"Rethinking Biblical Studies in Africa is a product of the groaning in the heart of Prof. Danny McCain over the years to raise mature Christian leaders in Africa. This book defines his work and zeal on the African continent in terms of mentoring many scholars on the African continent in the areas of biblical studies and theological education. The contributors were collected from different church affiliations; Roman Catholics, Protestants and Pentecostals. The contributors have been students or friends of Prof. McCain over the years. Rethinking Biblical Studies in Africa comprises 15 chapters in honour of Prof. McCain for his selHess service in Nigeria and Africa for the past 30 years (1988 to present). It is a replication of thoughts emphasized by Prof. McCain over the years and the way forward in Biblical studies here on the African continent."--back cover.

Although the arrival of the Bible in Africa has often been a tale of terror, the Bible has become an African book. This volume explores the many ways in which Africans have made the Bible their own. The essays in this book offer a glimpse of the rich resources that constitute Africa's engagement with the Bible. Among the topics are: the historical development of biblical interpretation in Africa, the relationship between African biblical scholarship and scholarship in the West, African resources for reading the Bible, the history and role of vernacular translation in particular African contexts, the ambiguity of the Bible in Africa, the power of the Bible as text and symbol, and the intersections between class, race, gender, and culture in African biblical interpretation. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of African biblical scholarship. In fact, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of African biblical scholarship available in print. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

Follownig an introduction that charts the growth and development of African theology, Parratt examines the differing theological assumptions and methodologies throughout the continent. He also shows how Africans are rethinking the central dogmas of the Christian faith - Scripture, God, christology, the church, and eschatology - and evaluates Africa's political theologies, giving special attention to theological approaches to African socialism and to South African black theology.

Ghanaian theologian Kwame Bediako presses all Christians to question their own theological commitments. He does so by rethinking Christian identity in light of cultural identity and the shortcomings of colonialism. Bediako's quest to be both African and Christian informs what it means to be Christian in a secularized Europe and North America. Far more than just chronological and biographical, Tim Hartman's analysis of the arc of Bediako's theology demonstrates that Bediako's vision of Christianity as a non-Western religion allows it to serve as a resource for World Christianity amid the exponential growth of Christianity in the Global South. Hartman points to how Bediako sidesteps the influence of Western thought by rooting African Christianity in a twin heritage of pre-Christendom patristic theology and precolonial traditional religious practices of Africa. Bediako expands the canon of theological resources available for Christians by eliminating the distinction between gospel and culture. Since there is no such thing as a pure theology for Bediako, culture itself becomes a source of divine revelation through the incarnation. Hartman's study of Bediako helpfully corrects inaccurate portrayals of African Christianity. The growth of African Christianity should not be feared, nor mischaracterized as narrow-minded or too conservative. Bediako asserts a polycentric understanding of the Christian faith based in grassroots theologies and the beliefs of actual Christians. While Bediako agrees that Christianity in Africa (and the Global South) is the future of the Christian faith, he rejects assumptions that the Christian faith needs to be yoked to political power. Instead, Bediako offers an alternative understanding of politics based on democracy and nondominating power. Both Bediako and the book offer a way forward in thinking about questions of religious pluralism. African Christianity has never known cultural hegemony as African Christians have always lived with Islam and African traditional religions. Bediako offers a theology of "Jesus is Lord" while appreciating the integrity of Islam and traditional African religions. In the end, the book presents an African Christian theologian who values--and does not simply reject--African traditional religions. Bediako believed that traditional African religions, far from being demonic, served as evangelical preparation for the Christian faith and as the substructure of African Christianity, and that African religious imagination was the foundation for the Christian faith worldwide. As Hartman shows, the more distinctively African Bediako's Christianity became, the more suited that theology became for the world.

This study introduces the nature, history, and interventions of two theoretical-political cultural productions that formally emerged in U.S. educational institutions in the late 1960s as a part of the Black Freedom movement: Black/Africana studies and Black/Africana biblical studies..

The Bible : a history of interpretation and methods /Johanna Stiebert --An overview of the Old Testament /Lovemore Togarasei --Major theological themes in the Old Testament /Masego Kanis and Lovemore Togarasei --A survey of the New Testament /Lovemore Togarasei --Major themes in the New Testament /Tlali Lerotholi --Religion, race, gender, and identity /Musa Dube --Reading and understanding the Bible as an African /James N. Amanze --Introduction to Christian theology : its tasks and methods /James N. Amanze --African theology : a contextual analysis of Zimbabwe /Tabona Shoko --The role of liberation theology in the post-independent Africa and the world in the 21st century /Moji Africa Ruele --Major themes in Black theology /Francis C.L. Rakotsoane --What's in a name? : forging a theoretical framework for African women's theologies /Isabel Apawo Phiri and Sarojini Nadar --The theology of the African Independent Churches in Southern Africa : the case of Botswana /Obed N. Kealotswe --Introduction to religious studies /Francis C.L. Rakotsoane --Phenomenology of religion /Ezra Chitando --African Traditional Religion in contemporary Africa : challenges and prospects /James N. Amanze --Christianity in Africa in the 21st century /Fidelis Nkomanzana --Africa's Muslims : expressing their religious identity /Muhammed Haron --Hinduism and Buddhism : an introduction /Garth Mason --A general introduction to philosophy : its tasks and methods /T.A. Chimuka --Logic, critical thinking, and science /I.B. Ikpe --Introduction to epistemology /Louis M. Manyeli --African philosophy /John Ayotunde Bewaji --Moral theories /Simon Mawondo -- Applied ethics /Joseph B.R. Gaie --Philosophical metaphysics in Africa /Kipton Jensen.