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ACTEA eNews #19 -- May 2004The mission of ACTEA is to promote quality evangelical theological education
in Africa by providing supporting services, facilitating academic recognition,
and fostering continental and inter-continental cooperation.
1. Church History Prof Seeks Sabbatical MinistryACTEA has received notice from Dr Graeme Chatfield that he will be on sabbatical from January-June 2005 and is offering his services for teaching at bachelors or post-graduate level some time during that period - preferably for a 6 week stint. Graeme currently teaches at Morling College in Australia. His expertise is Church History with a focus on the Radical Reformation. His PhD was on the topic of Anabaptists. There would be no cost to you in terms of his salary or international transport; your contribution would be provision of accommodation. If you think your school could effectively use Dr Chatfield's services, please contact him directly at: GraemeC@morling.edu.au 2. Introducing the French Evangelical Electronic LibraryFEEL, the French Evangelical Electronic Library, is a complete ministry toolbox for laymen, students, pastors, professors and missionaries in the French-speaking world, of which 18 million are African Christians. There has been inadequate development of Christian literature resources and distribution for the French language and the French church suffers greatly from it. FEEL is an initiative to create and distribute a comprehensive French Bible study library including fifty key reference books in electronic format for use within Bible research software. Where needed, FEEL will translate the best English reference works for the first time in French. Editions Clé (Key Publications), the French publishing ministry initiating FEEL, has recognised the urgent need for the creation of this French Evangelical Electronic Library and has the strong desire to see these resources made available to those who most need them. US$500,000 needs to be raised to fund the FEEL project. The total project cost is $600,000, with $100,000 contributed by Editions Clé. For additional information, visit the FEEL website at: www.editionscle.com/feel/ or contact FEEL at: greg@editionscle.com 3. Gift Books for African Theological LibrariesACTEA eNews is pleased to pass along the following announcement from the Evangelical Literature Trust to our readers. Many ACTEA-related school libraries have benefited greatly from the gift books which the Evangelical Literature Trust has made available each year. If you haven't taken advantage of this opportunity yet, you are especially urged to heed this announcement. The Evangelical Literature Trust has now formally become part of the Langham Partnership International and our new 2004/5 Grant Catalogue is now available. We shall be sending copies, along with other special offers, to all institutions already on our mailing list. The catalogue can also be found on our web site. Please look out for your copy arriving. If you are the librarian for a African theological institution and wish to learn more, visit our website at: www.langhampartnership.org and look under Langham Literature contact Tina Lowe, Langham Literature Administrator, at: tina@langhampartnership.org 4. Hokma House: Centre for Biblical Research and PreachingHokma House announces its one-day Project Awareness Seminar and Workshop. Hokma House, as a Christian private centre for biblical research and preaching, seeks to promote constructive research into all dimensions of the Bible, and its faithful exposition, through a critical engagement with the Bible, theology and culture, and thereby equip the corporate church and individual Christians for holistic ministry and discipleship. The seminar and workshop programme includes:
The seminar and workshop will be held on Tuesday, 25 May, beginning at 9:00am, at the Cultural Centre, Abuja, Nigeria. Registration is limited, on-site, and free. Invited are: Biblical scholars and lecturers, graduate students in Biblical/religious studies and pastoral ministry courses, ministers of the Word and Christian leaders, and Christian individuals interested in serious Biblical study. For further inquiries, contact the Project Director, Randee I-Morphé at: hokmahouse@yahoo.co.uk 5. Keeping up with Africa--Reviews of Recent BooksChristianity and the African Imagination: Essays in Honour of Adrian Hastings. Edited by David Maxwell and Ingrid Lawrie. Leiden: Brill, 2002. 436 pp, hb, $87. This collection of ten essays honours Adrian Hastings, late professor for theology and religious studies at the University of Leeds, UK, and well-known as an authority on the history of African Christianity. Hastings served as a Catholic priest in Uganda from 1958 to 1965, and later also in Zimbabwe. From 1976 onward he maintained an academic career in the UK. The principal editor of this volume is Hastings' successor as editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa. Assisting him was Hastings' secretary for over fifteen years, who is now writing a biography of Hastings. Hastings focused his historical and theological studies of the church in Africa on "popular Christianity", which he felt was more important then ecclesial structures and policies. These essays in his honour also want to chart the role of Africans in the advance of Christianity on the continent, complementing descriptions which have centred more on the perspective and activities of missionaries. The individual essays open windows into specific aspects of African church history, and are mostly by senior specialists. Thus R. Gray describes the role of the Kongo ambassadors to the Pope in the 16th century, which eventually led to a direct link between Kongo and Rome, thus by-passing the Portuguese. A. Walls highlights the engagement of Samuel Crowther with Muslim rulers in Nigeria, as he sought common ground in order to reach the Islamised peasantry with the Gospel. J. Waliggo shows the important role of African chiefs as catechists in the history of the Catholic Church in Uganda. T. Ranger discusses the role of three leading African Christians in Zimbabwe in the 1930s, who in the wake of the earliest missionaries sparked new mass movements with the Catholic, Anglican and Methodist churches. One essay treats the history of Kikuyu Christianity from 1900 to 1980; another does the same for a district in southern Malawi; and a third presents the history of the Zimbabwean Assemblies of God Africa under its charismatic leader Ezekiel Guti. One essay portrays the Anglican Archbishop Jamani Luwum, who died as martyr under Idi Amin in Uganda; another considers Vincent Damuah of Ghana, who started off as a Catholic priest but then founded a movement in 1982 to revive and reform African Traditional Religion as an alternative to Christianity and Islam; and a third essays treats Wole Soyinka's book Ìsarà, and demonstrates the Christian roots of the modern Nigerian nationalism there promoted. Also included are an academic-literary biography of Hastings (1922-2001) and an exhaustive 40-page bibliography of his writings. The individual essays are quite specific and detailed, as good church history should be. Common ground for all writers is a concern for the real history of African Christianity (as opposed to theories how it should have been). The contributions of this volume are of a high calibre. Any advanced researcher in African Christianity will need to be familiar with them, and individual articles will also now be fundamental for serious study of the specific region or topic that they cover. [Review supplied by "BookNotes for Africa", a twice yearly specialist journal that offers 40+ such reviews per issue on recent Africa-related publications relevant for theological educators and libraries in Africa and overseas. The subscription rate within Africa is $8 for two years (4 issues--airmail); $12 to overseas addresses. Send inquiries and orders to: BookNotes for Africa, PO Box 250100, Ndola, Zambia, email: Stuebing@zamtel.zm ] "This journal is readable, affordable and essential for effective Christian awareness in the African continent." Dr Scott Moreau, Editor of Evangelical Missions Quarterly ACTEA eNews is an e-mail forum for the periodic exchange of news, information, and resources on behalf of the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), ACTEA-related institutions and theological programmes, supporting organisations, and interested individuals. Please forward this message to others who might benefit from ACTEA eNews. Potential contributions to ACTEA eNews are welcome and may be sent to the editor at sbcunn@hisen.org. If you would prefer not to receive future editions of ACTEA eNews, you may unsubscribe by replying to this e-mail message, with "unsubscribe" in the subject area. If you received a forwarded copy of this message and would like to subscribe, contact ACTEA eNews at sbcunn@hisen.org stating preferred language (French or English). ACTEA is an agency of the Theological and Christian Education Commission of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa.
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