January 2005

Download January 2005 eNews pdf here

The 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.
In this edition of ACTEA eNews:

1. Opportunity for training for African theological librarians

The IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellowship Programme provides early career development and continuing education for library and information science professionals from countries with developing economies. The programme is jointly sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), OCLC Online Computer Library Center, and the American Theological Library Association (ATLA).

To be eligible, the applicant must: have a qualifying degree in library or information science; have obtained the qualifying degree in 2000 or later; have at least two years, but no more than ten years, of library or information science experience; be a legal national from a qualifying country and be working as a librarian or information science professional in that country; read and speak English proficiently; have a valid passport; and be able to obtain an appropriate visa permitting legal entry into the United States.

Complete applications, which include a cover sheet, a résumé, an essay of 1,000 words or fewer, and three letters of recommendation, must be submitted by 25 March, 2005.

All application information is available at www.oclc.org/institute/resources/fellowships/ifla/

The sponsors select up to five individuals annually, including a theological librarian, to come to OCLC’s headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, USA, for a four-week intensive programme of lectures, seminars and mentoring. Applications accepted this year will participate in the spring of 2006 programme. Topics and issues include information technologies and their impact on libraries, library operations and management, and global cooperative librarianship.

Please contact Karen Whittlesey, ATLA Director of Member Services, at <kwhittle@atla.com> if your questions are not answered on the programme web page.

2. ACTEA Jos has new email address

The email address of the ACTEA Administrative Assistant

actea.africa@gmail.com

is being discontinued with immediate effect. Please replace this address in your address book with

acteajos@yahoo.com

sbcunn@hisen.org continues to be valid.

3. NEGST will begin PhD programme

Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) is commencing a PhD study programme in 2005. The programme, which lasts forty-eight months, will take doctoral students through an eighteen-month research colloquium focusing on Œethnicity¹, and devote the remainder of the time to dissertation writing. It focuses sharply on providing a high quality doctoral study programme on the continent, where the African voice and the social, political, economic realities Africa currently faces, are the focus of research attention.

The PhD will be in biblical studies or Bible translation. Graduates will provide faculty for theological institutions and translation consultants across Africa. Applications are in process now for joining the first cohort. Applicants must hold a good Masters degree in biblical or translation studies, and meet NEGST’s formal admission requirements.

Admitted students must come sponsored from an organisation which is committed to release them for the duration and also to absorb them back into service again. The programme of studies is intensive and full-time. All-inclusive tuition costs are approximately $11,000 US per student per year.

NEGST will host African and international scholars regularly throughout the four years, including Professors Howard Marshall (Aberdeen), Andrew Walls (Edinburgh), Robert Gordon (Cambridge), and Dr Chris Wright of Langham Partnership International, Gordon Wenham, Gordon McConville and others. During the four years, NEGST also plans to take students on three international learning trips.

Application forms are available from PhD@negst.edu, or admissions@negst.edu, or from NEGST PhD Applications, PO Box 24686, Karen 00502, Nairobi, Kenya.

4. Nairobi Workshop: Helping Learners to Think

Helping Learners to Think: Facilitating Critical Reflective Thought in Students

Dates: 9 to 20 May 2005

The need: Do you long for new models of teaching and learning that promote thinking, rather than just memorization? Want to learn to teach in such a way that your students begin to reflect on their own lives and ministries? Tired of classes where your students only want to know what will be on the exam? If so, then this is the course for you! This course can change your teaching ministry! You learn how to teach for critical reflective thought. You will also experience it first hand.

Who should participate: Christian lecturers, teachers, and facilitators in the education of church leaders. Christian university lecturers, Bible college tutors, seminary lecturers, TEE facilitators, and other Christian teachers and trainers will benefit from this workshop.

Workshop objectives: Participants in this workshop will learn to…

teach in ways which help transform students¹ lives.
promote an environment conducive to adult learning.
adjust their teaching according to learner characteristics and contexts.
develop teaching materials which promote critical reflective thinking.
produce learning sessions which use experiential techniques, problem-posing methods, and transformative learning approaches.
facilitate participatory learning and evaluation.
adjust strategy according to the different worldviews and learning styles of learners.

Costs: Tuition (includes lunches and teas): Kshs. 14,500/- (approx. US$ $190.00) Housing and other meals: In Daystar hostel: Kshs. 5,100/- (approx. US$ $66.00).

Venue: Daystar University¹s Athi River campus, on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Certification: All those who successfully complete the workshop will received a Daystar University Certificate.

For more information, or to request an application, please contact Paul Mbutu, Director, The Christian Ministries and Training Programme, Daystar University, on +254-20-2723003. Alternatively, contact the course facilitator, Dr. Chip Kingsbury at Chip@KingsburyFamily.org or +254-45-22601 (office) or +254-733-866319 (cell).

5. AICMAR Bulletin requests contributions

The AICMAR Bulletin is an evangelical Christian journal published by the African Institute for Contemporary Mission and Research based in Butere, western Kenya. Volume 3 has just been published and the Volume 4 is in preparation.

