Teaching Ethics in the Face of Africa’s Moral Crisis: Reflections from a Guest

Though the Christian faith has in recent years increasingly shown itself to be a truly African religion, a variety of African authors such as Kä Mana, George Kinoti, Hannah Kinoti, August Shutte and Efoé Julien Penoukou have noted that sub-Saharan Africa is facing a moral crisis. This article explores this crisis in as far as it is caused by difficulties in the reception of the (Western) Christian ethic by African Christian communities. It points out that this crisis is visible in (a) double morality, (b) immorality and (c) legalism. It shows that it is both caused by rapid social change in contemporary Africa and by the way the Christian ethic was introduced with a lack of attention for (a) the relationship between worldview and ethics, (b) the social impact of changing cultural practices and (c) the importance of virtue ethics. In this way it also points to the shape Christian moral education for present-day Africa should take.