ATW News

Part of the work we do at African Theology Worldwide is to provide the scholarly community with sample teaching and learning materials on a wide variety of themes related to African Christian Theology. In our recently published “Local Theologies on the World Wide Web: Learning Exercises”, we provide learning exercises which are intended to be used alongside our article “Local Theologies on the World Wide Web: Various Uses of the Internet for the Study of Theology in Africa.” We believe that while there are lots of freely available, peer-reviewed and academic journals online, such materials are still outside the research scope of professors, researchers and students of African Theology.

The Centre for Theology and Christianity Worldwide (CTCW) was recently launched at the Protestant Theological University, Groningen/Amsterdam, Netherlands. It exists as an academic centre that offer courses, seminars, conferences and webinars that interface the broad themes related to global expressions of theology and Christianity worldwide. To do so, CTCW presently work on the following three thematic areas: (i) Migration, Mission and Theology in Contemporary Europe; (ii) Science and Religion in Intercultural Perspective; and (iii) Pentecostal Theology Worldwide. Potential students who would like to pursue PhD’s in these or related themes are encouraged to contact the centre for guidance in the admission procedures at the university.

Whereas Africa is an incredibly diverse continent with a fine embroidery of cultures and ethnicities, the theme of sacrifice is often one on which Africans tend to find common ground. The major faiths and religious traditions across the African continent have offered deep reflections grounded in their holy books and sacred traditions about the role of sacrifice in their belief systems and practices. For this reason, Christianity’s emphasis on the finality and sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice for human salvation has been used as a means of engaging the peoples of Africa with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In other to diversify our growing collection of bibliographic resources, ATW is happy to announce the addition of a new category of bibliographies to the Collaborative Bibliography of African Theology. We specifically want to highlight the work of influential African theologians and point to their freely available online resources. We have just completed assembling bibliographies concerning the works of Kwame Bediako, Musa Dube and Tite Tiénou. We would like to point our users to the fact that there are quite a lot of free resources included in these bibliographies: for Kwame Bediako, there are 39 items freely available, for Musa Dube, 47 items, and for Tite Tiénou, 27 items. 

The Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary (OMSC@PTS), invites proposals for two two-year “Lamin Sanneh Research Grants” for the 2021–2023. These grants honor the late Yale Professor who pioneered the field of World Christianity and served as an OMSC Trustee and IBMR Contributing Editor.

Background and Need

There is no denying that the global Covid-19 pandemic has not only obstructed social contact among people, the crisis has undoubtedly impacted the nature and conduct of teaching and academic research at universities and theological institutes around Africa. Whereas the use of online resources was slowly edging its way into the mainstream research, teaching and learning activities of academics at African universities, there are many resources waiting to be discovered. Amid this critical health crisis, the ATW team provides a series of webinars intended to introduce professors, researchers and students from African universities and theological institutions to the wide range of materials on the internet and discusses how to use them most appropriately in teaching and research. The African Theology Worldwide website was set up to address this critical need and provide training to professors, researchers and graduate students of African Theology. We will offer two webinars in June 2021. Each webinar is intended for a select group of academics, researchers and students.

Established in 2016, Impact: Journal of Transformation is a multidisciplinary international, peer reviewed journal published in English by the Institute for the Study of African Realities (ISAR), at Africa International University, Nairobi, Kenya. It is a scholarly journal that publishes cutting edge research and offers scholarly opinions in the theological, Business, Humanities and Social Sciences that benefit the African community. Published twice a year (February and September), the journal addresses issues that intersect the African conditions of religion, politics, economics and society in a more holistic manner.

In May 2021, Langham Partnership formally welcomed its new International Director, Rev. Tayo Arikawe. The commissioning ceremony held on the 6th May, saw the global Langham family from around the world tuning in to welcome him. Hosted by Jill McGilvray, the Chair of the Langham Partnership International Council, and Christopher Wright, Global Ambassador and Ministry Director of Langham, Tayo was joined by his family, as well as a good friend and former colleague, Rev. Moses Onwuibiko, who led the prayer for the commissioning.

The Centre for Primal and Christian Spirituality at Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission & Culture, Ghana is organizing a two-day conference which explores the intersection of Theology and the Arts. African Christian thought forms are often expressed in artistic beauty.

The question of Africa’s religiosity along with the entry of secularization in African public sphere continues to generate heated debates among researchers in various disciplines. Rarely however is this question explored specifically in relation to the discipleship models adopted by the African church. In a recently published book coedited by Benno van den Toren, Joseph Bosco Bangura and Richard E. Seed, Is Africa Incurably Religious? Secularization and Discipleship in Africa, this question is explored.