Coming Of Christianity In Africa Case Study

Introduction
In the introduction, the writer shares about challenges he faces upon his first missionary work as a teacher in Sierra Leone. In his mission, he learnt a lot from the religious activities that were going on around him. In his story, he mentions that even though he once thought he was well equipped for mission, his presuppositions were soon displaced when he reached his mission field and realized that the tools he prepared were even not necessary in his work. He needed a new set of materials, which included learning the culture of the people he was going to serve. His new mission field had different things that needed to be addressed. Different from the material he had prepared from his training in Christian history which, to the natives was basically a western story which nobody would be interested in listening. New questions were asked and new problems needed to be addressed in the new context. He realized that in his new mission field, the issues at hand were theological challenges related with people's transition from African ancestral worship to Christianity. The main questions
The challenging idea that African problems could only be treated by traditional medicine men, which in a way was not only healing but extended to more things like giving charms to protect one from evil eyes posed a challenge to Christianity which demanded allegiance to one God who did not accept charms. The missionaries were faced with this controversy which, if not addressed, threatened to pose a big challenge to Christian missionary work. The traditional medicine healers were also priests, connecting the world of the living with the dead. Because some diseases, especially those caused by curses, could only be healed upon venerating ancestors, which greatly contradicted the Christian teaching of believing in one