Mtu ni Watu: The Holy Trinity in Africa—Ancient and Contemporary Approaches

The classic definitions of God and Trinity involving the concept of personhood are grounded in the lexical fields of ancient theological and philosophical discourse. They raise the question of the extent to which a believer is required to enter into those worldviews and conceptualities. If a semantic approach is adopted, it becomes apparent that a term like “person” may be re-accentuated according to context. This is an approach which is itself found within patristic methodology, not least in the transitions from Hellenistic philosophy to Greek Christian theology, and then from Greek to Latin. With this method in place, readers may approach such terms using materials derived from their own culture and context, not just those of antiquity. The Kiswahili proverb, Mtu ni watu (a person is people), provides an example of such a term, used to define personhood. Its adoption means that African Christians may approach a core doctrine of the Christian faith easily from their own cultural perspective without requiring a grounding in European thought and history, using a methodology already adopted by their Christian ancestor, Augustine of Hippo.