M.A., Boston College; Th.M., Boston College; S.T.L., Boston College; S.T.D., Boston College; Ph.D., Boston College], who is based in Boston and who had a private audience on Thursday October 20, 2022 with Pope Emeritus Benedict IXV at his private residence in the Vatican.
It is worth noting that during the audience between Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and Fr. Maurice, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI blessed a formal written document with the following words: “The Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC) Bamenda. Pope Benedict XVI Institute for Africa. A Constituent College. On this day, with the Most Archbishop Andrew F. Nkea, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda and Chancellor of the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda, His Holiness Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessings on the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa dedicated to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the heart of the Church. Given at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, Vatican City, Thursday, October 20, in the year of the Lord, 2022. Benedict XVI Institute of Africa, co – Workers of the truth.” The Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC), or in Latin (Universitas Catholica Cameruniae) with the Motto: Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) was established on April 10, 2010. It is a private university located in Bamenda in the Northwest region of the Republic of Cameroon. It is the Provincial University of the Catholic Church in the Anglophone part of Cameroon and the only Catholic Institution of Higher Education founded by the Anglophone Catholic Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda. All were invited to come and be intellectually nourished as the invitation remarked.
Rev. Fr. Dr. Prof. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai flew all the way from Boston, officially known as the City of Boston, which is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States and the 24th-most populous city in the country. Internationally, Fr. Dr. Prof. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai is the Coordinator of the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa, which promotes research work on the theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI amongst African scholars.
Message from Pope Benedict XVI on the International Theological Colloquium
The International Theological Colloquium was of utmost capital importance to the extent that Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI sent a message through his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefetto della Casa Pontificia, Palazzo Apostolico, Città del Vaticano, 00120 – Vaticano to the abled, erudite and highly distinguished professor and philosophy cum theology scholar in the persona of Rev. Fr. Dr. Prof. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai. The original message in Italian that was received read: “Caro Professore, caro Fra Maurice, a nome del Papa emerito Benedetto XVI posso comunicarvi che Egli ha preso atto con grande soddisfazione della Conferenza, che avrà luogo all’Università Cattolica di Camerun a Bamenda, dal 23 al 25 novembre in onore del suo 95° compleanno festeggiato lo scorso 16 aprile. Egli augura di cuore a tutti i partecipanti un proficuo scambio di vedute e un approfondimento delle questioni teologiche. Spera che l’incontro di autorevoli persone ed esperti porti dei buoni frutti che nutrono la fede cattolica in Africa e fanno crescere l’amore verso il Salvatore Gesù Cristo e la sua Chiesa. Per una tale meta Egli prega per tutti. Con un caro saluto, +Georg Gänswein —S.E. Mons. Georg Gänswein, Prefetto della Casa Pontificia, Palazzo Apostolico, Città del Vaticano, 00120 – Vaticano,” translated in English as “Dear Professor, Dear Fr Maurice, On behalf of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, I can inform you that He has taken note with great satisfaction of the Conference, which will take place at the Catholic University of Cameroon in Bamenda, from 23 to 25 November in honor of his 95th birthday celebrated last 16 April. He sincerely wishes all the participants a fruitful exchange of views and an in-depth study of theological issues. He hopes that the meeting of such authoritative persons and true experts will bring forth good fruits that nourish the Catholic faith in Africa and grow love for the Savior Jesus Christ and his Church. For such a goal he prays for everyone. With a warm greeting, +Georg Gänswein.” This message corroborated the profoundest love and gratitude that Pope Benedict XVI has for this institute in Africa located in CATUC Bamenda.
During the International Theological Colloquium, the following erudite lectures were delivered:
- Fr Andrew Ngah – Keynote Lecture: The Theological and Historical Hermeneutics of Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity
His reflections navigated through the contextual interpretation of Ratzinger’s thoughts to the historico-cultural and theological contexts that necessitated the Introduction to Christianity – a way of provoking reflection and research into Christianity. Flowing from secularism and relativism as fundamental threats to the society, he argued that Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity rests far more on the fidelity of God to the ludicrous agreement he made with human beings to be with them and to grant them eternal life. The Creed, he says, is presented by Ratzinger as a symbol of Christian faith. To be a symbol means two things: first, it is a digest of Christian faith that can be held up as an expression of the whole; second, it encapsulates a vision that inspires and forms the imagination. The Creed, Fr Ngah argued, is for Ratzinger a synopsis of the Catechism and the understanding of God as Love is the digest of the Creed and thus the ultimate compact of Christian truth and Christian vision.
