Climate change and its global impact on all people, especially the marginalized communities, is widely recognized as the biggest crisis of our time. It is a context that invites all subjects and disciplines to bring their resources in diagnosing the problem and seeking the healing of the Earth. The African continent, especially its women, constitute the subalterns of global climate crisis. Can they speak? If they speak, can they be heard? Both the Earth and the Africa have been identified with the adjective “Mother.” This gender identity tells tales in patriarchal and imperial worlds that use the female gender to signal legitimation of oppression and exploitation. In this volume, African women theologians and their female-identifying colleagues, struggle with reading and interpreting religious texts in the context of environmental crisis that are threatening life on Earth. The chapters interrogate how biblical texts and African cultural resources imagine the Earth and our relationship with the Earth: Do these texts offer readers windows of hope for re-imagining liberating relationship with the Earth? How do they intersect with gender, race, empire, ethnicity, sexuality among others? Beginning with Genesis, journeying through Exodus, Ruth, Ecclesiastes and the Gospel of John, the authors seek to read in solidarity with the Earth, for the healing of the whole Earth community.
COVID-19 has, like other crises, thrown into relief social injustices and gendered inequalities. BiAS 31/ ERA 8 offers theological responses to and reflections on the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic. All are by African scholars and authors; some are academic, some experiential, and others creative or impressionistic in tone. Reflecting the ethos and commitment of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (“The Circle”) to nurture and promote the publications by and about African women and men committed to social justice and positive change, this issue contains the writings of some established but, predominantly, of emerging theologians. For some contributors, this is their first publication in an international series.
Many have come to associate discipleship process in the church with Bible studies. As such, preachers pay little attention to disciple-making in their delivery with the assumption that preaching time is not the time to build up disciples. Some preachers are also affected by postmodernism, capitalism, and secularization-individualism and as such want to project themselves only and think about what they can get. They forget that biblical leadership is about building others and developing other people’s faith in Jesus Christ so that they grow to maturity. Preachers who do not see the need to build others and overlook committing the word to them cannot be ideal leaders of the church. Bearing in mind that the key role of the pastor is preaching, this paper emphasizes the role of the preacher in disciple-making. It argues that for effective disciple-making, the preacher must intentionally aim at committing the message to others who have the capacity to teach others too in order to have a multiplicative effect. Using the practical theology approach, the paper demonstrates that when a preacher builds relationships intentionally, lives a life of integrity, and builds up knowledge, the command to commit the word to faithful brethren can be fulfilled.
Pastor’s wives in Charismatic ministries in Ghana face similar challenges like what happened to the Zipporah, the wife of Moses. All these women feel less secure within the worship space and are easily demeaned. These pastor’s wives find themselves caught between substance and liminal identities, acceptance and rejection. Such attitudes towards them is similar to the way Ghanaians treat ntwema (“red clay”) used to maintain, beautify and protect the home. It is very useful yet kept in homes as if it is insignificant or unwanted. This paper uses an ideological reading of Exodus 4:18-26 and 18:1-27 to highlight the life and challenges of Zipporah and uses the findings to reflect on the experiences of the pastor’s wife in Ghanaian charismatic tradition. It presents views of two focus-groups of pastors’ wives in Accra and Kumasi, made up of ten (10) women each. All the twenty women are wives of founders of charismatic ministries and are ordained. It proposes that the pastors must always be grateful to their spouses. The Church should also not downplay the role of in-laws, mediators and wise counsellors who intervene when there are problems. More so, pastors’ wives must draw from their inner strength to affirm their own personality, worth and dignity. Keywords: Zipporah, Moses, pastor’s wife, Charismatic ministries, liminality
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