Jesus Christ: Our Ancestor?

Abstract

"lt is becoming increasingly common in African Christian theology to refer to Jesus as our ancestor. A number of prominent African theologians have referred to Jesus in this way. Yet at the grassroots there is still significant resistance to such a concept. This paper intends to look at the gap between the enthusiastic advocates of ancestor Christology and those opposing it. Recently, during a course taught at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria (TCNN), located in Bukuru, Nigeria, 80 students submitted two-page essays on the usefulness of calling Jesus their ancestor in the context of their own ethnic group. The vast majority of these students rejected the idea of Christ as an ancestor in their culture. "