African Voices in Contemporary and Historical Theology

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue which will acknowledge the often marginalized African contributions to Christian theology, from its emergence to the present day.

This Special Issue aims to redress the balance. The role of African writers and thinkers in theology needs to be recognised both historically and in contemporary theology. Thomas C. Oden’s How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind (Downers Grove, Il: IVP, 2007) offered a wake-up call to the recovery of such historial contributions, noting the significance of thinkers from both Alexandria and other North African contexts in the patristic period.

In the contemporary period, inequalities in the global structuring of theology, such as access to resources, international conferences, consultations, and publishing opportunities, contribute to what Knut Holter, talking of his own discipline of Old Testament Studies, once identified as an “uneven playing field”, in which African scholarship is effectively playing upfield and into the wind. More insiduously, the subtle yet often unacknowledged dominance of Western intellectual matrices, even in matters as basic as the language of presentation, have turned the field into a mountain.

Yet, all theology is contextual, and there is no enduring reason that Northern and Western matrices should demand to set all the norms, or that non-Western theologians should be made to conform to them, especially as Western and Northern dominance usually results from later, politically, and morally dubious historical events in which, as Jon Sobrino, famously noted, “it has been possible for Christians, in the name of Christ, to ignore or even contradict fundamental principles that were preached and acted upon by Jesus of Nazareth” (Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach, trans. John Drury [Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002], xv). The history has not always been negative: the benefits and riches which accrue from the recognition of distinctive African contributions has always been recognised by some—even if not wholesale.

A single volume cannot change this history, but it can make a contribution to moving away from it.

The editors invite contributions across the theological disciplines that recognise distinctive African approaches, insights, and answers to questions which are pertinent to their own contexts, but also extend beyond them.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Biblical Studies;
• Systematic and Dogmatic Theology;
• Philosophy for Theology;

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words, summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring a proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Reference:

Ukachukwu Chris Manus, Intercultural Hermeneutics in Africa: Methods and Approaches. Nairobi: Acton, 2003.

John S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa. London: SPCK, 1970.

Martin Nkafu Mkenmkia, African Vitalogy: A Step Forward in African Thinking. Nairobi: Pualines Publications, 1999.

Thomas C. Oden, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind. Downers Grove, Il: IVP, 2007.

John Sobrino, Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach. Translated by John Drury. Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002.

John V. Taylor, Christian Presence amid Christian Religion. With an Introduction by Jesse N.K. Mugambi. Nairobi: Acton, 2001.

Gerald O. West and Musa Dube, The Bible in Africa: Transactions, Trajectories and Trends. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Dr. Fergus King
Dr. Alfred Sebahene
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• African theology
• contextual theology
• hermeneutics
• missiology
• biblical interpretation