Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development. Vol. 2, No. 1, 2019 ISSN Online: 2630-7073, ISSN Print: 2630-7065. www.apas.org.ng/journals.asp
GLOBALIZATION AND THEOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA Adolphus Ekedimma Amaefule, SDV Department of Religious and Cultural Studies University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria adolfsdv@yahoo.com Abstract One of the characteristics of the 21st century is the reality of globalization. This is the shrinking of time and space with the consequent conversion of the world into a global village. This, however, has always come about especially by the agency of new information and communication technology that has succeeded in bringing events and realities hitherto distant to the doorsteps of the other. This paper tries to look at the implications and challenges that the new information and communication technology that made, as said above, the reality of globalization ever more possible, have for the doing of theology in Africa, today. By descriptive and analytic methodology, it is found out, among other things, that these Information and Communication technologies provide ample opportunities for theologians in Africa to hone their craft, become e-theologians, engage all the more in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, make the output of their enterprise not only for local consumption but also for a more global consumption, be a boon to the church in Africa whose theologians they are, make them pay more attention to democratic values in Africa and then see to the development of an African theology of new information and communication technology. It is hoped that this study will help raise awareness on the interdisciplinary nexus between Information and Communication technology and religion, or, as in this case, between Information and communication technology and theology. Keywords: Globalization, Theology, Information technology, Democracy, Africa. Introduction In one of the poems, “Globalization,” that make up the collection of poems, Songs of An African Bard, by this writer (Amaefule, 2016, 38-39), he had mused: You huge murmuring monster with a raw Caustic maw much like the vast volcano crypt I saw. Swallowing and swallowing.... Cultures, customs, traditions...all enter and centre In namelessness and nothingness. A Publication of Association for the Promotion of African Studies 41