# John Mbiti ## Intro John Mbiti was a Kenyan Anglican priest and scholar, often called the father of modern African theology. His 1969 book *African Religions and Philosophy* opened with the line that "Africans are notoriously religious," and argued that African peoples knew God long before missionaries arrived. He also coined one of the best-known summaries of African communal thinking: "I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am." In retirement he translated the New Testament into his mother tongue, Kikamba. ![The white main building of Makerere University in Kampala, with a red tile roof and a square clock tower](/codex/assets/makerere-university-main-building.jpg) *The main building of Makerere University, Kampala, where Mbiti studied and later taught from 1964 to 1974. Photo: Ronald Muvunyi, CC BY 3.0 ([Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Makerere_University_Main_Building_-_panoramio.jpg)), resized.* ## In full Mbiti (1931-2019) set the agenda for the academic study of African religion and African Christian theology in the decades after independence. In *African Religions and Philosophy* (1969) and *Concepts of God in Africa* (1970) he gathered evidence from hundreds of African peoples to argue that belief in a supreme God was nearly universal in traditional Africa, and that African religion permeated every part of life. In *New Testament Eschatology in an African Background* (1971), based on his Cambridge doctorate, he compared biblical teaching on the last things with the Akamba understanding of time. His work made it possible to speak of African Christianity as continuous with Africa's religious past, a thesis developed further by [Kwame Bediako](/codex/kwame-bediako/). It also drew sharp criticism, from [Byang Kato](/codex/byang-kato/) on theological grounds and from Okot p'Bitek on historical and anthropological ones. ## Life - **Birth.** Born 30 November 1931 at Mulango in Kitui, eastern Kenya, among the Akamba. His mother tongue was Kikamba. - **Education.** He graduated from University College, Makerere (Uganda) in 1953, studied at Barrington College in Rhode Island (BA 1956, BTh 1957), and earned a PhD in theology at the University of Cambridge in 1963 under C. F. D. Moule. - **Ordination.** He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1963. - **Career.** He taught at Makerere University from 1964 to 1974, directed the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland, from 1974 to 1980, served as a parish minister in Burgdorf, Switzerland, from 1980 to 1996, and taught at the University of Bern from 1983. - **Translation.** After retiring he translated the entire New Testament from Greek into Kikamba, published in 2014. See [Missionary Translation and African Languages](/codex/missionary-translation-and-african-languages/). - **Death.** He died at Burgdorf on 5 October 2019, aged 87. ## Key ideas 1. **"Africans are notoriously religious."** The opening claim of *African Religions and Philosophy*: religion in traditional Africa is not a separate compartment but pervades all of life. 2. **God was known in Africa before the missionaries.** Mbiti argued that nearly all African peoples acknowledged a supreme creator, and that missionaries did not bring God to Africa but proclaimed Christ to people who already knew of God. This fits the biblical theme of [General Revelation](/codex/general-revelation/) ([Acts 14:17](/codex/acts-14-17/); [Romans 1:20](/codex/romans-1-20/)). 3. **Christianity as an African religion.** He wrote that Christianity in Africa is so old that it can rightly be described as an indigenous, traditional and African religion, pointing to Egypt, North Africa and Ethiopia. See [African Christianity Pre-Colonial](/codex/african-christianity-pre-colonial/). 4. **Communal personhood.** His summary of African thought, "I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am," is widely quoted in discussions of ubuntu and African ethics. See [Ubuntu and Christian Ethics](/codex/ubuntu-and-christian-ethics/). 5. **African time.** He argued that traditional African thought had a long past and a short future, with little sense of a distant end. He used this to explain how Africans heard New Testament eschatology. This thesis is among his most criticized. ## Major works - *African Religions and Philosophy* (1969) - *Concepts of God in Africa* (1970) - *New Testament Eschatology in an African Background* (1971) - *Introduction to African Religion* (1975) - *The Prayers of African Religion* (1975) - *Bible and Theology in African Christianity* (1986) - *African Proverbs* (1997) ## Critiques - **Theological (Byang Kato).** In *Theological Pitfalls in Africa* (1975), Kato argued that Mbiti's treatment of African religion tended toward universalism, implying that adherents of traditional religion were already saved, and blurred the line between general revelation and saving knowledge of Christ. Mbiti's defenders read him as describing continuity of knowledge, not salvation apart from Christ. See [Universalism](/codex/universalism/). - **Anthropological (Okot p'Bitek).** In *African Religions in Western Scholarship* (1970), the Ugandan poet and scholar accused Mbiti and others of dressing African gods in Christian and Greek clothing, reading omnipotence and omniscience into beliefs that did not contain them. Mbiti did not publish a direct answer. - **African time.** Philosophers and historians have challenged the claim that traditional African languages and cultures lacked a concept of the distant future. - **Generalization.** Gathering data from hundreds of peoples into one picture of "African religion" has been criticized as flattening real differences. ## Scholarship Published academic works this page draws on, each matched to a publisher, index or library catalog record. - Byang H. Kato, *Theological pitfalls in Africa* (1975). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4670840W) - John S. Mbiti, *African Religions and Philosophy* (1970). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8050019W) - John S. Mbiti, *Concepts of God in Africa* (1970). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4104135W) ## See also - [African Traditional Religion and Christianity](/codex/african-traditional-religion-and-christianity/), the debate Mbiti framed - [Ubuntu and Christian Ethics](/codex/ubuntu-and-christian-ethics/), where his "I am, because we are" is applied - [Kwame Bediako](/codex/kwame-bediako/), who built on Mbiti's continuity thesis - [Byang Kato](/codex/byang-kato/), his chief evangelical critic - [African Christian Philosophy](/codex/african-christian-philosophy/), the wider field - [Missionary Translation and African Languages](/codex/missionary-translation-and-african-languages/), including his Kikamba New Testament - [Africa and Christianity](/codex/africa-and-christianity/), the master hub
## Common questions this page answers **Q: Who was John Mbiti?** He was a Kenyan Anglican priest and scholar (1931-2019), often called the father of modern African theology. His book *African Religions and Philosophy* (1969) shaped the study of African religion for decades. **Q: Who said "I am because we are"?** The phrase "I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am" comes from John Mbiti's *African Religions and Philosophy* (1969), as his summary of the communal view of the person in African thought. It is often linked with the idea of ubuntu. **Q: What did John Mbiti mean by "Africans are notoriously religious"?** It is the opening claim of *African Religions and Philosophy*. Mbiti meant that in traditional Africa religion was not a separate part of life but shaped everything, from birth and marriage to work, politics and death. **Q: Did John Mbiti believe Africans knew God before the missionaries?** Yes. He argued that nearly all African peoples acknowledged a supreme creator God, so the missionaries did not bring God to Africa but proclaimed Christ to people who already knew of God. **Q: What are the main criticisms of John Mbiti?** Byang Kato argued that his view of African religion leaned toward universalism. Okot p'Bitek argued that he read Christian and Greek ideas into African beliefs. Others have challenged his theory of African time and his generalizations across many peoples. **Q: Did John Mbiti translate the Bible?** Yes. In retirement he translated the whole New Testament from Greek into Kikamba, his mother tongue. It was published in 2014.