African Theological Journal for Church and Society

Rethinking the Debates on the Theological Implications of the Biological Theory of Human Evolution on the Creation of Adam

Stephen Hosea Vongdip — 2024-11-05

The subject of the creation of Adam raises a seeming contention between Christian evolutionists and Christian antievolutionists, and this is evident in many ways including in the Scopes Trial of 1925 in Tennessee, USA. This discussion is important because it contributes to bringing all Christians together to a meeting point despite their diverse views on the subject. It also dismisses the notion that science is in conflict with the Christian faith. Using literary research methods to explore this subject, the researcher took into cognisance both scientific and theological approaches to the evolutionary origin of humans and to the creation account of Adam. The research finding shows that many researchers who have interest in the subject have not reached a conclusion on whether the Bible is in fierce or mild contestation with the views that Adam was created or evolved. The writer of this paper proposes that the author of Genesis had an intention when writing the creation story. He recommends that the original intention of the author should be taken into cognisance when reading about the creation of Adam.

Eramatare

Joshua Robert Barron — 2024-11-05

While climate change is not a ‘settled science’ (it is not the nature of scientific inquiry to be ‘settled’), the fact of climate change is incontrovertibly obvious and its real effects on real communities (perhaps especially in the majority world) are devastating, including in East Africa. For Christians, environmental stewardship (also known as ‘Creation Care’ or ‘Earth Keeping’) should be an automatic part of Christian ethos and praxis. Failure to steward the earth or to ‘care for creation’ represents both a failure to keep the second ‘greatest commandment’ and also theological irresponsibility. Examining local evidence in East Africa in the contexts of biblical theology, Christian witness, and Maasai indigenous knowledge, this paper proposes approaches for Creation Care for world Christianity. In keeping with the author’s positionality amidst African orality, the article attempts to maintain the styles of oral communication.

Reading Luke 22:14–23 in an Ethiopian Context

Tarekegn A. Chamisso — 2024-11-06

A contextual reading of biblical texts is crucial because it makes the theological message of the Bible relevant to its readers/hearers. This article is written on the basis that an Ethiopian meal context illuminates a better understanding of the Lucan Lord’s Supper text. The meaning of the fellowship that Jesus maintains in instituting the Lord’s Supper becomes better understood when seen in the context of dining together. It was in the context of the Passover Festival and his impending crucifixion that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. The unity of the Twelve with each other and with Triune God (i.e., both a horizontal and vertical fellowship) is established by sharing from the same bread and cup. Jesus gave his body and blood, represented by the bread and cup, and enacted a close affinity. The article employs a tri-polar theory to discuss this text in an Ethiopian meal context.

A Template for a Soul-Winner and Soul-Winning Sermon from Apostle Peter’s Life and Preaching in Acts 2:14-41

Favour Ogundiran — 2024-11-06

One of the primary purposes of preaching is soul-winning. This paper examines Apostle Peter’s life and preaching on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, where at least three thousand souls were won and added to the Church. Consequently, a template is developed from Peter for a soul-winner and soul-winning sermon. This template involves the preacher’s personal life and the preacher’s sermon. Beyond the initial crowd’s bewilderment at hearing the disciples speaking in their various languages was the response of three thousand men to Peter’s preaching. When the people heard his sermon, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ To win souls, every preacher needs the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to elicit the audience’s response to the invitation to salvation. Response to the invitation is evidence of a soul-winning sermon.

We are commanded to love; How?

Robin Smaill — 2024-11-06

There are many issues that we are dealing with as a society today which are the same across the globe. Many such as poverty, lack of education, poor behaviour, and violence are a direct result of generational trauma that is passed on. As a society and governments, we often assess our social problems in monetary terms or through addressing physical needs. We address these problems with short-term solutions that do not address the root cause underlying why people find themselves in these situations. The pillars that society is founded on are trust, cooperation, and working together. These qualities stem directly from caring for one another as a society or – putting it another way – love for each other. For many years generational and inherited trauma has been passed down and, as a society, we have developed coping mechanisms to deal with our issues without actually working through our trauma, perpetuating the cycle. As a society, we opt to throw money at problems instead of putting in the hard work to fix our broken societal contracts. This article will examine case studies of systemic policies re-entrenching the same behaviours and how policies based around providing people with the tools to communicate and learn to love one another will go a long way to healing the structural deficiencies found in the current social structure.

Unwed Mothers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania

Mussa Kilengi — 2024-11-06

This article examines the intersection of societal realities, religious convictions, and pastoral care within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), focusing on unwed mothers. The article, rooted in John 8:1-11 which depicts Jesus’ encounter with the adulterous woman, aims to address the unique challenges faced by unwed mothers within the ELCT. It employs a multidisciplinary approach, including biblical exegesis, pastoral theology, and sociocultural analysis, to explore these complexities and highlight the compassionate aspects of Jesus’ response. The objectives are to examine societal and cultural influences impacting unwed mothers, analyse current pastoral practices within the ELCT, and propose a pastoral care framework that integrates biblical principles with cultural sensitivity. Ultimately, the article seeks to promote an inclusive and compassionate pastoral framework within the ELCT, enhancing the well-being of unwed mothers in the church community.

