Adventists live in families, villages, cities and nations, not only in congregations. This stream is for writing about where faith meets culture, politics, economics and public life, and about how the church can serve the societies around it.
The questions we want to ask
- How should Adventists relate to governments, especially where members hold public office?
- What do our beliefs about health, education and the Sabbath offer wider society?
- How do customs on marriage, family and gender, including matrilineal traditions, meet the teaching of the church?
- What does it mean to defend religious liberty for everyone, not only for ourselves?
What scholars have said
Jesse Mugambi of Kenya, in From Liberation to Reconstruction (1995), argued that after colonial rule and apartheid, African theology should move from protest to rebuilding: helping to reconstruct societies, institutions and moral life.
Mercy Amba Oduyoye, in Daughters of Anowa (1995), examined how African cultures and churches treat women, and called on both to change where they diminish women’s dignity.
Musa Dube of Botswana, in Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (2000), showed how the Bible has been read to support empire and exclusion, and how it can instead be read to set people free.
Adventists bring their own tradition to these debates, including a long commitment to religious liberty and to the separation of church and state. That tradition has much to say in African public life.
What we hope to publish
Essays on politics, culture, gender, health, education and the economy, written with respect for people who disagree and with practical proposals. See Write for us.
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