- Maurice Ebai- Agbaw: Introduction to Christianity “Belief in the World of Today”
Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI employs three thought-provoking images that he hopes captures the situation of the believer in our contemporary world: The image of the believer as a Clown in a Costume; The image of the believer as an existential phenomenon of a comfortable Christianity, captured in the dramatic Wet Stone that is thrown away; and thirdly, the image of the believer as a Log of Wood adrift in the open ocean. Ratzinger’s aim is to offer an opportunity to make an interior self-assessment of the meaning of faith to me today: What does it mean to believe in God today? Can I be certain about faith? Is belief a dialectic that is intrinsically related to unbelief, so much so that the thesis of belief and the anti-thesis of unbelief do not end up cancelling each other but rather bring forth a synthesis of healthy existential uncertainty that the believer appears condemned to live with?
In this part of Ratzinger’s Introduction, therefore, the insecurity of Faith; the tension between belief and unbelief; the dialectics regarding “doubt” by the believer and the unbeliever; Christianity as an “exegesis” of God for us; the paradox of Divine closeness; and finally, the “I” that believes in the “You,” taken together, and more, offer us a unique opportunity not only to engage the pragmatic question of belief today, but even more, to do so in view of a Christological personalism that is spiritually enlightening and transformative. Engaging these aspects from an African reading, constitutes the goal of this lecture.
- Dr. Anthony Yilaka: “The Ecclesial Form of Faith”
Here, we come to an examination of the concrete shape of the Christian belief by using the Apostles’ Creed as a guide. The origin and structure of the Creed which is the basic form of the profession of the faith took shape during the course of the second and third centuries in connection with the ceremony of baptism. Even though the text comes from the city of Rome, its internal origin lies in worship; more precisely, in the conferring of baptism. The original formula was derived from the words of the Risen Christ recorded in Matthew 28.19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In accordance with this mandate the following questions were put to the person to be baptized: “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God…? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit…?” The person being baptized replies to each of these three questions with the word “Credo” – I believe – and is then each time dipped in the water. Thus, the oldest form of the confession of faith takes the shape of a tripartite dialogue, of question and answer, and is, moreover, embedded in the ceremony of baptism.
In the first place, the Creed cuts across all cleavages and tensions and expresses the common ground of belief in the Triune God. It is an answer to the challenge that went out from Jesus of Nazareth: “Make disciples of all nations and baptize them.” This means that faith is located in the act of conversion. The phrase “I believe” could be literally translated by “I hand myself over to”, “I assent to”. Faith is not therefore a recitation of doctrines, an acceptance of theories. It signifies a movement of the human existence. One can say that it signifies an “about-turn” by the whole person which from then on constantly structures one’s existence. In this process the I and the We, the I and the You interact in a way which expresses the whole image of man and the community dimension of the faith. This highly personal process is made in answer to a question, in the interplay of “Do you believe?” and “I do believe!” Faith then is the result of a dialogue, the expression of a hearing, receiving and answering which guides man through the exchanges of “I” and “You” to the “We” of those who all believe in the same way understood as the entire Christian community.
- Nelson Shang: “What in fact is ‘God’ really? An Onto-Hermeneutical Reading of Ratzinger’s Prolegomena to the Subject of God’ in Introduction to Christianity”
What in fact is “God” really? Since the Enlightenment mankind has attempted to live by faith in the power of reason alone and to do away with God from all important practical human affairs. From Feuerbach’s deification of man through Marx’s atheistic materialism to Nietzsche’s madman’s pronouncement of the death of God, we are seen to be living in an era that is vociferously anti-religious and post-deistic. The rise and prevalence of Modernism, humanism and the scientific method with the consequent institutionalization of secularism, atheism and materialism are testament to modern man’s auto-sufficiency. The word God has become meaningless. For Ratzinger, the subject of God is a stubborn fact in human experience and in man’s encounter with nature. In this paper, I begin by excavating, very briefly, the philosophical roots of the rejection of God and the consideration of the word God as meaningless and nonsensical. Then I proceed to explore Ratzinger’s views on man’s knowledge of God (using the phenomenology of Religion as his philosophical approach) and man’s confession of faith in the One God. Given that even atheism is deeply concerned with the question of God, I argue for the metaphysical need for God and for the necessity to return to the “God” question in 21st century western society using the African traditional system as an example.
