A Theology Of Poverty Reduction In Tanzania

Poverty reduction is a worldwide concern, yet if the church is to play an effective role in its alleviation, an approach that is both biblical and contextual is required. In Poverty, the Bible, and Africa, Isaac Boaheng formulates a theology of poverty that engages Scripture, African traditional wisdom, and contemporary African concerns to create a paradigm for understanding and alleviating poverty in Africa. Boaheng highlights that, whatever our cultural context, God frowns upon materialism, extravagance, and love for riches; yet the author also demonstrates why a contextual theology must address people’s societal and cultural needs alongside spiritual ones. If we desire a model for poverty reduction that is both theologically sound and contextually appropriate, we must facilitate an encounter between the teachings of Scripture and the socio-economic, political, and religious realities of a particular context. Combining in-depth cultural analysis with careful exegetical reflection, this book offers refreshing insight into the challenge of confronting poverty in Africa. Boaheng’s approach, however, is relevant far beyond the continent and is transferable to any context where others are seeking to effectively understand and combat poverty.

By integrating cultural, political, social and economic factors the book empirically affirms, the importance of culture, represented by religious values, in the fight against poverty and that political and economic attitudes have a role to play in the development process.

This publication seeks to determine the need, possibilities, and strategies, necessary to alleviate urban poverty in Mozambique through the tool of transformational business, understood out of a Contextual Theology of Work (CTOW). Focusing on the Maputo metropolitan area, but also wider contexts, the author examines the dynamic relationship of urban poverty, unemployment and work. Recognising that unemployment is the main factor behind poverty in Mozambique and placing great emphasis on kingdom theology the author recommends that evangelical churches need to embrace CTOW and engage positively with urban poverty to create real economic change.

A Ghanaian scholar of religion argues that poverty is a particularly complex subject in traditional African cultures, where holistic worldviews unite life’s material and spiritual dimensions. A South African ethicist examines informal economies in Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, and South Africa, looking at their ideological roots, social organization, and vulnerability to global capital. African American theologians offer ethnographic accounts of empowering religious rituals performed in churches in the United States, Jamaica, and South Africa. This important collection brings together these and other Pan-African perspectives on religion and poverty in Africa and the African diaspora. Contributors from Africa and North America explore poverty’s roots and effects, the ways that experiences and understandings of deprivation are shaped by religion, and the capacity and limitations of religion as a means of alleviating poverty. As part of a collaborative project, the contributors visited Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as Jamaica and the United States. In each location, they met with clergy, scholars, government representatives, and NGO workers, and they examined how religious groups and community organizations address poverty. Their essays complement one another. Some focus on poverty, some on religion, others on their intersection, and still others on social change. A Jamaican scholar of gender studies decries the feminization of poverty, while a Nigerian ethicist and lawyer argues that the protection of human rights must factor into efforts to overcome poverty. A church historian from Togo examines the idea of poverty as a moral virtue and its repercussions in Africa, and a Tanzanian theologian and priest analyzes ujamaa, an African philosophy of community and social change. Taken together, the volume’s essays create a discourse of mutual understanding across linguistic, religious, ethnic, and national boundaries. Contributors. Elizabeth Amoah, Kossi A. Ayedze, Barbara Bailey, Katie G. Cannon, Noel Erskine, Dwight N. Hopkins, Simeon O. Ilesanmi, Laurenti Magesa, Madipoane Masenya, Takatso A. Mofokeng, Esther M. Mombo, Nyambura J. Njoroge, Jacob Olupona, Peter J. Paris, Anthony B. Pinn, Linda E. Thomas, Lewin L. Williams

I. Main articles. La Justice comme guide d'orientation de l'éthique théologique / Heinrich Bedford-Strohm -- La Justice comme guide d'orientation de l'éthique théologique / Jered Kalimba -- "The first theological-ethical doctrine of basic human rights developed by a twentieth-century German Protestant theologian": Dietrich Bonhoeffer and human rights / Christine Schliesser -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the struggle for human rights in the context of Africa / Byaruhanga Ruokoo Archangel -- La confession de culpabilité et chemin vers la reconciliation / Pascal Bataringaya -- Culpability confession as a way to reconciliation: it can start, but it can only start with Bonhoeffer / Jannika Haupt -- Peace as a central task for Christians: bringing about peace in the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and its importance for current ethics / Clemens Wustmans -- Peace as a central task for Christians in the light of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's peace ethics with a special focus on churches and peacemaking in Tanzania / Abednego Keshomshahara -- Responsabilitéet Courage civil: Fondamentaux de l'éthique de Dietrich Bonhoeffer / Traugott Jähnichen -- Church as "church for others"?: reflections on the role of church in society and the relevance of society for the shape of church / Kai Horstmann -- Ecumenism and the future of the church / Ulrich Möller -- L'Oecumenisme: L'avenir de l'Eglise / Vincent Muderwa Barhatulirwa -- II. Theological impulses, experience reports & mediations. Expériences de réconciliation et responsabilité pour la paix dans le contexte allemand / Albert Henz -- Reflections on commemorative practices in Rwanda and Germany / Katharina Peetz -- The question of guilt and confession of the young generations after the genocides in Rwanda and Germany: an experience report / Christine Jürgens, Maximilian Schell -- Meditations / Samuel Mutabazi, Helmut Keiner, Thérèse Mukamakuza, Jan van Schaardenburgh -- Jörg Zimmermann -- III. Closing word & final statement. Mot de cloture / Elisée Musemakweli -- Final declaration (in English and French)

In May 2009, thirty-five theologians from Asia, Africa, and Europe met in Wuppertal, Germany, for a consultation on mission theology organized by the United Evangelical Mission: Communion of Thirty-five Churches in Three Continents. The aim was to participate in the 100th anniversary of the Edinburgh conference through a study process and reflect on the challenges for mission in the twenty-first century. We decided not to invite renowned experts, but to have an open invitation through a call for papers, so that practicing mission experts not yet well known would have an opportunity to share their expertise. We decided not to predetermine a theme or motto for the consultation but to allow various themes on mission to emerge from the papers themselves and thus to allow wide-ranging discussions. Indeed the papers were varied; each drew strong reactions, lively and even controversial debates. We were able to discover common concerns transcending very different contexts. The collection of papers in this book has been taken from the papers delivered at the Wuppertal consultation. In some cases, short responses by one or two of the consultation participants were added to highlight the discussions that followed. The very varied voices collected in this anthology nevertheless have much in common: Even where they are most theoretical it is obvious that all contributors come from missionary practice and bring in their contextual experiences.