Christian Apologetics Through African Eyes

Human beings are complex. For all our contemporary knowledge and ability, however wonderful and widely available, people around the world face a crisis of human identity that calls into question the meaning of existence and the basis of moral behaviour. Responding to these challenges, Joe Kapolyo recognizes both the authority of the Bible, which teaches that people are created in the image of God but also corrupted by rebellion and sin, and the relevance of distinctly African perspectives on what it means to be human. Although he reads these perspectives critically, they lead him to reaffirm th.

Divided into four major sections, this textbook provides an in-depth exploration of the biblical, philosophical, cultural, and practical concerns facing African Christians as they proclaim and defend the gospel in Africa. Written by a diverse group of pastors and scholars, it provides a much needed interdisciplinary and contextualized approach to apologetics. It also seeks to bridge the gap between academic research and ministry practice, touching on such topics as hermeneutics, biblical criticism, church history, the nature of evil, religious inclusivism, Muslim-Christian engagement, eldership rites, domestic violence, cults, and the digital age. Biblically robust, contextually relevant, ministry-oriented, and accessible, this is a remarkable resource for enriching the life and ministry of Christians in Africa and beyond.

Today's cosmopolitan, multicultural, and multifaith environments call for new approaches to apologetics. The world still needs the good news of Jesus Christ, but to relate the transcultural gospel to diverse and ever-changing contexts, we must free Christian apologetics from dominant Western habits of mind ill-suited to interreligious dialogue. We must listen and speak with both humility and confidence. Benno van den Toren and Kang-San Tan provide a global, intercultural introduction to Christian apologetics. They present a model of apologetics as crosscultural dialogue and accountable witness, then explore how it plays out in relation to specific contexts and the major world religions—including primal religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, secularism, and late-modern spiritualities. Building on recent developments in apologetics and missiology, as well as their experience teaching internationally in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Van den Toren and Tan offer an approach that is conversational, patient, holistic, and embodied. Filled with examples from Scripture and real-world experiences, Humble Confidence gives readers a travel guide to help find the most effective avenues for true dialogue in their own settings.

"Jesus and the Gospel in Africa collects writings by Kwame Bediako and is the best source for his insights into the Christ of present-day African history and the Jesus of African faith. Bediako shows how intimately bound together are such elements as the message of Jesus and the struggle to give birth to African democracy." --Book Jacket.

How would ordinary African Christians interpret the figure and book of Job--the quintessential biblical book on suffering--from contexts of extreme poverty, tropical disease, and rampant suffering? How do African Christians culturally understand issues of theodicy and the nature of evil? What role does the devil play in African Pentecostalism? How does the biblical lament empower faith and foster hope for people living with HIV/AIDS? In what way does a theology of (eschatological) hope inform the spirituality and prayers of ordinary African believers in the midst of suffering? Inside the Whirlwind offers insight on these fascinating questions. Based upon the perspectives of Fang Christians in Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea (Central Africa), the thematic and theological reflections on evil, suffering, and hope emerging from sermons and Bible studies on the book of Job offer a remarkable window to view the main theological issues shaping grassroots African Christianity in the twenty-first century.