- Rev Dr. Gordian Baba: Understanding Ratzinger’s “The Biblical Belief in God”
Ratzinger helps us, in a brief and comprehensive way, to understand the biblical faith in God through a historical development from its origins with the patriarchs of Israel, that is, from the book of Genesis to the last book of the New Testament – Revelation. The Old Testament, which is obviously the starting point and guide for understanding the biblical belief in God, formulates its idea of God basically in two divine names: El/Elohim and Yahweh. The God revealed in the burning bush as “Yahweh” is at the same time as the God of Israel’s Fathers – Elohim. Ratzinger leads us to the conclusion that Yahweh, recognized as a “personal God”, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the God of Jesus Christ. Ratzinger does this by connecting Isaiah and John, around the enigmatic “I AM WHO I AM” through which God reveals and names himself as an active Presence, “Is-ing”. John then makes the formula – “I AM” – that first occurs in the burning bush scene “…into the central formula of his faith in God, but he does it by turning it into the central formula of his Christology; a process as decisive for the idea of God as for the image of Christ” (Introduction to Christianity, 132). The name of God is something other than a concept: one does not enter into a relationship with a concept, and in Jesus Christ, God has truly become the “he” with whom one can relate at the level of I and You because he has made himself one of us – nameable, “invocable” – he has come into co-existence with us. For Ratzinger, the biblical concept of God has two sides. God, who reveals and names himself, is the God of men, a God with a face, God of Israel’s fathers, the God of Jesus Christ. At the same time, he is a transcendent God, standing above space and time; “bound to nothing and binding everything to himself” (Introduction to Christianity, 135), and this is the paradox of the biblical faith in God.
- Rev Dr. Peter Takov: “The God of Faith and the God of the Philosophers”
Behind all facets of human rationality is one fundamental goal: the discernment of the “Being” that is the motor or generator of the universe of things. This search is a cultural value and has been “revolutionized” from the alpha of humanity – a universal culture. And every culture is a borrower and or lender. The Christian Revolution has extended its hand to past myths, beliefs and reasons. Ratzinger is of the opinion that “faith and reason, theology and philosophy, are symbiotically, and not extrinsically related. The consequence of this has been the giving of a new significance to the understanding of the “Unknown Being”. For “Being a Christian” and “Being a Witness” to the believer and nonbeliever remain a challenge to the foundations of the Credo and Christian Culture today, which must seek for truth through dialogue with them and not unification. In a world plagued by divisions, injustices, wars and falsehood, believers and unbelievers can have recourse to the common ground of the Logos, who is above all, the God of Love and without compromising the contents of our faith which cannot be left to human rationality alone.
- Prof. Michael Niba: “Faith in God Today”
“Faith in God today.” This is not a demographic report as the “today” suggests. It rather explores the intellectual possibilities and the ideological context against whose backdrops someone can profess the Church’s Creed: “I believe in God.” Faith is a choice for the truth. It affirms ontological truth – the logos – as the creative consciousness which is the ground and possibility for all that is. The thought which thinks everything into being is neither matter nor a universal idea. It is person. The logos freely decides to create because the logos is love. Thought loves everything into being. Can the “wrong” conceptualizations of faith be seen as part of the reason for the big question: “Why should I believe in God?”
- Dr. John BERINYUY: “Belief in the Triune God”
In his book The God of Jesus Christ: Meditations on the Triune God, Ratzinger has a Chapter entitle God is three and God is one. In the opening words of this chapter, he writes: “How often have we mad the sign of the Cross and invoked the name of the triune God without thinking about what we are doing?” The fifth chapter of Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity gives us the opportunity to think, reflect and ponder on the invocation of the name of the triune God that we pronounce often. This chapter follows the profession of faith in One God that has been handled previously. The important question we are out to answer in this chapter is: “What is really meant by the profession of faith in the triune God?” This important question that touches the heart of our faith will be answered by considering the following headings: the moderation of reason when talking about belief in the triune God; a brief historical development of belief in the triune God and the positive significance of belief in the triune God. Our aim in this presentation will be to help us as Ratzinger himself says to “learn anew to take God as our starting point when we seek to understand the Christian existence. This existence is belief in his love and faith that he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit – for it is only thus that the affirmation that he is “love” becomes meaningful. If he is not love in himself, he is not love at all. But if he is love in himself, he must be “I” and “Thou”, and this means that he must be triune.”
- Dr. Marcel GHAM: I Believe in Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son, Our Lord: An exploration of Ratzinger’s Christological thoughts.
