Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 8, no. 4
Date
2023
DOI
Authors
Robert, Dana L.
Scott, Michael
Matthews, Zacharia Keodirelang (A)
Huddleston, Trevor (B)
Buthelezi, Manas
Kistner, Wolfram
Jones, John Derek and Joan Ann
Butler, Alan
Sangaya, Jonathan Douglas
Dodge, Ralph Edward
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
[This issue of the Journal of African Christian Biography highlights some of the entries in the DACB that profile participants in the twentieth-century ecumenical movement in southern Africa. The overwhelming impression one gets of this subject is that of gaps: there is urgent need for more entries that address the myriad ways in which African Christian leaders engaged the ecumenical movement as a network through which to build social capital during the critical period after the Second World War. As African nations became independent of European colonial control, church-educated leaders often acted as global spokesmen for postcolonial visions of society. They cultivated international support structures and led regional independence movements. Ecumenical networks played crucial roles in maintaining structures for education and peace-building in conflictive situations. Nelson Mandela himself, for example, attended Healdtown, a Methodist mission that became the largest high school in the country and educated many of the most important black nationalist leaders at mid century. The entries highlighted in this issue are the tip of the iceberg of what needs to be researched and written. This issue, then, appeals for scholars and church leaders to step up and to provide biographies of “ecumenists”—those who located their commitment to the Body of Christ in an international vision of peace, equality, and justice, in collaboration with other Christians from across Africa and around the world, as well as those who worked at the local level of cooperative church movements.]
Description
License
Copyright 2023 Dictionary of African Christian Biography. All rights reserved. Reproductions, with appropriate citation and credit, may be made for noncommercial educational purposes. Revision or editing of this content, the creation of derivative works, posting on websites containing advertising, and all other commercial uses require the express written consent of the Journal of African Christian Biography.