Christentum und christliches Ethos sind zweifelsohne prinzipiell darauf angelegt, einer gerechteren Welt zum Durchbruch zu verhelfen und für mehr Gerechtigkeit in der Welt einzutreten. In den Evangelien ist es die Reich-Gottes-Verkündigung und -praxis Jesu, an der es abzulesen gilt, was gerecht und was ungerecht ist. Auch in der Geschichte des Christentums finden sich zahlreiche Punkte, an denen sich Christ:innen und Theolog:innen gegen die herrschende hegemoniale Moral für eine gerechtere Welt einsetzten. Zugleich ist die heutige Welt von bleibender Ungerechtigkeit und Ungleichheit geprägt: Laut Welthunger-Index 2022 litten im Jahr 2021 bis zu 828 Millionen Menschen an Hunger und auch im alltäglichen Leben der Gemeinde vor Ort und im Leben der katholischen Kirche wird Menschen vielfach vorenthalten, was sie so dringend für ein heilsames Leben in Fülle benötigen. Für eine christliche Theologie stellt sich angesichts der zentralen Bedeutung des biblischen Gerechtigkeitsbegriffs sowie der faktischen Ungerechtigkeit in der Welt in ganz besonderem Maße die Frage danach, wie theologisch zugleich von Heil und Gerechtigkeit gesprochen und weltliche Wirklichkeit tatsächlich heilsam verändert werden kann. Mit dieser Forderung nach mehr Gerechtigkeit ist allerdings noch nichts darüber ausgesagt, ob das Christentum tatsächlich seinem Auftrag – Werkzeug und Zeichen des Heils in der Welt zu sein – auch gerecht wird. Daher thematisieren die Beiträge im vorliegenden Sammelband die Frage nach dem Beitrag des Christentums zu einer gerechteren, aber auch zu einer ungerechteren Welt – von der Frage nach Gerechtigkeit in den biblischen Texten, über deren Inszenierung, Fragen der Geschlechtergerechtigkeit und Sexualethik bis hin zu ökologischen und ökonomischen Fragen und Überlegungen zu Recht und Gerechtigkeit.

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The book's central argument is that the best way to interpret the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6 is to read it as a Greco-Roman panegyric, whose function was the integration of new members and the inculcation of commonly held values. The Sermon's makarisms and woes and their juxtaposition of poverty and richness, and exhortation are Luke's attempt to construct a new socio-economic identity of Christ-followers by supplanting the values of the dominant culture with a new set of values adopted from the status of destitution for both the rich and the poor. This results in their common dependence on the Lord for their daily provisions. Such reliance on the Lord allows for the koinonia between the rich and the poor among the first-century Christ-followers. This socio-economic motif is replicated throughout the Third Gospel and typifies Luke's concept of salvation as a holistic one.

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BiAS 39 is an essay collection on women’s Liberation Theology in West Africa, issued as one of three regional volumes commissioned in preparation of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ (CIRCLE) return to Ghana, its place of birth, after 35 years. The volumes rose within the context of preparing the meeting in July 2024 by remembering the founding members of the CIRCLE. The three regional volumes focus on exploring South (BiAS 41), East/Central (BiAS 40) and West African (BiAS 39) womanist/feminist Liberation Theology generated since the launch of the CIRCLE in 1989. The contributions on the lives and works of groundbreaking African women in the Theology of Liberation constitute an international, interreligious, and interdisciplinary compendium for redemptive theological research. The book is dedicated to Rabiatu Deinyo Ammah, the first Muslim woman in the CIRCLE and one its founding matriarchs.

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This book on the legacy of Albert Schweitzer contextualises this remarkable intellectualist, humanist, medicine-man, theologian and Nobel Prize winner. This collected work is aimed at specialists in the humanities, social sciences, education, and religious studies. The authors embrace philanthropic values to benefit Africa and the world at large. The publication engages with peers on the relevance of Schweitzer’s work for humanitarian values in Africa. The essays in the book stimulate further research in the various fields in which Schweitzer excelled. Its academic contribution is its focus on the post-colonial discourse in contemporary discussions both in South Africa and Africa at large. The book emphasises Schweitzer’s reverence for life philosophy and demonstrates how this impacts on moral values. However, the book also points to the possibility that Schweitzer’s reverence for life philosophy is embedded in a typically European appreciation of ‘mysticism’ that is not commensurate with African indigenous religious values. From an African academic perspective, the book advocates the view that Schweitzer’s concept of the reverence for life supports not only the Biblical notion of imago Dei but also the African humanist values of the preservation and protection of life, criticising the exploitation of the environment by warring factions and large companies, especially in oil-producing African countries. It also argues that Schweitzer’s disposition on ethics was influenced by the Second World War, his sentiments against nuclear weapons and his resistance to the Enlightenment view of ‘civilisation’. With regard to Jesus studies the book elucidates values promoted by Schweitzer by following in Jesus’ steps and portraying Jesus’ message within a modern world view. Taken over from Schweitzer, the book argues that Jesus’ moral authority resides in his display of love and his interaction with the poor and marginalised. The book demonstrates Schweitzer’s understanding of Jesus as the one who sacrifices his own life to bring the Kingdom of God to realisation in this world. The book commends Schweitzer’s insight that we know Jesus through his toils on the one hand, and through our own experiences on the other. It is in a mixture between the two that the hermeneutical gap between then and now is bridged. It is precisely in bridging this gap that Schweitzer sees himself as an instrument of God’s healing. It defines Schweitzer as the embodiment of being a healer, educationalist and herald of the greening of Christianity. His philosophy on the reverence for life prepares a foundation for Christians to think ‘green’ about human life within a greater environment. He advocates aspects of education such as lifelong learning, holistic education and a problem-based approach to education. Finally, the book analyses both critically and appreciatively Albert Schweitzer’s contribution to the concepts of religious healing prevalent in African Christianity today.

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How did communication take place in the mission between people of different cultural backgrounds? What interests did Jesuits, indigenous people and Spaniards pursue in the Gran Chaco border region in the Jesuit province of Paraguay? What dependencies arose as a result? The Jesuit Florian Paucke (1719-1780) provided answers to these questions in his treatise »Hin und Her«, in which he wrote about his experiences in the Paraguay mission. Ulrich Stober is the first to make the manuscript and the missionary’s more than 200 watercolor drawings comprehensively accessible. On this basis, linguistic and cultural translation processes are examined with the aid of numerous archive materials. The focus is on the missionaries’ engagement with the indigenous language, diet and clothing as well as different ideas of gender roles. Even if Paucke adopted a genuinely European perspective in this respect, it is central that indigenous lifeworlds framed and shaped the questions of the European actors.

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