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This book examines how social change affects the role of the pastor in an African context. Through field study in African churches, author Zawadi Job Kinyamagoha explores how pastors work amid the tensions of rapid social change and suggests how pastors can constructively respond to social change by using it as an opportunity in their pastoral ministry. Contemporary society is characterized by three cultural spheres: the economic sphere, the public sphere, and the democratic or self-governance rule, the realities of which many pastors seem to overlook. Church authorities seem to adhere rigidly to strict principles and rules without accommodating the realities of society. Conversely, a changing society demands that pastors work with the reality at hand, leaving pastors caught between two conflicting tensions: the pressure from church authorities and from a changing social reality. The Pastor in a Changing Society seeks to help Tanzanian and African pastors rethink existing doctrines and practices in order to better respond to the reality of a changing society.
By addressing gender equality as a fundamental expression of human dignity and justice on our continent, this collage of ? essays [by 14 women and 6 men], is meant to serve as a concrete alternative to aspects of gender inequality ? Its format is particularly devised for use in the classroom, and for critical-constructive group engagement. It is our sincere prayer that it will also be used in imaginative ways by clergy and in congregations as a necessary part of adult learning programmes.
Named one of the top religion books of 2002 by USA Today, Philip Jenkins's phenomenally successful The Next Christendom permanently changed the way people think about the future of Christianity. In that volume, Jenkins called the world's attention to the little noticed fact that Christianity's center of gravity was moving inexorably southward, to the point that Africa may soon be home to the world's largest Christian populations. Now, in this brilliant sequel, Jenkins takes a much closer look at Christianity in the global South, revealing what it is like, and what it means for the future.The faith of the South, Jenkins finds, is first and foremost a biblical faith. Indeed, in the global Sout...
This book can be summarized in one sentence: that culture plays a determinant role in the way people perceive, interpret, and, therefore, respond to reality around them--ideas, events, people, and literature, including sacred literature. Thus, when people encounter new reality they perceive and conceptualize it in accordance with their worldview, which is shaped by their culture that is modeled to suit various geographical locations. In order to understand why people around the world behave and act as they do--they choose certain words in what they say and do certain things rather than others--it is important to understand and appreciate this fact. Failure to do so would make it very difficu...
This reference collection presents academic reviews of more than twelve-hundred contemporary Africa-related publications relevant for informed Christian reflection in and about Africa. The collection is based on the review journal BookNotes for Africa, a specialist resource dedicated to bringing to notice such publications, and furnishing them with a one-paragraph description and evaluation. Now assembled here for the first time is the entire collection of reviews through the first thirty issues of the journal’s history. The core intention, both of the journal and of this compilation, is to encourage and to facilitate informed Christian reflection and engagement in Africa, through a though...
Biblical scholars often read the Bible with their own interpretive interests in mind, without associating the Bible with the concerns of laypeople. This largely undermines the contributions laypeople can offer from reading the Bible in their own contexts and from their own life experiences. Moreover, such exclusively scholarly reading conceals the role of biblical texts in dealing with current social problems, such as HIV/AIDS-related stigmatization. Hence, the lack of lay participation in the process of Bible reading makes the Bible less visible in various common life situations. In this volume Elia Shabani Mligo draws on his fieldwork among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Tanzania, ...