ABSTRACT

With the advent of Christianity in Africa, the early missionaries were confronted with the challenge of cultures that were entirely alien to them. Many of these cultures had practices that were totally irreconcilable with the Gospel message. The mistake of ten made was to see such cultures as fetish and demonic, totally lacking the presence of the Divine. This work is a revisit of St Justin Martyr’s theory on the Logos Spermatikos which postulates that the Seminal Word was present in human cultures even before the incarnation of the Divine Logos in human history. It revisits it as a foundation of the incarnation of the Gospel in African cultures. This is often referred to as incarnational theology. The discourse begins with an introduction which sets the pace of our discussion. Having given a brief biography of Justin Martyr, it gives a detailed summary and exposition of his theory on the Logos Spermatikos. The doctrine of the incarnation is discussed as the theological framework of this work. This is backed by the Church’s teaching authority. Against this backdrop, the incarnation is established as a model for inculturation and the work comes to a conclusion.