This collection has a focus on African Christianity. It includes the contributions published in: PHIRI, Isabel Apawo ... [et al.]. Anthology of African Christianity. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2016. ISBN 978-1-911372-10-3. Copyright: World Council of Churches.

Recent Submissions

  • African theological perspectives on intersubjective identity:In conversation with developments in Strong Artificial Intelligence

    Forster, Dion (2023-12-18)
    Developments in Strong Artificial Intelligence (AI) raise important questions about human identity. Of particular interest is how AI challenges the idea that human identity can be collapsed, without remainder, into the individual. In African theological anthropology there is an emphasis upon intersubjective relationality as a key aspect in the formation and understanding of human identity and uniqueness. This article explores the intersections of some of the claims of Strong AI in relation to some southern African notions of relational identity. This article argues that Strong AI invites us to reconsider some dominant individualized approaches to theological anthropology in relation to the doctrine of creation. It does so by decentring the locus of theological reflection from the individual human person and invites some reflection on what it might mean for theology if forms of AI begin to reflect on their own subjectivity, creation, and broader relationships with human and non-human creation.
  • A Natureza Da Teologia Pública

    Agang, Sunday; Forster, Dion; Hendriks, Jurgens; Forster, Dion (Langham Publishers, 2023)
  • Teologia Pública Africana

    Forster, Dion (Langham Publishers, 2023)
  • Theology in the Public Realm?:David Tracy and Contemporary African Religiosity

    Palfrey, Barnabas; Telser, Andreas; Forster, Dion A. (2023)
  • Preface: Interreligious Dialogue in the Context of South Africa

    Davids, Nuraan; Forster, Dion A; Weisse, Wolfram (2023)
  • Preface: Interreligious Dialogue in the Context of South Africa

    Davids, Nuraan; Forster, Dion A; Weisse, Wolfram (2023)
  • Biblical Principles for Missiological Issues in Africa

    Bauer, Bruce L.; Kuhn, Wagner (Digital Commons @ Andrews University, 2015-01-01)
    Students from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria and Brazil were part of an Andrews University Doctor of Ministry cohort that met at the Adventist University of Africa from 2011 to 2014. Chapter two in their dissertations focused on biblical principles that spoke to current cultural and ministry issues. Many of these chapters are shared with a wider audience in this book.
  • Forgiveness and Ubuntu:A Study of the Theological Contribution of Desmond Tutu

    Kobe, Sandiswa Lerato (2023-12-05)
    Currently South Africa is going through a period of political and social instability. The new generations contest the legacy of ‘rainbow nation’, reconciliation, forgiveness and ubuntu as personified by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu in the new South Africa. Tutu introduced the Christian language of forgiveness into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC) and in this way provided his own Christian interpretation of the constitutional mandate of the TRC in terms of ‘unity and national reconciliation.’ He was only able to do that because he wrapped his forgiveness rational in the language of ubuntu. In South Africa, his interpretation of national reconciliation in terms of forgiveness was contested. The media too optimistically hyped individual acts of forgiveness at the TRC, suggesting that these moments could become catalysts for national reconciliation and unity on the way to nation-building. Internationally, Christians celebrated this societal use of the theology of forgiveness at the TRC, sometimes not understanding the ubuntu background of Tutu’s forgiveness discourse. Because the ubuntu concept was unfamiliar, the strings attached to forgiveness were missed. Some Christian theologians were uncomfortable about Tutu’s apparent unproblematic encouragement to forgive. They feared that he had simplified the Christian message of forgiveness. Against this background, this thesis offers a critical analysis of Desmond Tutu’s notions of forgiveness and ubuntu in changing contexts in South Africa. In the end the thesis systematises and proposes a more nuanced understanding of Desmond Tutu’s notions of forgiveness and ubuntu in changing context before and after 1994.
  • Public Theology, the Church and Youth Development in Ghana

    Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong (Noyam Journals, 2023-10-01)
    The article is an examination of theological insights that Public Theology provides for the development of young people in Ghana. The article argued that the church is strategically positioned to make significant responses to contemporary challenges confronting youth development through its Public Theology. The study affirmed that the churches provide spiritual guidance, Christian education, entrepreneurship programmes, support systems and youth-focused ministries which help the youth to develop a sense of purpose and a strong moral compass such as integrity, compassion and social responsibility. The young people however face the challenge of unemployment, moral decadence, social neglect, relationships and the effects of corruption. The study recommends that through its theological resources, the church must play a vital role in youth development by paying attention to the socialization processes of the youth at home, church and school. Moreover, attention must be paid to mentoring which facilitates the process of discovering the right persons for leadership, entrepreneurship, social transformation and advocacy for young people to be empowered to make significant contributions to church growth and nation building.
  • Postcolonial manifestations of African spatiality in Europe: the invisible African churches of Ghent

    Beeckmans, Luce (2016)
    In Ghent the arrival of African migrants has resulted in the rise of Afro-Christian churches that are said to deploy a ‘reverse mission’ to Europe. Through processes of occupation and appropriation Africans have transformed existing non-religious buildings into places of worship. The result are ‘hybrid’ architectural forms, deeply informed by the transnational lives of most African migrants. Because African architectural forms in the European city are the fruit of (unfulfilled) dreams, nostalgia, identity-building and transnational connections, their study may help to look beyond a handful stereotypes of how postcolonial subjects from Africa contribute to the shaping of cities outside Africa.
  • The sacrifice of Christ in African perspective:a contribution to the atonement debate