An understanding of faith in Jesus Christ today has led to the search for the historical man Jesus who is the Son of God and the Son of God who is the man Jesus. Thus, we meet here a modern theological dilemma: Jesus or Christ? Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, through a moving theological discourse, in his Introduction to Christianity, attempts to resolve this difficulty by exploring the inner depths of the second article of the creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ His only Begotten Son”. His arguments suggest that an attempt to establish Christology securely on historical plane, to make it demonstrable or to construct a pure Jesus by whom one should live intrinsically may lead to a difficulty in the confession of faith. This leads to a useful pointer: the one (Jesus) cannot exist with the other (Christ) and that, on the contrary, one is bound to be continually pushed from one to the other because, in reality, Jesus only subsists as the Christ and the Christ only subsists in the shape of Jesus. Therefore, our faith’s decisive statement about Jesus lies in the indivisible unity of the two words: Jesus Christ.
- Dr. Augustine NKWAIN: Jesus Christ – True God and True Man
The historical Jesus must have been quite an enigma to those who came in contact with him. It was for the people of his time, as it is for modern man today. Here is one who stands for God, is God himself but at the same time so truly man. This was an ascent which without God’s grace and a proper understanding of his person one would find it difficult to make. Josef Cardinal Ratzinger makes an invaluable contribution to coming to understand this divine person and to fall in love with him when he says,” In him (Jesus), it becomes clear what the meaning of the story of being chosen, what the true meaning of kingship is. It has always aimed at standing for others, at being “representation”. The “representation”, the standing as proxy for others, now acquires a changed meaning. It is of him, the complete failure, who no longer has an inch of ground under his feet as he hangs from the cross, for whose garments lots are drawn and who himself seems to be abandoned by God, that the oracle: “You are my son; today – on this spot – I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession,” (Ps. 2:7).
- Dr. Charles SENGKA: The Spirit and the Church
There is an intrinsic unity in the last five articles of the Apostles’ Creed: Holy Spirit; Holy Catholic Church and Communion of Saints; Forgiveness of Sins; Resurrection of the Body; Life Everlasting. In proclaiming, “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” we are not in the first place referring to the Spirit as the third person in the Trinity, but above all, to the Spirit as God’s gift to history; we are referring here to the history of salvation and not to the Trinity. It is the question of the Spirit as the power through which the Lord remains present in the world as the principle of a new history and a new world. Hence, it is not about God’s inner life (opera ad intra) but about “God facing outward” (opera ad extra). Thus, faith in the Spirit and faith in the Church interfere with each other in such a way that teaching about the Church must take its departure from teaching about the Spirit. In this wider context of the Lord at work in the Church and in the world through the Spirit, we come to understand the unholy holiness of the Church and the other articles in the creed. God continues to work through the Spirit for the sanctification and the salvation of the world, to lead man to the New Jerusalem, which is no Utopia but certainty, and that is the confidence which supports Christians as they profess their faith in the Resurrection and Life Everlasting.
- Dr. Remi Prospero FONKA: “The Question about God and about Christ and African Traditional Religions”
Examining The Question about God and about Christ and African Traditional Religion is indispensable to our contemporary society, especially alongside Joseph Ratzinger’s theological reflections. Obviously, it is inevitable to carry out cross-religious study of concepts (suggested by the theme of this article), without consciously or unconsciously being pruned to some degree of comparison. The preliminary point punctuating this study is the theology of Joseph Ratzinger, presuming prior knowledge of God, the Trinitarian undivided unity and representation, Christological implications, and narrow messianic functions in the context of his Introduction to Christianity. Thus, Ratzinger’s theology especially in relation to the concept of God apropos Christ has an enormous impact on African Traditional Religion. As contemporary theologians and philosophers, we are challenged to evade lukewarm attitudes towards inculturation, striving to explore fertile grounds of religious dialogue and toleration. Ratzinger’s theology in confrontation with African Traditional Religion suggests a cross-cultural understanding of priestly functions and roles in the separate religions, comprehending highly cultural specificities, and avoiding the dangers of reductionist theology.
