When I first came to Malawi in 1988 the country was a police state, ruled by a repressive one-party regime. There was an uneasy understanding between church and state. The church had relative freedom to carry on its life without state interference so long as it confined its attention to strictly religious matters and left politics to the politicians. In those days we would not have been publishing a book titled A Theology of Public and Political Engagement.
It is a measure of the freer society found in Malawi today that there is no issue at all about publishing such a book. On the other hand, the fact that such a book is felt to be needed suggests that there is still unfinished business in this terrain.
The book is the product of last year’s annual conference of the Theological Society of Malawi. An aspiration that energises the Society is to demonstrate that theology is relevant in the “public square,” not something that can be confined to private spirituality.
It also speaks to a long-running sense of incongruity between the passionate and profound spirituality that is such a marked feature of Malawian society and a lack of integrity in public life that many find very disturbing. The new book seeks to apply theological insights to several different dimensions of Malawi’s public and political life. It makes no claims to offer any panacea, but it does aim to show that theology is relevant to public just as much as to personal life.
Available at: https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/a-theology-of-public-and-political-engagement
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