African Voices Resound at London Book Launch

On Saturday 21st October in London, UK, the sun shone brightly on a clear autumn’s day. The weather corresponded perfectly with the launch event of African Voices at London City Mission in Tower Bridge, where the African theology on display shone just as brightly and was presented just as clearly.

African Voices / British Context

Edited by Israel Olofinjana, African Voices: Towards African British Theologies features essays from 12 different contributors, all of whom are African by birth but have ministered/are ministering in the UK. As well as being rooted in church ministry, all of the contributors are accomplished academic theologians in their respective areas of specialty (see contributors list here.) Possibly contrary to popular assumption, the African diasporic church’s reach in the UK extends far beyond London and the M25 and the geographic spread of the contributors testifies to the potential influence African theology has to bless and enrich the church and the nation of the United Kingdom.

Rev Israel Olofinjana, the Pastor of Woolwich Baptist Church and Director of the Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, which he founded, shared something of his vision for the book with the audience of pastors, theological educators, and ministry leaders and the story of bringing the project to completion with the partnership of Langham Creative Projects. The story is a significant one with the doyen of African theology, John Mbiti not only serving as inspiration for the ministry of so many of the contributors but also writing the foreword and one of the contributors, Dr Freddie Adorkorbidji, to whom the book was dedicated, passing away after submitting his essay but before the book was published.

Towards New Theologies

African British theology is not brand new, but it is young. Much younger and less developed than African or African-American theology. African British theology is not a coherent doctrinal system, nor is it designed to be. Rather as the subtitle indicates, African British theologies, plural, are being articulated, considered, prayed over and growing as a corpus of theological discourse is being generated. Presentations on their essays in the book were presented by Rev Valerie Nkechi Taiwo, Dr Eben B. Adu and Rev Dr Chigo Chike addressing mission partnership, prosperity theology, and pneumatology respectively. These presentations exemplified the rigorous and evangelical approach in African theology in British contexts, leaving an appetite for more hard work of prayer and study resulting in more books and theological education from this new perspective of Christian understanding of God and our world going even deeper into these areas and exploring more and more subjects of theology.

Dr Dulcie McKenzie, the keynote speaker for the book launch, framed the book in the wider context of Black British Theology and emphasised the need for more African British theologies, especially that addressed history and race in the UK from a theological perspective. The moderator of the event, Rev Wale Hudson-Roberts, also highlighted the need for further theological heavy-lifting to be conducted in the area of justice. It was these presentations that gave the day a feel of much more than a launch of a book, or even than a celebration of theological output, but a key turning point in the story of God at work in the UK through African voices, towards African British theologies to the glory of God and the good of His people.

Buy African Voices: Towards African British Theologies
today from us direct, or your preferred online or local bookseller.

Contributors

Dr Babtunde Adedibu  |  Freddie Adorkorbidji  |  Dr Eben B. Ade  |  Rev Dr Chigor Chike  |  Dr Harvey Kwiyani  |  Rev Philip Lutterodt  |  Rev Michele Mahon  |  Dr Anderson Moyo  |  Rev Caleb Opoku Nyanni  |  Rev Dr Paul Nzacahayo  |  Israel Oluwole Olofinjana  |  Rev Valerie Nkechi Taiwo

Tags: Africa, British, Global Perspectives Series, Langham Global Library, Langham Literature, Langham Partnership, literature, Majority World, Publishing, Theological Education, Theology, UK