A Clash of Worldviews: Towards an Assessment of its Impact on Discipleship among Evangelical Christians in the Tharaka Community of Kenya.

Abstract

The prevalence of Tharaka’s traditional worldview among Tharaka community continues to reflect a complex dynamic of culture and Christianity. The Tharaka community has maintained a deeply rooted spiritual framework that has withstood the test of time in the emergence and spread of evangelism more than a century ago. This worldview unleashes a profound paradox, challenging the essence of Christianity as it is in many African communities. The Tharaka worldview is inconsistent with the Evangelical faith or the Evangelical Christian worldview. For instance, professing Tharaka Christians consult diviners for help or a witch to harm perceived enemies. Secretly this is for an outward impression of loyalty and faithfulness. In addition, it is the Christian faith, or to impress Church leadership. Evangelicals oppose and condemn such oscillating between the Christian and traditional worldviews because of its impact on discipleship. This study revealed that the unholy alliance of the two worldviews promotes nominal Christianity, produces inconsistent Christian faith, leads to syncretism, demeans the means of grace, leads to poor evangelism, undermines the place of Jesus Christ in redemptive work, and produces imbalanced theology. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, utilizing interviews, focus groups, and literature reviews to understand the paradoxical interplay between faith and traditional beliefs. Reflecting on the theories of the Flaw of the Excluded Middle and Lamin Sanneh’s translatability principle, the paper argues that the persistence of Tharaka's traditional worldview affirms that evangelicals find relevance in the traditional worldview. The study advises that for the gospel to speak to the cultural reality and for the African Church to contribute her influence in world Christianity like the early Church, the gospel must be presented at the level of the Tharaka traditional worldview, ensuring a more authentic and transformative Christian experience.