    Reed, Rodney L.; Ngaruiya, David K.; Bussey, S.K. (Langham Global Library, 2023-10-31)
    The notion of “sacrifice” is highly controversial in the contemporary Western evangelical discussion. In recent debates about the doctrine of atonement, two American theologians and leading critics of penal substitution – Mark Baker and Joel Green – have argued that the concept of sacrifice is of limited value for explaining the meaning of atonement in Western contexts. Although they recognize that the concept of sacrifice powerfully communicates the saving work of Christ in African contexts, they believe that there are limitations as to what African reflection on sacrifice can contribute to substantive theological issues. In Africa, however, the notion is prevalent across a wide range of theological traditions. The work of three African theologians – John Ekem, Edison Kalengyo, and Mercy Oduyoye – challenges Baker and Green’s understanding of sacrifice in five important ways. First, they challenge their metaphorical approach to sacrifice with their dialogical typological approaches. Second, they challenge their focus on ritual sacrifice with their attention to both ritual sacrifice and self-sacrifice. Third, they challenge their reduction of sacrifice to moral self-giving with their emphasis on multiple themes. Fourth, they challenge their association of sacrifice and death with their strong association of sacrifice and life. Finally, they challenge their focus on understanding and articulation with their deep concern for worship and everyday life.
  • The sacrifice of Christ in African perspective:a contribution to the atonement debate

    Reed, Rodney L.; Ngaruiya, David K.; Bussey, S.K. (Langham Global Library, 2023-10-31)
    The notion of “sacrifice” is highly controversial in the contemporary Western evangelical discussion. In recent debates about the doctrine of atonement, two American theologians and leading critics of penal substitution – Mark Baker and Joel Green – have argued that the concept of sacrifice is of limited value for explaining the meaning of atonement in Western contexts. Although they recognize that the concept of sacrifice powerfully communicates the saving work of Christ in African contexts, they believe that there are limitations as to what African reflection on sacrifice can contribute to substantive theological issues. In Africa, however, the notion is prevalent across a wide range of theological traditions. The work of three African theologians – John Ekem, Edison Kalengyo, and Mercy Oduyoye – challenges Baker and Green’s understanding of sacrifice in five important ways. First, they challenge their metaphorical approach to sacrifice with their dialogical typological approaches. Second, they challenge their focus on ritual sacrifice with their attention to both ritual sacrifice and self-sacrifice. Third, they challenge their reduction of sacrifice to moral self-giving with their emphasis on multiple themes. Fourth, they challenge their association of sacrifice and death with their strong association of sacrifice and life. Finally, they challenge their focus on understanding and articulation with their deep concern for worship and everyday life.
  • African Contextual Theology and Post-Modern Pluralism

    Institut dominicain d'études orientales (IDEO); Chéno, Rémi (HAL CCSDLibrairie philosophique J. Vrin / Le Saulchoir, 2019-11-19)
    African academic theology finds its historical origin in postcolonial attempts at inculturation and indigenization or in struggles for liberation against the racist exploitation of blacks. It thus immediately falls within the field of contextual theologies, of which the typology of S. Bevans invites him to join the perspective of the synthetic model to the balance between the creationist approach and the redemptive approach, and between continuity and discontinuity of context and culture with theology, that is between dialogue and prophecy. The pluralistic character of postmodernity, which is the global cradle of both African and Western theologies, presents a new challenge to African theologies: they must enter into conversation with each other, but also with the pluralism of their own societies. David Tracy's conversational pluralism seems to open a fertile path for African theologies.
  • African theological perspectives on intersubjective identity:In conversation with developments in Strong Artificial Intelligence

    Forster, Dion (2023-12-18)
    Developments in Strong Artificial Intelligence (AI) raise important questions about human identity. Of particular interest is how AI challenges the idea that human identity can be collapsed, without remainder, into the individual. In African theological anthropology there is an emphasis upon intersubjective relationality as a key aspect in the formation and understanding of human identity and uniqueness. This article explores the intersections of some of the claims of Strong AI in relation to some southern African notions of relational identity. This article argues that Strong AI invites us to reconsider some dominant individualized approaches to theological anthropology in relation to the doctrine of creation. It does so by decentring the locus of theological reflection from the individual human person and invites some reflection on what it might mean for theology if forms of AI begin to reflect on their own subjectivity, creation, and broader relationships with human and non-human creation.
  • Interreligious Dialogue in the Context of South Africa

    Davids, Nuraan; Forster, Dion A; Weisse, Wolfram (2023-12-21)
  • Peasant and Empire in Christian North Africa

    Dossey, Leslie (Loyola eCommons, 2010-10-01)
    This remarkable history foregrounds the most marginal sector of the Roman population, the provincial peasantry, to paint a fascinating new picture of peasant society. Making use of detailed archaeological and textual evidence, Leslie Dossey examines the peasantry in relation to the upper classes in Christian North Africa, tracing that region's social and cultural history from the Punic times to the eve of the Islamic conquest. She demonstrates that during the period when Christianity was spreading to both city and countryside in North Africa, a convergence of economic interests narrowed the gap between the rustici and the urbani, creating a consumer revolution of sorts among the peasants. This book's postcolonial perspective points to the empowerment of the North African peasants and gives voice to lower social classes across the Roman world.
  • Donation of Books by North America Theology Libraries to Africa

    George Kotei Neequaye (American Theological Library Association, 2019-10-01)
    With the development of Christianity in the third world increasing, the need for theological training and teaching increases. Unfortunately, many third world countries lack the fiscal resources to provide some of the critical components to a sound theological education. One of those resources being books. Subsequently, many institutions striving to provide theological education advocate for print resources to truly fulfill their mission. This article provides some of the challenges and benefits for North American theological libraries to donate to Africa.

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