Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universiteat Meunchen, 2005.

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 thoughtful encounter with the published intellectual life of the continent. Reviews have been provided by a team of more than one hundred contributors drawn from throughout Africa and overseas. The books and other media selected for review represent a broad cross-section of interests and issues, of personalities and interpretations, including the secular as well as the religious. The collection will be of special interest to academic scholars, theological educators, libraries, ministry leaders, and specialist researchers in Africa and throughout the world, but will also engage any reader looking for a convenient resource relating to modern Africa and Christian presence there.

Christianity regards teaching as one of the most foundational and critically sustaining ministries of the Church. As a result, Christian education remains one of the largest and oldest continuously functioning educational systems in the world, comprising both formal day schools and higher education institutions as well as informal church study groups and parachurch ministries in more than 140 countries. In The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, contributors explore the many facets of Christian education in terms of its impact on curriculum, literacy, teacher training, outcomes, and professional standards. This encyclopedia is the first reference work devoted exclusively to chronicling the unique history of Christian education across the globe, illustrating how Christian educators pioneered such educational institutions and reforms as universal literacy, home schooling, Sunday schools, women’s education, graded schools, compulsory education of the deaf and blind, and kindergarten. With an editorial advisory board of more than 30 distinguished scholars and five consulting editors, TheEncyclopedia of Christian Education contains more than 1,200 entries by 400 contributors from 75 countries. These volumes covers a vast range of topics from Christian education: History spanning from the church’s founding through the Middle Ages to the modern day Denominational and institutional profiles Intellectual traditions in Christian education Biblical and theological frameworks, curricula, missions, adolescent and higher education, theological training, and Christian pedagogy Biographies of distinguished Christian educators This work is ideal for scholars of both the history of Christianity and education, as well as researchers and students of contemporary Christianity and modern religious education.

Love is something everybody needs and doesn’t know what it really means without knowing the love of God. For in Him only is there real love. And we can’t even begin to understand or fathom what love really means without Him. We look for it in all the wrong places. But we will never find it there. It’s not in mankind; it’s not in anything in this world the way we perceive it. Until we realize that it only comes from God, we will only find hurt and pain and misery. Believe me, I know, there are lots of Christians still looking for love in the wrong places. It’s sad to say. And we are being destroyed and don’t understand why. So, we think God has let us down and we blame Him for our depression, hurt, and pain. We wonder why the Lord doesn’t help us. But what we don’t realize is that God is helping us, even though we don’t know it. You see, the devil is fooling us. He is taking our focus off Jesus and putting it on people and things, so we can’t be all that God has for us to be. The failure is not in God, it’s in us. You may say, “I gave him or her all the love I had and he or she betrayed me. How could they do me like that?” But what we fail to realize is that God is our first love and we must receive His love and give Him our love first. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy.” And that is what he has been doing. But you don’t have to let him get away with it. Jesus came that we might have life and more abundantly. Otherwise, Jesus is life in every area of our lives if we let him. We need to ask Him to lead and guide us in all things. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, in all they ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path.” So the failure is not in God, it’s in us for not seeking God’s help. Believe me, I know; been there, done that. I gave all I had to give to the wrong men, yes, men. I say men because I kept trying to please them so they would love me. But it didn’t work. They betrayed me, jumped on me, and stepped on me like a floor mat that said “Welcome.” I know how it feels to be dogged out for love, or so-called love. It sucks! As we receive God’s love, then and only then will we know what love is really about. It’s not a fancy or fairy tale. God’s love is divine. He is not looking at your faults; He is looking at your needs. Man’s love, so-called love, that is, is cold, taking, and not wanting to give. They lie, they cheat, they take away our pride and self-esteem, they pull us down, and then they have the nerve to tell us it’s our fault that they treat us the way they do. The devil is a liar. The devil wants us to believe that we have to take all kinds of abuse; that is just the way it is. But the devil is a liar. We don’t need that kind of man, because you see, he’s not a real man anyway. He’s just something wearing a pair of pants. Remember, we can make it just us and God. God will bring us through. But we must learn to trust Him. I have been through hell and high waters. I’ve been a floor mat, a punching bag. I’ve been stressed out; I have even tried to take my life a few times when I was younger. But I thank God that He said, “You shall live and not die.” Satan was trying to take me out to stop me. Now I know what it is to be dogged out and kicked to the curb. I know how it feels to be turned inside out, not knowing if you are coming or going, not knowing what to do next. For some so-called love. As far as I am concerned, they can keep it. I don’t need it and neither do you. Why take less when we can have the best? God did not make woman to be a man’s floor mat. He made us to be his helpmate. But we can’t help someone if they don’t want to take it.

Doing theology Under the Palaver Tree, in honor of one of Africa’s foremost theologians, Elochukwu E. Uzukwu, is a momentous undertaking, which draws from the diverse African continent, her various peoples and rich natural resources. A down-to-earth God-talk that evokes the reign of God among us, the book is a theological treasure trove. The quality, depth, and range of the conversation partners in this volume represent a high-water mark of the best scholarship in Africa today on ecclesiology and the future of the African church and the world church. The authors, through dialoguing with multidisciplinary dimensions of theological thoughts, offer new language with which to engage foundational issues in theology, liturgical practices, communion and community, leadership and charism, the relationship between the local and universal church, and social engagement and cultural questions as well. In exploring the depth of this tome, with its methodological approaches in interpreting, understanding, and evaluating the changing faces of Christianity, scholars and theologians will be challenged to reflect on some of the most pressing current questions and issues facing the church in Africa and the world, in rebirthing the image of the people of God, and a synodal church under the iconic and symbolic African palaver tree.