Corruption Mocking at Justice: A Theological and Ethical Perspective on Public Life in Tanzania and Its Implications for the Anglican Church of Tanzania - Softcover

Sebahene, Alfred

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783683341 ISBN 13: 9781783683345

Publisher: Langham Academic, 2017

Synopsis

The church has a duty to fight corruption and injustice. The increased awareness globally of corruption and the threat it poses to humanity has led many in the secular and Christian world to seek solutions to stamp out this scourge. Recognizing the crisis caused by corruption in Tanzania, his own country, Dr Alfred Sebahene seeks to understand this social epidemic through the application of theological ethics. As a result of the study the author identifies theological-ethical guidelines that inform and add substance to the church's duty in the public sphere, particularly in the fight against corruption and injustice.

About this title

About the Author:

ALFRED SEBAHENE is a full-time lecturer, researcher and consultant at St John's University of Tanzania, Dodoma. He gained a PhD in Systematic Theology, Public Theology and Ecclesiology from Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa. He is on the editorial board of the African Journal for Transformational Scholarship (AJTS) and assists NGO's, churches and other organizations in understanding, formulating and responding to public policy. He is a priest in the Anglican Church and prior to working in higher theological education, Alfred spent fifteen years with the Diocese of Kagera, Tanzania.

Review:

Corruption and injustice, like cancer, are both real and life threatening, both talked about more than actually understood. Efforts to combat corruption and injustice are incoherent and inadequate. Understanding the nature, the sources and the forms of orruption is critical to any viable war against it. Understanding the peculiar interplay between corruption and injustice is essential. What should the church, perhaps the most viable institution in the war against corruption and injustice, do in response to the scourge? Dr Sebahene's thesis deals with all these aspects and more. Quite likely, this work will generate needed discussion and subsequent action against corruption and injustice. I commend Dr Sebahene for an excellent piece on two interlinked critical contemporary social and spiritual issues and recommend his work to anyone desiring to contribute to the war against corruption and injustice.
Professor Emmanuel D. Mbennah, PhD
Vice-Chancellor, St John's University of Tanzania, Dodoma, Tanzania

Alfred Sebahene joins the discourse that follows the increased global consciousness of the negative effects of corruption on individuals and societies. He does so as an African, a Tanzanian and an Anglican theologian. Acutely aware of the prevalence of corruption in Africa in general, and in his country in particular, he takes up the urgent challenge to move beyond the notion of corruption as only a political, economic or cultural phenomenon and challenge, recognizing that corruption, at its core, also presents a theological challenge to Christian churches. As a public theologian and Christian ethicist, Sebahene highlights the theological "dynamic link between corruption and injustice," thus identifying corruption also as an issue of justice. He is both critical and appreciative of current and past efforts of the Tanzanian government and the Anglican Church of Tanzania in fighting corruption. However, acknowledging that not enough is being done, this research offers theological-ethical guidelines to the Anglican Church of Tanzania that could inform its role in the public sphere in general, but especially in addressing corruption. As such it is not only a necessary and timeous study, but a work that can serve the discourse on corruption and the role of churches across Africa well.
Len Hansen, DTh
Director of Research Development, Faculty of Theology,
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Executive Director, NetACT Africa

About this edition

• Publisher: Langham Academic
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1783683341
• ISBN 13: 9781783683345
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 354