18 Theological librarianship • Vol. 12, No. 1 april 2019

which were meant to socialize the students in the dogma of the particular denomination.

Different national councils of churches in Africa and the All Africa Conference of Churches were platforms for churches to discuss their role in the society. These institutions were not an end in and of themselves; they developed to enshrine and inculcate a certain vision and perspective of ecumenical imperative. In the African context, the need for ecumenical relations was significant because of ethnic and religious pluralism. Both the mission-founded and the African Instituted Churches, like the Kimbanguist Church, sought platforms outside of their boundaries to be able to attend to wider societal needs. The ecumenical vision was not only an issue related to denominational relations, but a path towards the unity of peoples. At the same time, the ecumenical vision is one in which theology engages with secular issues for renewal and transformation. While this complexity cannot be captured in a single exhibition, this display highlighted nicely the ecumenical vision of different churches in Africa.

AFRICAN AGENCY IN THE LEADERSHIP OF THE CHURCH

The exhibition also focuses on the different roles and personalities in African church leadership. The preparation of African church leadership was significant for the development of the church, and Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809-1891), the pioneer leader, is prominently featured in the exhibition. In the life and ministry of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, there is an embodiment of what “the self supporting, self governing, and self propagating church” looks like, a theme that was strong in the mission work of Henry Venn.3

Like other pioneer African leaders, Crowther, a captured and freed slave and pioneer student of Furah Bay College, stood juxtaposed against the missionary ideals and African expectation. His life and work is the focus of historians of a number of areas of church life: theological education, the translation of language, and leadership in the church. A gifted person, Crowther was western educated and then ordained and concecrated a bishop to serve the church in Africa.

Among his many contributions to the church, perhaps of greatest significance is Crowther’s translation work, which continues to engage theologians of the African church. Lamin Sanneh, among others, has observed that the translation of the scriptures to local languages contributed to the rapid spread of Christianity in Africa.4 By considering the works and engagement of Crowther, as the exhibition does, one begins to experience as true the observation of Sanneh. Translation of the texts to African languages has continued to be significant in Africa, particularly Bible translations. According to Andrew Walls, “Bible translation as a process is thus both a reflection of the central act on which the Christian faith depends and a concretization of the commission which Christ gave his disciples. Perhaps no other specific activity more clearly represents the mission of the Church.”5

Walls summarizes well the importance of translation:

Incarnation is translation . . . The translation of God into humanity, whereby the sense and meaning of God was transferred, was effected under very culture-specific conditions . . . The first divine act of translation into humanity thus gives rise to a constant succession of new translations. Christian diversity is the necessary product of the Incarnation. 6

3 See, for example, Henry Venn, Retrospect and Prospect of the Operations of the Church Missionary Society (London: Church Missionary House, 1865).

4 Lamin Sanneh, Translating the Message: Missionary Impact on Culture (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1989). See also Ype Schaaf, On their Way Rejoicing: The History and Role of the Bible in Africa (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1952).

5 Andrew Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996), 28.

6 Walls, Missionary Movement, 27.