Tempels transcended colonial dichotomies yet still framed Christianity as the standard of humanity.

Evidence

Tempels’s merit is to have tried and to have addressed the issue of the conditions for the possibility of dialogue between Africa and the West. He tried to overcome the “us versus them” dichotomy so characteristic of the Hegelian paradigm. Tempels, apparently, approached the Bantu with sincerity in his heart and the desire to acknowledge and defend the dignity of the African people, and he suffered for that at the hand of some colonial officials and mainly some religious leaders, such as the then powerful archbishop of Lubumbashi, Jean-Félix de Hemptinne. However, he remained a son of his time, believing Christianity to be superior to African religions and that Christianity was the only religion that could elevate Africans to genuine civilization. So civilization and intercultural dialogue are viewed uniquely through the prism of Christianity, understood as the canonical standard not only of spirituality, but also of rationality and humanity itself. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 739

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the legacy of Hegel’s paradigm in Africanist ethnophilosophy and debates on Tempels within African philosophy, echoing the ‘ethnophilosophy’ critique.
• DEFINE: Names the Tempelsian paradigm problem that the book’s subtitle and argument revolve around.