A Contribution to the Debate on Science and Faith by Christian Students From Abidjan

Abstract

The science and faith debate is dominated by Western voices. In order to enrich this debate, the authors study the discourses of different groups of Christian academics and master's students in francophone Africa. This article describes the process of reconstructing and analyzing the discourse of a group of master's students from Abidjan (Ivory Coast) with the help of group model building and focus groups. Three characteristic features that emerge from this discourse include the foundational position of faith, the central role of truth, and the ambiguous connotations of the term “science” in this context. The reconstructed discourse is then brought into conversation with the North Atlantic debate, with a special focus on the concept of scientism.

Context and Catholicity in the Science and Religion Debate

“…Contributions from North Atlantic Perspectives From a North Atlantic perspective, the blocking of knowledge in traditional African culture is a fact. We recall the criticism mentioned by Feierman and Janzen (2011, 245) about the lack of transparency of secret knowledge, and which was also mentioned by the students from Abidjan (see Chapter 5; Bom & Toren 2017). As we mentioned before, the idea of the power of secret knowledge appeared to be strong among the research population, and various participants in the research groups alleged that Rosicrucians and Freemasons are influential at the university.…”

“…As we argued in Chapter 1, the dominant understanding of science and religion is defined by the North Atlantic world, and, if we want to understand what Christians in francophone Africa think about it, it is important to understand how this theme is modelled in African concepts and understandings. gmb proved to be a useful research instrument for several reasons (Bom and Toren 2017;Bom 2018). In the first place, gmb starts with the language and concepts used by the population itself in relation to the problem, which reduces the Western influence on the agenda.…”

On the Value of Action and Participatory Research for Intercultural Theology: Reflections in the Light of a Research Project on “Science and Religion in French-Speaking Africa”

“…Christian theological participatory and action research can therefore not limit itself to a pragmatic focus on change, but will always combine its interest in healing and liberation with a desire to gain a deeper understanding of God and of God's project for his world -and therefore of what counts as true healing and liberation -revealed in Jesus Christ. These convictions were in our case shared by our partners and by most of the students and academics involved in the research project (Bom and van den Toren 2017). In our project, the general approach to the question concerned was that looking for a better understanding of the relationship between religion and science was not just a pragmatic interest aimed at improving how they as students and academics might live better lives in their challenging environments, or how they might contribute to the betterment of their communities.…”