African Theologian to Lecture at Fuller Seminary 

One of Africa's leading theologians, Kwame Bediako of Ghana, will speak on African Christianity in relation to worldwide Christianity in three talks at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena between October 10 and 12.

"Kwame Bediako is one of the major voices of theology in Africa today," says Fuller professor of Theology and Culture William Dyrness. "He has drawn an important historical parallel between the early church and the situation of the church in Africa. Just as early Christians affirmed that it was possible to become Christian without being Jewish, Dr. Bediako insists that one does not have to be Westernized in Africa today to become a Christian." 

The Payton Lectures on "Africa in the New World Christian Order," cosponsored by the Fuller Schools of Theology and World Mission, will be presented from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Travis Auditorium in the Psychology Building on the Fuller campus, located at 180 N. Oakland Ave. in Pasadena. Each talk, free and open to the public, will be followed by a one-hour discussion with a Fuller faculty respondent.

Titles of the lectures will be: "The Significance of African Christianity in World Christianity," on Tuesday, October 10; "New Tongues, New Images: Entering into the Greater Fullness of Christ," on Wednesday, October 11; and "Toward a New Theodicy: Africa's Suffering in Redemptive Perspective," on Thursday, October 12.

Rev. Bediako, who is executive director of the Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre for Mission Research and Applied Theology in Ghana, and director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in Oxford, England, will spend a month at Fuller Seminary in study, research and writing. He is the author of Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African History and Experience; Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of Non-Western Religion and Theology; and Identity: The Impact of Culture upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and Modern Africa.

Fuller Theological Seminary is the largest multi-denominational seminary in the world, with students from more than 100 countries and 100 denominations.