Sacramental Theological Thinking in the African Symbolic Universe: Affinities with John Henry Newman

Sacramental thinking is that world-view of a believer which understands and explains certain signs and symbols as purveyors of a sacred and salvific reality. The Church’s evangelization mission includes the project of educating her members to think and live sacramentally. Africans can easily cultivate sacramental thinking on the basis of the fact that sacramental thinking presupposes the symbolic. Using expository and critical analytic methods, the study clarifies the need for a passage from the mere symbolic to the more perfect sacramental reasoning while at the same time deploying J.H. Newman as a springboard for the African intelligentsia.