An Evangelical Christology for the Weak: Exploring Christ’s Sufficiency for the Challenges of Poverty, Oppression, and Marginalisation in Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Poor, oppressed, and/or marginalised people are often weak people who are at the mercy of powerful people who impoverish, oppress, and marginalise them. The persistent, prevalent challenges of poverty, oppression, and marginalisation in Africa make some Africans resort to diabolical practices and thus deny Christ’s sufficiency for them. Consequently, many Christian theologians discuss how Christ overcomes these challenges, often using the Christus Victor approach, so that Africans can consider Christ sufficient to solve these problems. This study acknowledges this approach but argues that it is not adequately evangelical, so it seeks to develop an approach that retains all the core features of evangelicalism. The researcher utilises a purely literary research approach. The study identified sin as the main cause of poverty, oppression, and marginalisation in Africa, and then argued that Christ’s sufficiency to deal with the problem of sin proves his sufficiency to address the challenges of poverty, oppression, and marginalisation that result from sin. It highlighted what Christ and his word, the Bible, teach about poverty, oppression, and marginalisation, and what they mean for dealing with these social maladies. This study, therefore, recommends preaching and applying the gospel message, which cuts straight to the problem of sin, to demonstrate Christ’s sufficiency for the challenges of poverty, oppression, and marginalisation in Africa.