God People And Power In Malawi

Between 1992 and 1994 Malawi underwent a remarkable transition from dictatorship to democracy. Truly a transformation of power! Yet this period of profound change raised many issues of power and accountability. In this book some of the key questions are explained and addressed from a theological perspective. The work originated as a case study on the World Council of Churches Theology of Life programme. It was then presented as a Kachere Monograph in the belief that it will not only contribute to the reconstruction of politic in Malawi but also be an important resource for all those concerned with the formation of a viable theology of power for todays world. It is now presented here again as a Luviri Reprint. The contributors are all drawn from the University of Malawi Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Kenneth Ross has written on The Transformation of Power in Malawi 1992-94: the Role of the Christian Churches and A Practical Theology of Power for the New Malawi; Felix Chingota on The Use of the Bible in Social Transformation; Isabel Apawo Phiri on Marching, Suspended and Stoned: Christian Women in Malawi 1995; James Tengatenga on Young People: Participation or Alienation? An Anglican Case; J.C. Chankanza and Hilary Mijoga on Muslim Perspectives on Power; Hilary Mijoga on Christian Experience in Malawi Prisons; and Klaus Fiedler on Power at the Receiving End: the Jehovas Witnesses Experience in One-Party Malawi and Even in the Church the Exercise of Power is Accountable to God.

Between 1992 and 1994 Malawi underwent a remarkable transition from dictatorship to democracy. Truly a transformation of power! Yet this period of profound change raised many issues of power and accountability. In this book some of the key questions are explained and addressed from a theological perspective. The work originated as a case study on the World Council of Churches “Theology of Life” programme. It was then presented as a Kachere Monograph in the belief that it will not only contribute to the reconstruction of politic in Malawi but also be an important resource for all those concerned with the formation of a viable theology of power for today’s world. It is now presented here again as a Luviri Reprint. The contributors are all drawn from the University of Malawi Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Kenneth Ross has written on “The Transformation of Power in Malawi 1992-94: the Role of the Christian Churches” and “A Practical Theology of Power for the New Malawi”; Felix Chingota on “The Use of the Bible in Social Transformation”; Isabel Apawo Phiri on “Marching, Suspended and Stoned: Christian Women in Malawi 1995”; James Tengatenga on “Young People: Participation or Alienation? An Anglican Case”; J.C. Chankanza and Hilary Mijoga on “Muslim Perspectives on Power”; Hilary Mijoga on “Christian Experience in Malawi Prisons”; and Klaus Fiedler on “Power at the Receiving End: the Jehova’s Witnesses’ Experience in One-Party Malawi” and “Even in the Church the Exercise of Power is Accountable to God”.

The volume constitutes Klaus Fiedlers crowning contribution to scholarship. Essays in the first half of the book focus on Malawian Christianity and how contrasting Powers, Gospel and Secular, engage each other, creating social, political and cultural conflict in the process. In the second half, Fiedler examines general missiological themes. These essays provide a broader missiological background, offering a theoretical framework necessary for appreciating the essays in the first half. He concludes with a chapter that reviews selected seminal books on themes under study. Throughout the volume Fiedler applies the restorationist revival theory he constructed in The Story of Faith Missions, an earlier 1994 work putting emphasis on non classical missions and churches, not systematically covered in earlier scholarship. This volume, the first of its kind on Malawian Christianity, will long remain an indispensable text for those interested in Missiology and Malawian Christianity.

This is the first attempt to comprehend the whole of Malawi's church history in a single volume. The focus of this book is about documenting the religious experience which was at the centre of founding the new nation of Malawi as we have come to know it. The book strikes a balance in covering issues pertaining to both mission activities and African agency. In many instances interesting pieces of evidence have been marshalled to corroborate or emphasize some of the conclusions reached.

In Christian history spiritual awakenings are a recurring and important phenomenon. The Blantyre Spiritual Awakening was characterized by an overt evangelistic fervour among bands of people that belonged to an ever growing Born Again Movement in the city, from 1974 into the 1980s. This history covers The Blantyre Awakening which revived Evangelical Christianity in Malawi and prepared the way for the emerging Charismatic Movement.

Although the arrival of the Bible in Africa has often been a tale of terror, the Bible has become an African book. This volume explores the many ways in which Africans have made the Bible their own. The essays in this book offer a glimpse of the rich resources that constitute Africa's engagement with the Bible. Among the topics are: the historical development of biblical interpretation in Africa, the relationship between African biblical scholarship and scholarship in the West, African resources for reading the Bible, the history and role of vernacular translation in particular African contexts, the ambiguity of the Bible in Africa, the power of the Bible as text and symbol, and the intersections between class, race, gender, and culture in African biblical interpretation. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of African biblical scholarship. In fact, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of African biblical scholarship available in print. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

"The Baptist convention of Malawi (BACOMA) grew out of the Baptist Mission in Malawi's work that began almost 50 years ago as a result of plans by the Central African (Southern Baptist Convention) Mission to expand their works from Zimbabwe to Malawi. Although BACOMA owes much of their tradition to the white Southern Baptists of the US, they are typically a Malawian expression of the Church. In five chapters the author, a long standing Principle of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Malawi, offers a history of the Baptist convention of Malawi. The five themes being: BACOMA's Polygenetic Nature; Evangelistic Zeal and the Development of BACOMA 1970-1989; Women and Youth in Evangelism and the Development of BACOMA; Separation and Cooperation: A "Loose" Partnership and The People."--