Adventism in Africa is growing fast, and growth brings new questions. This stream is for clear, fair analysis of what the church is debating now, from campuses to committee rooms, with an eye to solutions as well as problems.
The questions we want to ask
- What happens to the identity of Adventist universities as enrolment grows and many staff and students are not Adventist?
- How should members respond to prosperity teaching, and to the Pentecostal and charismatic churches around them?
- How can educated young members keep their faith and their questions together?
- How should the church handle controversy openly, rather than leaving it to rumour or the newspapers?
What scholars have said
Philip Jenkins, in The Next Christendom (2002), described the rapid rise of Christianity in the global South and predicted that African believers would increasingly set the church’s agenda. The book made many in the North realise how much the church had changed.
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu of Ghana, in African Charismatics (2005), studied the new charismatic churches and argued that they answer real needs for healing, protection and success. He takes them seriously while asking hard theological questions about them.
Paul Gifford, in Ghana’s New Christianity (2004), was more critical. He argued that much popular preaching promises wealth and success while saying little about how society is run.
These scholars disagree, and that is useful. Adventists face the same pressures and can learn from both the sympathy and the criticism.
What we hope to publish
Well-argued pieces that name an issue clearly, listen to more than one side and propose something the church could do. Where an issue divides members, we will publish paired essays in Point / Counterpoint. See Write for us.
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