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After almost a millennium and a half, scholars are rediscovering the theological roots of Christianity in ancient North Africa! But we still have a long way to go in bringing these insights to the Church's consciousness. What has been needed is a careful but accessible analysis of what the great theologians of the region prior to and contemporary with Augustine actually taught about the faith, and why what they said still matters today. African Christian Mothers and Fathers is precisely the book we have needed, an explanation of the theology of these great, though in some cases forgotten, early church leaders for scholars, seminarians, pastors, and laity. Mark Ellingsen, author of an acclaimed book on the thought and life of Augustine, takes readers on an insightful tour of the theological landscape of North Africa and its thought from the late first through the early fifth centuries, and brings us back to the present enriched with ancient but fresh ideas for living the faith. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }
Timeless and contemplative sayings from the earliest Christian sages of desert spirituality can be a companion on your own spiritual journey. The desert fathers and mothers were ordinary Christians living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Arabia who chose to renounce the world in order to deliberately and individually follow God's call. They embraced lives of celibacy, labor, fasting, prayer and poverty, believing that denouncing material goods and practicing stoic self-discipline would lead to unity with the Divine. Their spiritual practice formed the basis of Western monasticism and greatly influenced both Western and Eastern Christianity. Their writings, first recorded in the fourth century, consist of spiritual advice, parables and anecdotes emphasizing the primacy of love and the purity of heart. Focusing on key themes of charity, fortitude, lust, patience, prayer and self-control, the Sayings influenced the rule of St. Benedict and have inspired centuries of opera, poetry and art. This probing and personal SkyLight Illuminations edition opens up their wisdom for readers with no previous knowledge of Western monasticism and early Christianity. It provides insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that describes historical background, explains the practice of asceticism and illustrates how you can use their wisdom to energize your spiritual quest.
“What must I do to be saved?” That question, raised in the book of Acts by the Philippian jailer, is a question for the ages. Yet what, even, does it mean to be saved? Is salvation for this life or the next? Is it purely spiritual or does it have physical and material implications? Can salvation be lost? Do we determine who will be saved or does God? What role does Christ play in salvation? Such are the seemingly unending questions soteriology strives to answer. In this eighth volume from the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology, African theologians articulate their understanding of salvation – and its widespread implications for life and practice – in conversation with Scripture and the rich diversity of an African cultural context. Salvation is examined from historical, philosophical, and theological lenses, and scholars address topics as wide-ranging as conversion, ethnicity, fertility, poverty, prosperity, the Trinity, exclusivism, African Pentecostalism, rural community, eschatology, wholeness, and atonement. It is a powerful exploration of the holistic nature of salvation as articulated in Scripture and understood by the African church.
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.
We often regard the author of the Gospel of Mark as an obscure figure about whom we know little. Many would be surprised to learn how much fuller a picture of Mark exists within widespread African tradition, tradition that holds that Mark himself was from North Africa, that he founded the church in Alexandria, that he was an eyewitness to the Last Supper and Pentecost, that he was related not only to Barnabas but to Peter as well and accompanied him on many of his travels. In this provocative reassessment of early church tradition, Thomas C. Oden begins with the palette of New Testament evidence and adds to it the range of colors from traditional African sources, including synaxaries (compilations of short biographies of saints to be read on feast days), archaeological sites, non-Western historical documents and ancient churches. The result is a fresh and illuminating portrait of Mark, one that is deeply rooted in African memory and seldom viewed appreciatively in the West.