- NGALIM, Valentine: Introduction to Christianity and African Christian Philosophy
One of the major crises in the transmission of knowledge is the negligence of the context and the experiences of the audience. In as much as this is a truism for any pedagogic action, it is also relevant and pertinent to the teachings of the doctrine and matters of faith. Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized the place of situating the doctrine of faith in the context of its audience. This paper sets out to examine relevant perspectives of strengthening the argument that African Christian philosophy has to be rooted in the beliefs, practices and values of the Africans. The fear of Christian imperialism is real. This arises from the violence that Christianity is said to have done to the soul of the native peoples. This has prevented the people from finding themselves in the teachings and doctrines of the Church. Radical thinkers consider Christianity as an alienation from which native people must be liberated. At the same time, we have to be weary of incorporating savage practices in the profession and practice of Christian faith. This dialectic reintroduces the need to advance an argument for an “aboriginal Christianity” which sets the pace and foundation for all our Christian beliefs, practices, rites and profession. The central argument is that all cultures have to be open to one another and to the truth. This is because they all have something to contribute to the “Bride’s coloured robes” (the Church) in Psalms 45:14. This testifies that the native people have a means for the expression of their faith, and this is not in any way inferior to the western standards that were transmitted earlier. This study has exploited a dialectical method within the hermeneutics of Joseph Ratzinger’s Einfuerung in das Christentum (1968). We have also used the phenomenological and comparative methods to bring forth African indigenous values that provide the basis for the practice, belief and the profession of Christian faith within the African context.
- Dr. Emmanuel Fale: “The Development of Faith in Christ in the Christological Articles of the Creed”
After ascertaining that the Creed’s image of ‘Christ’ is not just a title, but a definition of Jesus, Ratzinger goes on in Chapter Two, the focus of this presentation, on the Development of Faith in Christ in the Christological Articles of the Creed. These include “Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary,” “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was Crucified, Died, and was Buried,” “Descended into Hell,” “Rose Again from the Dead,” “And Ascended into Heaven and is Seated at the Right of the Father,” and lastly, “He will Come Again to Judge the Living and the Dead.” These articles defy rationalization but for one, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, Died and was buried,” for this is possible that a human being could be treated as such. The rest of the articles about his origin, his descending into hell after death, his rising from the dead and ascending into heaven, and his coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead, are shrouded in mystery. The first article blends Christology and Mariology, and according to Ratzinger, Mariology must not become a mini-Christology, but Mary remains the image of the Church (who can only come to salvation through grace). Through Mary, the Word became incarnate, and dwelt among us. The One who conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary is the same One who suffers under Pontius Pilate. The cross, thus, is a sacrifice of love – agape. The descent into hell is compared with the modern descent of God into ‘muteness’ and with the Emmaus’ story. Hell is not just an unbearable pain as an unbearable loneliness. Jesus’ descent into hell, therefore, destroys that loneliness, meaning that death is no longer hell, but hell now is deliberate self-enclosure or “second death.” Through love, the Jesus rose from the dead to show that love is stronger than death. For love of us, he died and for love of us, he rose. He then ascended into heaven – the opposite spectrum end of hell, and from thence, he will come to judge the living and the dead. The belief in the Second Coming of Christ depicts that “over judgment, glows the dawn of hope.” Followers of Christ remain hopeful people.
These articles have implications on the individual Christian. In the words of Ratzinger, “the unrighteousness in the world does not have the last word, not even by being wiped out indiscriminately in a universal act of grace; on the contrary, there is a last court of appeal that preserves justice in order thus to be able to perfect love.” Love is the Christian principle that enables one to put into practice the teachings of Christ. With love, individual Christians will remain hopeful for an everlasting inheritance.
- Joan Mary KIYVEYONGE: “Excursus: Christian Structures”
The foundation stone of Christian Christology and praxis has its base in the Credo. The “Credo of the Church” is like an Island washed by the waters of believers and nonbelievers alike. The pillars of Christianity in our world today have been threatened and cornered from every side by the same believers and nonbelievers with modernist and postmodernist theologies and philosophies. And “Being Christian” and “Witnessing Christian” in nexus to Christian Structures in the Universal/African Church is continuously being menaced by internal and external forces. Celebrating the 95th birthday anniversary of Joseph Ratzinger is an opportunity for the Church to revisit one of his classics: Einführung in das Christentum, which, at the threshold of its 55th anniversary, continuously challenges the question of “Relationality” in our Christian lives and praxis as echoed in Part Two of the book – Excursus: Christian Structures.
The International Theological Colloquium ended on November 25, 2022, with group photographs to document the events which will serve as souvenirs for the International Theological Colloquium.
Reported by Nchumbonga George Lekelefac, Doctorandus, University of Münster, Germany; Europe/ US Correspondent of “The SUN Newspaper; Founder/ CEO of the “Nchumbonga Lekelefac Institute of Research, Documentation, Language and Culture, USA.