U.S. Theologian: Africans Understand Old Testament Better than Westerners

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071120/30155_U.S._Theologian%3A_Africans_Understand_Old_Testament_Better_than_Westerners.htm

[The Christian Post] 21 Nov 2007--Christians in Africa understand the Old Testament better than their Western counterparts, said a well-respected evangelical scholar at a recent meeting on theology.

Dr. Philip Jenkins, a distinguished professor of religious studies and history at Pennsylvania State University, told fellow members of the Evangelical Theological Society that the culture of African Christians assists them in understanding stories in the Old Testament, according to the Associated Baptist Press.

Jenkins spoke Thursday at the Evangelical Theological Society’s 59th annual meeting in San Diego under the theme “Teaching Them to Obey.”

Africans can understand ideas and concepts difficult for modern Westerners such as animal sacrifice, dietary restriction, polygamy, and sacred rocks, the professor said, according to ABP.

“Teaching people [in the developing world] to obey the Bible if it means the Old Testament is not difficult,” Jenkins said. “In fact, for many of the new Christians in the world today the big problem is … telling people that the old law must be made subordinate, must be treated as inferior, to the new law.”

However, African and some Asian tribes are also able to easily recognize and understand how the Old Testament religion should be practiced in light of the New Testament. They often understand how to apply the Old Testament in light of the New Testament better than Western Christians, Jenkins contended.