The Editor is requesting:

Abstracts of ongoing research by African scholars studying for higher degrees within the continent or outside it, in the areas of Biblical studies, theology, preaching, Christian ministry, mission, church history and contemporary issues.
Book Reviews or offers to review new books written by African scholars in the same areas as a) above. An Evangelical Book Reviewers Week will be held in Butere 4-8 April 2005. If you are based in East Africa, are a higher degree holder and an evangelical, you may apply for one of the five places available for this week.
Advertisements for your courses/college/library/publications, etc.

The Editor would be very pleased to receive any of the following by the end of March. For more details concerning any of the above, please contact her, Fran Etemesi, by e-mail at fran-btr@africaonline.co.ke

Copies of the AICMAR Bulletin may be purchased or subscriptions taken out by writing to the Managing Editor, AICMAR Bulletin, P.O. Box 338, BUTERE 50101, Kenya or contacting Fran through her e-mail address above.

6. Upcoming CPCHEA conference in Nairobi

CPCHEA (Centre for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education in Africa) is sponsoring a conference for interdisciplinary interaction among Africa¹s Christian theologians, scientists, scholars and practising professionals.

The conference will be 31 March to 3 April at the Institute for the Study of African Realities, on the campus of the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology.

An African initiative, CPCHEA was established in 2000 as a network for regular interaction among Africa¹s Christians involved in all disciplines, whether in Christian or public institutions. The Centre seeks to promote educational endeavours in the African context that are grounded in the Gospel and to be the servant of all who work for an effective Christian presence in higher education in Africa.

The conference theme is Making a Difference in Today¹s Africa: Penetrating Every Corner of Society with the Liberating Light of the Gospel.

Speakers include Stuart Fowler, Stephen Monsma, and capable scholars from a range of disciplines including theology, philosophy, business studies and education. The topics that are to be covered include:

Promoting Peace through Religious and World View Dialogue The Christian Community Making a Difference in Education The Mission of the Church in Today¹s Africa Fulfilling our Political Calling in the African Context Effective Business Management for Africa What¹s That in Your Hand: Realising Africa¹s Potential

Cost: Ksh 5,150 (approximately US$64 including full board). Registration only: Ksh 650. Limited financial assistance will be available for those wishing to attend but unable to meet the costs involved.

Contacts: For information and pre-registration (which is desirable)

Kenya phone contact: Isaac Mutua 0723 887221 Simon Ng’uono 0733 867878 Mike Mutua 0721 720069

Email: cpchea05_nairobi@amani.org.au

Web: http://amani.org.au/cpchea/conference (Pre-registration can be done online at this address)

Postal address: PO Box 3927 Kitale 30200 Kenya

7. Keeping up with Africa–Reviews of Recent Books

Molyneux, K. Gordon. African Christian Theology: The Quest for Selfhood. Lewiston NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993. 422 pp, pb, c. $65

[available directly from the author at £15: Paddock View, Netherfield Lane, Standstead Abbotts, Herts SG12 8HD, England]

This is easily among the most significant and fascinating books on African theology to appear in the past dozen years. As Adrian Hastings himself says in a foreword, “No other work I know of has attempted to understand African theology in this way.” The author grew up in Congo/Zaire, and served there for many years in theological education. He holds an MA from Oxford University, and this book represents his PhD research at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. The originality of Molyneux’s project is his attempt to understand African theology as a living process, which he does by means of a detailed description and evaluation of three different contemporary examples of “doing” theology in the African context.

The first is the ongoing scholarly publications enterprise at the prestigious Faculté de Théologie Catholique in Kinshasa (where at a seminar in 1960 the very term “African theology” first came into public use). The second example is the vibrant hymnology of the independent Kimbanguist Church in Congo/Zaire, through which it consciously expresses (and evolves) its theological perspectives. The third example is the notable series of “Gospel and Culture” seminars organised in the early 1980s by the large evangelical church body CECA in northeastern Congo/Zaire, through which that community sought contextually-sensitive theological reflection on the felt needs of its membership.

In a masterful introductory chapter (well-worth owning on its own) Molyneux traces the quest for African Christian theology in this century as a framework for his three examples. And in his concluding chapter he summarises his findings, especially as they may apply to theological education in Africa.

One must hope that this research project will stimulate similar inquiries in other parts of Africa, focusing on living contemporary examples of theologising within the African Christian community. The book is elegantly readable throughout. It also shows an admirable familiarity with the range of relevant literature both in French and in English. This is a book weighty with insights and implications that will amply repay the thoughtful reader. Most theological libraries will want to own a copy, as will anyone teaching or researching in African Christian theology.

[Review supplied by “BookNotes for Africa”, a specialist journal that offers 40+ such reviews per issue on recent Africa-related publications 40+ relevant for theological educators and libraries in Africa and overseas. The subscription rate within Africa is $8 for four issues (airmail); $12 to overseas addresses. Send inquiries and orders to: BookNotes for Africa, PO Box 250100, Ndola, Zambia, email: rwstuebing@gmail.com]

“This journal is readable, affordable and essential for effective Christian awareness in the African continent.”

Dr Scott Moreau, Editor of Evangelical Missions Quarterly