Christian Missions and Slavery

Jaap van Slageren — 2024-11-06

While considerable research is available on the transatlantic slave trade and the cruelty suffered by African slaves in the Americas, less attention is given to the practices of slavery and forced labour in Africa. This article tells the story of slavery and forced labour in Cameroon. Douala kings kept slaves in slave villages and used their blood to sprinkle the grave of a deceased Douala prince. The German colonial government used Africans as forced labour to cultivate private plantations. The French government also coerced local Africans to produce food for the the troops fighting Nazism. The Christian missionaries and missions played a mixed role in countering and sustaining these power relations.

Appropriating John Stott’s Holy-Worldliness Concept to Deficiencies in the Political Curriculum of Christianity in Africa

Gentleman Dogara — 2024-11-06

This study applies John Stott’s concept of ‘holy-worldliness’ to God’s call upon Christians from the world, and his sending them out to be immersed in the affairs of the world as Christ’s ambassadors, by localising Christ’s political curriculum to Africa. Accordingly, the study engages examples generated from Nigeria. Two research questions guided this study. Question 1: what are the basic elements of John Stott’s concept of holy-worldliness, in the context of the political curriculum of Christianity in Africa? Question 2: how can deliberating on the deficiencies in the political curriculum of Christianity in Africa, as currently formulated, be facilitated by an understanding of John’s Stott’s concept of holy-worldliness, towards reformulating the curriculum in question, using examples from Nigeria? The study concludes by calling on Christians in Africa to start thinking of crafting a ‘Christian Political Agenda for Africa’, as the Christian political version of the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want (2013).

Law, Religion, Culture and Slay Queens

Dorcas Chebet Juma — 2024-11-06

Some Old Testament texts suggest that a man’s principal heirs were the sons from ‘legitimate’ wife/wives (Genesis 15:4, Deuteronomy 25:5-10, Judges 11:2, 1Kgs 21:3, and Ruth 4). Yet in Numbers 27:1-11 and the book of Ruth, one encounters the voices and actions of daughters and women who challenged the status quo on matters inheritance. Just like the Jewish religion in the Old Testament, in patriarchal, societies like Kenya, religious beliefs and negative cultural ideologies highly inform matters law and inheritance in ways that are disadvantaging to women and girls. In the African traditional society, polygamy and mistresses here referred to as slay-queens in the Kenyan contemporary street language netted together the family institution. The wives and ‘slay-queens’ indirectly benefit from property inheritance through the children. The Kenyan law of Succession (Amendment) Bill 2019, which is the primal law on inheritance, was reviewed for three years to lock out “illegitimate” children and slay-queens from inheriting the property of a deceased person. In a Kenyan context where women have no say over matters property inheritance and are seen as a man’s property; the bill fails to deliver an equitable approach. From a Post-Colonial and an Afro-Feminist approach, it is proposed that there is need to critique the Kenyan Law of Succession (Amendment) Bill 2019, challenge female experts in law to steer dignity conversations targeting a complete overhaul of all the discriminatory sections, interrogate religious and cultural foundations on which patriarchy finds ways of legalizing the discrimination of women and girls.

Silencing the Guns, Illusion or Reality? Why a Biblical Theology of Violence Matters

Samuel Mwangi — 2024-11-06

It is almost as if violence and the African continent are synonymous terms. Furthermore, many researchers have studied the issue of violence in the African continent. Recent studies propose that the causes of violence in Africa are multifaceted, and most of their focus is on the external causes. Such views present people only as victims of circumstances, and that which leads them towards violence is always external. This paper, however, through employing a qualitative research methodology based primarily on literature review, shows that having a proper biblical theology of violence in Africa does not place humans primarily as victims but inherently as the chief perpetrators of violence because of their fundamentally flawed human nature; further, that the issue of violence is primarily a moral issue. Thus, the question whether the African Union’s quest of ‘silencing the guns’ remains an illusion or reality shows that it remains an illusion when the real problem is not addressed.

Review of 'Spectacular Atonement: Envisioning the Cross of Christ in an African Perspective'

Francis Omondi — 2024-11-06

Review of 'Preaching Well: Avoiding Common Pulpit Errors'

Joshua Adebayo Adesina — 2024-11-06

Review of 'Investigations on the "Entangled History" of Colonialism and Mission in a New Perspective: 20. Ludwig-Harms-Symposium 28. – 29. 5. 2021 in Hermannsburg'

Jörg Zehelein — 2024-11-06

Review of 'Teaching and Learning Across Cultures: A Guide to Theory and Practice'

Ryan Faber — 2024-11-06

African Theological Journal for Church and Society

NetACT Staff — 2024-11-06

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