Adventist Scholars in Africa Publish Volume of Research Papers

March 7, 2016: A group of 13 Adventist academics from Africa have produced the first volume of research among and by the 40 percent of Adventist believers who live on that continent. Entitled Adventism, Society and Sustainable Development, the book focuses on a wide range of issues, including ordination and worship style. The chapters are peer reviewed and described as “ground breaking” in the Amazon book catalog. They began at a conference of scholars organized by the Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI) of the Southern Africa Union Conference.
ASI is generally seen in North America and Europe as an association of entrepreneurs in small businesses and leaders of nonprofits that are not formally affiliated with the denomination, not an academic organization. The ASI president in South Africa happens to be Dr. Themba Sirayi, a professor at the University of Fort Hare and a noted scholar of South African culture and history who chaired the committee that developed the nation’s post-apartheid flag. He is director of National Heritage and Cultural Studies at the university which includes leadership of the Liberation Archives and an art museum affiliated with the South African National Heritage Agency.
The other authors include Dr. Modimowabarwa H. Kanyane, chief research specialist in governance at the Human Sciences Research Council and a faculty member at Tshwane University of Technology; John Chipimpi, a business faculty member at Helderberg College, one of the Adventist institutions in South Africa; Dr. Awoniyi S. Sdebayo, professor of education at Solusi University, the Adventist institution in Zimbabwe; Elisa Masuku, director of the master’s program in education at Solusi; Nhlanhla Mpofu, a PhD candidate in English at the University of Pretoria; Dr. Leonard Masuku, dean of the religion faculty at Solusi; Dr. Eurydice V. Osterman, a Fulbright Scholar and published composer who has served as chair of the music department at both Northern Caribbean University and Oakwood University; Dr. Gilbert Ojwang, a biblical studies scholar in the School of Religion at Oakwood University; Dr. Eva Starner, a scholar who studies family life; Dr. Roland Hill, a writer on economics currently a pastor in the Allegheny East Conference in the United States; Dr. Peggie Ncube, a professor and researcher in Zimbabwe; and Pastor Zebron Ncube, who served as a religion professor and conference president in Zimbabwe and is now a pastor in the Lake Region Conference in the U.S. Five of the 13 authors are women.
The last two papers in the book attempt to build bridges on the topic that has most alienated Adventists in Africa from Adventists in North America and Europe; ordination and the role of women in the church. “Women in Ministry at Issue” by Sirayi seeks to summarize the various arguments over recent decades and prepare the ground for “Women’s Ordination in Search of Consensus” by Ojwang. This final chapter in the book puts forward a proposal to bridge the differences that have become well established.
“This chapter is not another study of why or why not to ordain women,” states the editor in an introductory summary. “Nor is [the] focus on the weaknesses of the arguments on either side, but rather [it seeks] to provoke the discussion to yet another level with the proposed dual model of ordination to accommodate consensus.” The writer “maintains that the issue is not about women’s ordination or ordination motivated by misogynistic bias … but what matters most is the issue of ordination to delineated functions.”
Other topics include an analysis of Adventist schools in a local conference in South Africa, the motivations for and barriers to Adventist young adults pursuing higher education in Africa, economic freedom for Africans, the role of Christian universities in sustainable development, immigration by Adventists in and from Africa, academic inbreeding in Adventist institutions of higher education, home schooling, faculty credibility in Adventist colleges and universities, authority and leadership in practice, how parental divorce impacts Adventist young adults and their future church membership and music styles in Adventist worship. Each paper presents information about which little has been published to date.
The book is a little over 300 pages and just off the press March 1 from Reach Publishers. It can be purchased from Amazon either as an eBook or paperback. It may help international purchasers to know that the ISBN for the book is 0620680059 in English.
I ordered the kindle addition for $5.99. That is a very reasonable price. I’m hoping the scholars somewhere mention the gospel of Jesus Christ. This book review does not. The Seventh-day Adventist church exists to proclaim the sacrificial and redemptive work of Israel’s Messiah King. The church is a society not of this world. Our proclamation is not focused on sustainable development in any conventional sense of the term. The title, Adventism, Society and Sustainable Development does not seem focused on Jesus Christ and the Scriptures that reveal Him.
I like your critique of the book. I have not read it and hope to do so in the very near future. If then sustainable development is not an issue in Adventism, why would the church have such programmes as ADRA and Meals on Wheels? Further that when you read the founding documents of these programmes (constitutions in the South African context) they speak to issues of development. Proponents of these programmes have also argued that people need first to be given immediate help with their urgent needs which invariably have to do with their livelihoods other than spiritual matters. Your straight jacketed approach seems to suggest that we should focus only on spiritual needs even though people are dying of malnutrition as a result of hunger and starvation. Don’t you think that is a hollow type of religion. I certainly think so.
Perhaps we need such a book in North America. Not one written by scholars, but by people who are actually involved in ministries that touch their communities so their testimony about the power of God will inspire the reinvigoration the church needs so badly.
May be the comment from William Abbot is attributed by his disclaimer that he has not read the book. However the excerpt which provides a preface about the book states with no uncertainty that the book provides a discourse on the issue of women ordination which is about the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can take these scholarly debates further for the advancement of our mission. It is also ironical that although Christian education is part of our church’s strategies to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, the critic seem to have ignored its containment in the book and the challenges associated with sustainability of Christian education in this region. My suggestion is that we buy and read the book before we apply our critical thoughts. However comments given are thought provoking to future writers.
Author Ojwang, in a pdf of the same title as his chapter, writes:
“Assigning women, gospel ministers, the authority to preach, teach, and evangelize, and not the last three functions in our list above comports well with historic Adventist practice whereby licentiates were not allowed to organize churches, or to administer the ordinances of the Lord’s house”
“Ordination: In Search of Consensus,” Gilbert Okuro Ojwang
https://xa.yimg.com/…/Ojwang+GO+Ordination+In+Searcch+of+Co…
This is not an accurate claim about early Adventist practice. Marinda “Minnie” Day Sype was a licensed pastor and evangelist. Josephine Benton, in her book Called by God, gives several sources of historical evidence that Sype baptized.
http://sdanet.org/atissue/books/called/benton-02.htm