"Decolonising the Doctrine of the Trinity" or "The Decolonising Doctrine of the Trinity"?

Abstract

The doctrine of the Trinity is often regarded as the inherent weakness of African Christian theology. This has to be understood in the light of African resistance against the colonising doctrine of the Trinity and thus the need to either affirm the continuity with African notions of the Supreme Being and the God of Israel or to reject Christianity altogether as the religion of colonisers. Nevertheless, this contribution will retrieve a decolonial impulse in the Trinitarian confession. Even if the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed may be regarded as an imperial compromise, the symbols of Spirit, cross and father are anti-imperial in origin. We argue that apophatic theology may offer a corrective, through resistance against any tendency to take God for granted.