Theology: Contextual Theology: African Theology

In this exciting volume, Diane B. Stinton has assembled the work of nearly twenty prominent African theologians, making their writings accessible to the introductory level student. Paying specific attention to methodological and contemporary issues, the volume is well organized for use in a wide range of theology courses. Some African scholars have written new pieces for the book, while others have given permission for notable articles to be condensed and simplified. Kwame Bediako, Benezet Bujo, Philomena Mwaura, and Isabel Phiri are just four of the theologians featured.

Dale Andrews and Robert Smith combine the voices of constructive theologians, practical theologians, and those ministering in black churches to craft a rich and expansive black practical theology. Black Practical Theology brings together the hermeneutical conversation between scholars working within the traditional disciplines of theological education (systematic theology, ethics, biblical studies, history) and those scholars working within practical theology (homiletics, pastoral care and counseling, Christian education, spirituality). To this ongoing conversation, Andrews and Smith add the voices of pastors of black congregations and para-church leaders who serve the communities of faith who daily confront the challenges this work addressesâyouth and intergenerational divides, education and poverty, gender and sexuality, globalism, health care, and incarceration and the justice system. Black Practical Theology sets the standard for practical theology. Embodying its own methodological callâto begin with the issues of the black church, as well as its resources and practicesâit does not rest content but returns immediately to the communities from which it emerged. Black Practical Theology is a gift to both teacher and student.

Profound reflection on lament and hope arising out of Africa's immense suffering. There is no more urgent theological task than to provide an account of hope in Africa, given its endless cycles of violence, war, poverty, and displacement. So claims Emmanuel Katongole, a recognised, innovative theological voice from Africa. In the midst of suffering, Katongole says, hope takes the form of "arguing" and "wrestling" with God. Such lament is not merely a cry of pain--it is a way of mourning, protesting, and appealing to God. As he unpacks the rich theological and social dimensions of the practice of lament in Africa, Katongole tells the stories of courageous Christian activists working for change in East Africa and invites readers to enter into lament along with them.

Pastoral theologians from Congo, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe address, in this book, the issues of leadership, Ubuntu (community), gender-based violence, political violence, healing, and deliverance faced by pastors and ministers in African contexts today. Drawing on biblical, theological, social scientific, and cultural contextual perspectives, these African Christians offer much needed insights to assist in the care and counseling of persons towards healing, health, and well-being.

Since its first formulation in the mid-1950s, modern African theology has contributed a richness of insights to western understandings of Christianity. Paths of African Theology presents original essays by many of Africa's best-known theologians, who explore in depth their areas of concentration and the roads they have pursued. Included are both Catholic and Protestant theologians from east, west, and south. Also included is an annotated bibliography of resources on African theology, indicating their specific relevance and theological orientation.

This volume foregrounds biblical interpretation within the African history of colonial contact, from North Atlantic slavery to the current era of globalization. It reads from the prolonged struggle for justice and of hybrid identities from multifaceted contexts, where the Bible coexists with African Indigenous Religions, Islam, and other religions. Showcasing the dynamic and creative approaches of an emerging and thriving community of biblical scholarship from the African continent and African diaspora, the volume critically examines the interaction of biblical texts with African people and their cultures within a postcolonial framework. While employing feminist/womanist, postcolonial, Afrocentric, social engagement, creative writing, reconstruction, and HIV/AIDS perspectives, the authors all engage with empire in their own ways: in specific times, forms, and geography. This volume is an important addition to postcolonial and empires studies in biblical scholarship. Book jacket.

Emmauel Katongole is a Catholic priest from Uganda, born in 1960, who lived through the reign of Idi Amin and has seen the postcolonial struggles of his home country and its sub-Saharan neighbors -- Rwanda, the Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and others -- up close and personal. Looking at this region, ravaged by war, corruption, terror, genocide, and disease, Katongole wonders at length what difference Christianity makes -- or could make -- in numerous African nation-states. The Sacrifice of Africa argues that in the face of Africa’s social, political, and economic turmoil, a new future truly is possible, and displays how such a new future, inspired by Christian faith, looks.