Laurenti Magesa

The Church as Salt and Light

Theology

“To put it simply, here is a book that clearly transcends the all-too-common approaches in African Theology that, to quote an apt phrase from the Introduction, still cling to "Western theologies as canons for doing theology in Africa." Hopefully, the original and insightful approach of this work will inspire definitive change in theological methodologies in seminaries and institutions of higher learning throughout the continent. The Church as Salt and Light overcomes the theologically sterile divisions between, for example, Ecclesiology and Christology, religion and social development, and faith and life to which we are accustomed. Instead, it situates the church's vocation directly in its true setting as 'salt' and 'light' in concrete human locations. The young African scholars whose ideas make up this book reorient us in clear and powerful ways to the necessity of putting at centre-stage of theological thought the meaning of church as practical application of the liberation and solidarity that form the revelation contained in Holy Scripture. Indeed, as Pliny the Elder said two thousand years ago: 'Ex Africa semper aliquid novi,' Africa will always bring forth something new.”

The Surprising African Jesus

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“Afua Kuma’s prayers will endorse for African Christians the ongoing effort to find Jesus in their own environments and to not be ashamed to converse with him in their own languages, born of their own observations and experiences along the path of life. For the rest of the (Christian) world, the value lies in empathy understood as ‘fellow feeling’ and expanded wisdom.”