Comprehensive Educational Program

The problem any organization interested in making the early African writers available to the wider reading public is three-fold. First, the massive corpus of writings would take years of personal study to work through. Much of it is repetitive, in stilted English and not necessarily applicable to the African context. Second, studying the theology of the early Church is like learning a different language. Favorite bible passages are different. Philosophical assumptions are different. Third, study of early church theology is made more difficult by the lack of historical awareness in modern education systems.

Our goal, applying our 70+ years of experience studying early African Christianity, is to provide the wisdom of the early African Christianity in relevant and appealing formats.

For those interested in seminary education but with limited financial resources and occupational responsibilities, providing short duration immersion courses in early African Christianity. This will be particularly important for African Independent Churches (AIC). These churches are the source of much of the growth in African churches. Yet their pastors are given very little training and have very limited resources to pursue adequate training.

For the African scholarly community: an advanced think-tank of short duration seminars on early African Christianity. For African scholars and scholars world-wide—a website with a fully-searchable digital library, early African Christian dictionary, first-published articles and translations related to the concerns of Early African Christianity, blogs and special interest forums, podcasts, guides to teaching early African Christianity, and online research tools.

For international readers: scholarly books on the influence of African Christianity on global Christianity.

For people with limited capacities and opportunities—children, adolescents, and minimally literate people—visually driven material characterized by an emphasis on narrative and the character and virtue of these early African Christians.

For high school students and college students, we would provide syllabi and curricular, seminars, online self-directed and distant learning opportunities. Learning resources would include: CDs, podcasts of lectures, and web-based media.