Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Mission

Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Mission
Author: Seblewengel Daniel
Publisher: African Sun Media
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2021-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1991201311

The volume is significant in bringing together voices of African women theologians and their allies on the urgent topic of ecology. First, it decisively intervenes into scholarly discourses on ecofeminism by highlighting the reflections of African women scholars and African women as subjects. This function of the volume is very important both at local and global levels. Second, it contributes to contextualizing of scriptural interpretation around the issue of ecology. Biblical reflection occurs throughout the volume and is put into dialogue with African traditions, with ecofeminism, with Africa-based mission projects, and with the current crisis of sustainability and African women’s roles in protecting the earth. Third, the volume includes several concrete case studies based on interviews and grassroots qualitative research, as well as especially original articles that integrate biblical exegesis of Genesis with reflections on patriarchal legal systems in Botswana, and an original take on “male headship” in relation to ecofeminism. – Professor Dana L. Robert, Boston University, USA

Mother Earth, Mother Africa & African Indigenous Religions

Mother Earth, Mother Africa & African Indigenous Religions
Author: Nobuntu Penxa Matholeni
Publisher: African Sun Media
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 192848073X

Africans embrace all of life, the humanity of each person, the world, and the creation of God. Consequently, African indigenous education reflects the completeness of life itself. The various chapters in this volume recount religious events and experiences from individual perspectives as they are unfolding on the continent. The different voices show how modernity, colonisation, urbanisation, Christianity, and technology have sidelined beliefs and practices of African traditional religions (ATRs) to the detriment of the environment. This volume brings together voices from leading proponents of ATRs and African religious heritage to help us appreciate how values are richly entrenched in African religious life. It demonstrates the detailed richness of ATRs and culture and showcases how far the academic study of ATRs in Africa has come, and calls for a concerted effort through partnership between various actors to ensure environmental sustainability.

Mother Earth, Mother Africa

Mother Earth, Mother Africa
Author: Sophia Chirongoma
Publisher: African Sun Media
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2022-06-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1998951138

This volume, Mother Earth, Mother Africa: World Religions and Environmental Imagination, explores the interface of religio-cultural traditions and ecological conservation practices in different African contexts. The authors also reflect on the entwinement between the violation of women’s rights and the degradation of the Earth which is usually described using feminine terms, hence the designation, “Mother Earth.” The three major religious traditions in Africa – Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religions (ATR) – are the lenses through which the authors discuss the interconnections between religion, culture and ecological traditions. Peering through African eco-feminist, gender justice and gender inclusive lenses, the authors foreground the importance of tapping into Africa’s rich religio-cultural resources as vital tools that can be utilised to address the ravaging ecological crisis.

African Literature, Mother Earth and Religion

African Literature, Mother Earth and Religion
Author: Enna Sukutai Gudhlanga
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1648894011

This book is a collection of essays that explore the intersection of Earth, Gender and Religion in African literary texts. It examines cultural, religious, theological and philosophical traditions, and their construction of perspectives and attitudes about Earth-keeping and gender. This publication is critical given the current global environmental crisis and its impact on African and global communities. The book is multidisciplinary in approach (literary, environmental, theological and sociological), exploring the intersection of African creative work, religion and the environment in their construction of Earth and gender. It presents how the gendered interconnectedness of the natural environment, with its broad spirituality and deep identification with the woman, features prominently in the myths, folklores, legends, rituals, sacred songs and incantations that are explored in this collection. Both male and female writers in the collection laud and accept woman’s enduring motif as worker, symbol and guardian of the environment. This interconnectedness mirrors the importance of the environment for the survival of both human and non-human components of Mother Earth. The ideology of women’s agency is emphasised and reinforced by ecofeminist theologians; namely those viewing African women as active agents working closely with the environment and not as subordinates. In the context of the environmental crisis the nurturing role of women should be bolstered and the rich African traditions that conserved the environment preserved. The book advocates the re-engagement of women, particularly their knowledge and conservation techniques and how these can become reservoirs of dying traditions. This volume offers recorded traditions in African literary texts, thereby connecting gender, religion and the environment and helpful perspectives in Earth-keeping.

Mother Earth, Postcolonial and Liberation Theologies

Mother Earth, Postcolonial and Liberation Theologies
Author: Sophia Chirongoma
Publisher: Fortress Academic
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2021
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781978711617

Anchored on postcolonial and liberation theology, this book examines the global ecological crisis within gender justice discourse. Utilizing textual analysis and empirical studies, the book chapters foreground how the African continent, particularly African women, bear the burden of the ecological catastrophe.

Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology

Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology
Author: Sinenhlanhla S. Chisale
Publisher: AOSIS
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2021-11-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1776341724

The theological role of African women and men in sustainable development and environmental justice strongly emerges in this book. Picking up the theme and metaphor of the fifth pan-African conference of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (hereafter ‘Circle’), ‘Mother Earth and Mother Africa’, this book titled Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology presents original and innovative research by scholarly members and friends of the Circle. The main contribution of the volume is its multi- and trans-disciplinary exploration and reimagining of human relationships to Earth from an African ecofeminist and ecowomanist theological perspective. It engages in critical conversations of re-interpreting and re-imagining African cultural, religious, theological, and philosophical perspectives on gender and the Earth. The aim is to construct Earth-friendly relationships in the face of the growing global environmental crisis. Scholarly voices of African women and men from fields such as Theology, Environmental Law and Policy, Tourism, Agricultural Science and Natural Resources, and Economics are reflected in this book, which consists of three parts: Creation, the Trinity, and Mother Africa; Caring for Mother Africa; and Mother Africa and her daughters’ (in)fertility. Each of the eleven chapters in the volume presents the metaphor of Mother Earth, Mother Africa, and gender relations, with the aim to explore life-affirming, life-enhancing human relationships to Earth from the author’s particular area of specialisation and context.

To Cook a Continent

To Cook a Continent
Author: Nnimmo Bassey
Publisher: Fahamu/Pambazuka
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1906387532

Arguing that the climate crisis confronting the world today is rooted mainly in the wealthy economies’ abuse of fossil fuels, indigenous forests, and global commercial agriculture, this important book investigates how Africa has been exploited and how Africans should respond for the good of all. As it examines the oil industry in Africa and probes the causes of global warming, this record warns of its insidious impacts and explores false solutions. Demonstrating that the issues around natural resource exploitation, corporate profiteering, and climate change must be considered together if the planet is to be saved, the book suggests how Africa can overcome the crises of environment and global warming.

Jesus Christ as Logos Incarnate and Resurrected Nana (Ancestor)

Jesus Christ as Logos Incarnate and Resurrected Nana (Ancestor)
Author: Rudolf K. Gaisie
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2020-10-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725252856

This book seeks to demonstrate the significance of Ancestor Christology in African Christianity for christological developments in World Christianity. Ancestor Christology has developed in the process of an African conversion story of appropriating the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:4) in the category of ancestors. Logos Christology in early Christian history developed as an intricate byproduct in the conversion process of turning Hellenistic ideas towards the direction of Christ (A. F. Walls). Hellenistic Christian writers and modern African Christian writers thus share some things in common and when their efforts are examined within the conversion process framework there are discernible modes of engagement. The mode of Logos Christology that one finds in Origen, for example, is an innovative application of the understanding of Jesus Christ as Logos (incarnate); a new key but not discontinuous with the Johannine suggestive mode or the clarificatory mode of Justin Martyr. African Ancestor Christology is at the threshold of an innovative mode and the argument this book makes is that this strand of African Christology should be pursued in the indigenous languages aided by respective translated Bibles; a suggested way is a Logos-Ancestor (Nanasɛm) discourse in Akan Christianity.

Rural Renaissance

Rural Renaissance
Author: John D. Ivanko
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2009-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1550923382

In the ’60s it was called the "back to the land" movement, and in Helen and Scott Nearings’ day, it was "living the good life." Whatever the term, North Americans have always yearned for a simpler way. But how do you accomplish that today? Blending inspiration with practical how-to’s, Rural Renaissance captures the American dream of country living for contemporary times. Journey with the authors and experience their lessons, laughter and love for the land as they trade the urban concrete maze for a five-acre organic farm and bed and breakfast in southwestern Wisconsin. Rural living today is a lot more than farming. It’s about a creative, nature-based and more self-sufficient lifestyle that combines a love of squash, solar energy, skinny-dipping and serendipity . . . The many topics explored in Rural Renaissance include: "right livelihood" and the good life organic gardening and permaculture renewable energy and energy conservation wholesome organic food, safe water and a natural home simplicity, frugality and freedom green design and recycled materials community, friends and raising a family independence and interdependence wildlife conservation and land stewardship. An authentic tale of a couple whose pioneering spirit and connection to the land reaches out to both the local and global community to make their dream come true, Rural Renaissance will appeal to a wide range of Cultural Creatives, free agents, conservation entrepreneurs and both arm-chair and real-life homesteaders regardless of where they live. Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko are innkeepers, organic growers, copartners in a marketing consulting company, and have previously published books. John is also a photographer. Former advertising agency fast-trackers, they are nationally recognized for their contemporary approach to homesteading, conservation and more sustainable living. They share their farm with their son, two llamas, and a flock of free-range chickens. Rural Renaissance also offers a foreword by Bill McKibben.