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the old guard of princeton

January 10, 2007

Religion and Poverty in Africa

Peter Pari
s
Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Emeritus,
​Princeton Theological Seminary

Minutes of the 15th Meeting of the 65th Year
President Joe Giordmaine called the 96 members to order for the 15th meeting of the 65th year at 10:15 AM, and John Marks led the invocation.

John Frederick read the minutes of the meeting of January 3, 2007. Tom Gillespie introduced his son Bill as a visitor, John Frederick introduced his wife Jean as a visitor, and George Cody introduced Janet Wolinetz as a guest.
 
Dr. Thomas Gillespie, former president of Princeton Theological Seminary, introduced the Speaker, Peter Paris, Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary.
 
Professor Paris traced his background to forbearers who came to Nova Scotia with the British in 1782.  He was born in the small segregated African American community in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, attended a predominately white public school, and graduated from Arcadia University. While there he became associated with the Student Christian Movement of Canada, and later served the SCM in Nigeria during the time of its independence from British colonialism. He then went to the University of Chicago where he received his masters and his doctorate in ethics, and taught at Vanderbilt and Howard Universities before coming to Princeton Theological Seminary.
 
His major interest has been the relationship between ethics and spirituality in the African experience, being convinced that there are virtues and values evidenced in Africa and in the Diaspora, which have not been obliterated by the slavery and colonialism that dominated Africa from the mid 1800’s to the 1950’s. In time he developed a four-year program, helped by the Ford Foundation and Princeton Theological Seminary, entitled a Pan-African Seminar on Religion and Poverty, designed to investigate the relationship between religion and poverty in Africa. The seminar was composed of 16 religious scholars from 9 African nations and the Diaspora.

Before speaking of the findings of the seminar, Dr. Paris laid a foundation for our understanding African spirituality. This spirituality is based on the relationship between the family and its ancestors or forbearers. Forbearers are not thought of as either dead or divine, but as living in the realm of the spirit and acting as mediators between the family and the Supreme Being. Familial devotion insures the strengthening of this relationship, as the family remembers its forbearers’ good works, trusting that the ancestors’ advocacy with the Supreme Being will continue. This belief permeates African Christianity, which has more adherents than any continent in the world.

Reviewing the impoverishment of African people and lands by colonialism and slavery, he noted the dialectic between culture and religion that led each to adapt to the other. 
Some of the more important findings of the Pan African Seminar on Religion and Poverty were:
  1. African peoples share common concerns about spirituality and poverty in spite of the diversity of African ethnicities (there are more than 2500 language groups), indicating there is much work that can be done in common among African peoples. 
  2. Western understandings of poverty do not represent those of African peoples. We see poverty as the lack of financial resources. Africans see poverty as alienation from families, friends, and communities, made worse by a lack of religious fidelity. Westerners would have a hard time understanding the sense of community in African nations, even in ghettoes of filthy water, disease, dead animals, and tin roofed shacks.  It is the presence of children orphaned by war and HIV/AIDS, slavery and prostitution, that speaks more of what Africans understand as poverty. 
  3. Very few of the responses to poverty by churches or NFP organizations have a justice component, which is profoundly needed. The responses are usually composed of emergency services that are important but fail to address the basic causes of poverty and thus are not long-term solutions.  Cooperative ventures, done by some churches and NFPs in the last decade that provide small loans for small businesses, do address justice issues and are very successful. 
The widespread knowledge and contemporary interests of the Old Guard members were displayed in the questions following Prof. Paris’ talk:  the formation of Liberia; the procedures used by missionaries (learning the language, asking Africans to name their God, and then telling them about God as they knew God); the troubles in Darfur; the importance of education for African youth; political corruption in Africa; and the African Union.
  
Respectfully submitted,
Dana Fearon

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