We often hear these days that the centre of Christianity is moving toward the Global South and Africa is a key player in that movement. This makes the study of African Christianity and African realities important – even more so when it is being done by Africans themselves in their own context. The Africa Society of Evangelical Theology (ASET) was created to encourage research and sustained theological reflection on key issues facing Africa by and for African Christians and those working within African contexts. The volumes in the ASET series constitute the best papers presented at the annual conferences of ASET and together they seek to fill this important gap in the literature of Christianity. Africa is all too familiar with suffering. Yet there is a dearth of sustained theological reflection on suffering by Africans, or for Africans. Christianity and Suffering: African Perspectives addresses this need and is the fruit of the 5th Annual Conference of the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology. The contributions address age-old issues like why God does not prevent or relieve human suffering; they wrestle with causes of suffering including witchcraft, poverty, curses, and war; and they also explore appropriate Christian responses to suffering, all from within the African context. The Africa Society of Evangelical Theology (ASET) is a professional society, founded in 2009 for the purpose of fostering evangelical theological scholarship and to facilitate collegial relationships among scholars and practitioners of the Christian religion in Africa. Its core values are: (1) Faithfulness to the Bible, (2) Professional ethics, (3) Creative and critical thinking, (4) Christ-like humility, (5) Community of scholars encouraging, respecting, and learning from one another, and (6) Development and inspiration of young scholars. To learn more about ASET, please visit its Facebook page: facebook.com/AfricaSocietyOfEvangelicalTheology

Thomas C. Oden surveys the decisive role of African Christians and theologians in shaping the doctrines and practices of the church of the first five centuries, and makes an impassioned plea for the rediscovery of that heritage. Christians throughout the world will benefit from this reclaiming of an important heritage.

Human beings are complex. For all our contemporary knowledge and ability, however wonderful and widely available, people around the world face a crisis of human identity that calls into question the meaning of existence and the basis of moral behaviour. Responding to these challenges, Joe Kapolyo recognizes both the authority of the Bible, which teaches that people are created in the image of God but also corrupted by rebellion and sin, and the relevance of distinctly African perspectives on what it means to be human. Although he reads these perspectives critically, they lead him to reaffirm the biblical vision of redeemed human life in community in Christ. This vision offers a solution to the crisis of identity experienced by people who have forgotten who they are - and whose they are.