Tempels’s ethnographic study of African cultures served his goal of Christianization

Evidence

As a missionary, Tempels’s primary concern was to find an efficient method that could help him successfully evangelize or Christianize the Congolese people in the dioceses of Kamina and Kolwezi. Dialogue with Africans emerged as a necessity in light of what he considered to be the failure of missionaries and himself to convince Africans to fully embrace Christianity. He started by learning local languages, especially Kiluba and Kiswahili, and did extensive ethnological study of local cultures in order to grasp people’s worldview, their understanding of God, their moral compass, the raison d’être of human existence, the meaning of life and their vision of the afterlife. This enabled him to convince Africans to embrace Christ and Christianity as the ultimate fulfillment of what is already found in African ancestral wisdom and spirituality. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 655

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Tempels was a Belgian missionary who wrote the first celebrated book on African philosophy — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 99