This book is an interdisciplinary theological exploration of Haile Gerima's cinema, an Ethiopian filmmaker and storyteller who successfully translated African folkloric orality and wove other indigenous art forms into the language of cinema. Gerima's five decades legacy of Pan-African cinema embodies 'symbolic resistance' against Afro-pessimistic and stereotypical mis/disrepresentations, both manifestations of neo-colonialism. In response, he uses "camera as a weapon" to resist exotic otherness and alienation invented by conventional cinema. Through an alternative moving pictures, he depicted dignified images of Africa towards decolonising cinema and liberating the mind. His memory-films achieves archiving the stories of the people of African descent. Gerima, who stands in par with great African film griots such as Ousmane Sembène - 'the father of African cinema' and Med Hondo, deserves further interdisciplinary reflections. Gerima's 'Triangular cinema' and 'imperfect cinema' are inspired from indigenous values and cultural products such as holy icons and fireplace stories. His works foster asserting identity of the self, maintaining the right to difference and embracing ubuntu-like human personhood. They are essential acts in the 21st century. Like theology, cinema alters a way of life - human experiences, imaginations, and narrative identity. This book engages with the works and thoughts of Gerima towards re-imaging Africa through cinematic narratives in being and becoming an African.
This book is the first work in the English language to discuss the participation of women writers in the narrative construction of Mozambican nationhood over the last half-century. Covering the rise of anti-colonial nationalism in the 1950s, the advent of the Marxist-Leninist Republic in the 1970s, the war that followed independence in the 1980s, and the transition to democracy and the neo-liberal economy in the 1990s, the volume focuses on four representative women writers who belong to distinct but overlapping periods and work in different genres. Dealing with Noemia de Sousa's poetry, Lina Magaia's testimonial writings, Lilia Momple's short fiction, and Paulina Chiziane's novels, the result is a close reading of the ways in which women have narrated and counter-narrated Mozambican nationhood to take account of the gendered power relations that traditionally underpin national community as imagined by men.
"Will Jawando's account of mentorship, service, and healing lays waste to the racist stereotype of the absent Black father. By arguing that Black fathers are not just found in individual families, but are indeed the treasure of entire Black communities, Will makes the case for a bold idea: that Black men can counter racist ideas and policies by virtue of their presence in the lives of Black boys and young men. This is a story we need to hear." —Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times–bestselling author of How to be an Antiracist Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. As a boy growing up outside DC, Will, who went by his Nigerian name, Yemi, was shunted from school to school, never quite fitting in. He was a Black kid with a divorced white mother, a frayed relationship with his biological father, and teachers who scolded him for being disruptive in class and on the playground. Eventually, he became close to Kalfani, a kid he looked up to on the basketball court. Years after he got the call telling him that Kalfani was dead, another sickening casualty of gun violence, Will looks back on the relationships with an extraordinary series of mentors that enabled him to thrive. Among them were Mr. Williams, the rare Black male grade school teacher, who found a way to bolster Will’s self-esteem when he discovered he was being bullied; Jay Fletcher, the openly gay colleague of his mother who got him off junk food and took him to his first play; Mr. Holmes, the high school coach and chorus director who saw him through a crushing disappointment; Deen Sanwoola, the businessman who helped him bridge the gap between his American upbringing and his Nigerian heritage, eventually leading to a dramatic reconciliation with his biological father; and President Barack Obama, who made Will his associate director of public engagement at the White House—and who invited him to play basketball on more than one occasion. Without the influence of these men, Will knows he would not be who he is today: a civil rights and education policy attorney, a civic leader, a husband, and a father. Drawing on Will’s inspiring personal story and involvement in My Brother’s Keeper, President Obama’s national initiative to address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color, My Seven Black Fathers offers a transformative way for Black men to shape the next generation.
This book explores the church-centric interpretation of ancient biblical exegete Tyconius in his hermeneutical treatise Liber regularum, highlighting how his underlying ecclesiology shaped his hermeneutical enterprise
This book discusses gender injustice and justice in religious institutions and spiritual life. Fixed as a gender, God/Goddess leads those who have the same gender to subordinate anyone who differs. In this sense, the patriarchal and androcentric system has caused many religious women to lose their spiritual and faithful equality and identities in a church. This book details how Western Buddhist feminists find that, after recuperating women’s equivalent rights and identities, both religious men and women need to meditate to achieve the emptiness of gender ego—gender privilege and prejudice—which then leads to awakening and enlightenment from ignorance. To apply such skills in Christian theology, gender justice comes from spiritual equality and courage—awakening and repentance—in their contemplative and meditative lives. This book suggests that, for women’s spiritual and real liberation and happiness, both inner trainings and external social actions have to go together.