Steven Paas Livres

Focusing on the need to revive the missionary awareness of Western Christians, this study emphasizes the importance of local engagement in Jesus' mission. It highlights that all Christians are called to participate in the missio Dei, beginning with their immediate surroundings. By exploring relationships with neighbors and individuals from diverse backgrounds, the book encourages readers to recognize their local environment as a vital mission field, fostering connections with both the non-religious and those of different faiths.

The history of Christianity illustrates a profound connection between Africa and Europe, beginning in Jerusalem and extending to Africa's Atlantic Coast. Over the centuries, particularly from the 19th to 20th centuries, the Church established a strong presence in Sub-Saharan Africa. In contemporary times, African Christianity faces the challenge of re-establishing itself in a secularized Europe, prompting a reflection on faith and community in a changing cultural landscape.

Focusing on the historical development of Christianity in Africa, this book offers a concise overview that emphasizes indigenous and indigenized practices. It draws on the perspectives of notable scholars from the region, including F.J. Verstraelen, Ogbu U. Kalu, and J. Hildebrandt, enriching the understanding of how Christianity has evolved within African contexts.

The biography chronicles the life of Johannes Rebmann, a German missionary and linguist who dedicated nearly three decades to East Africa during the 19th century. Influenced by Pietism, he was trained in Switzerland and sent to the Mombasa region, where he faced significant challenges, including opposition and personal suffering. Despite these hardships, Rebmann played a crucial role in establishing the Church in East and Central Africa and contributed to linguistic studies by creating vocabularies for Swahili and N(y)ika, along with a dictionary for the Kiniassa language.

Exploring the concept of Christian Zionism, this book critiques the literal interpretation of Scriptures that assigns a unique status to Israel and the Jewish people. It argues against the extremes of glorification and degradation that arise from such views, highlighting the dangers of both Philo-Semitism and Anti-Semitism. The author asserts that biblical promises of redemption and judgment are fulfilled in Christ, applicable to all nations rather than a specific ethnic group, culminating in his return and the establishment of a universal kingdom.

The study explores the theological divide between Rome and the Reformation, arguing that the core issue was the Church and Sacraments rather than Justification. It emphasizes the significance of these topics within the African context, advocating for a theology that is rooted in Scripture while being attuned to African cultural nuances. The work aims to enrich the ongoing discourse on Ecclesiology, addressing the unique challenges and perspectives present in African theology.

Exploring the ancient North African Church, this study delves into its rapid growth and the schisms that led to its decline. It contrasts the early Church's issues of authority and moral conduct with the contemporary Church in Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the ongoing relevance of these debates. The Donatists' belief in the necessity of moral integrity among church leaders is examined alongside Augustine's perspectives on holiness and authority, revealing enduring conflicts within Christianity today.

Steven Paas (Ph.D.) started compiling the words and explanations in this dictionary in 1997, when preparing for his teaching at the Zomba Theological College in Malawi. Apart from this dictionary of Chichewa/Cinyanja, he has published various studies, for example a history of Chichewa lexicography, and, recently, a survey of the history of Western and African Christianity.

This is a study of what and why Luther wrote about the Jews and the religion of Judaism, as part of his theological concept viewed as a whole. Luther: `God wanted to point out that the Messiah would be a brother and a cousin of both the Jews and the Gentiles, if not according to their paternal genealogy, at least according to their maternal nature [Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, and Bathsheba]. Consequently, there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, except that Moses later separated this people from the Gentiles by a different form of worship and political regime. Moreover, these things were written to make it known to all that the Messiah would gather the Gentiles and the Jews into one and the same Church, just as they are joined by nature and consanguinity.' Lecture in 1544 on Genesis 38:1-5, LW 7, p.15; WA 44, p. 312.

This book is the revised and enlarged second edition of a biography of the mis- sionary and linguist Johannes Rebmann (1820-1876), a Christian from Germany who worked in 19th-century East Africa. Rebmann was deeply influenced by the Movement of Pietism in his homeland Württemberg. He was trained to be a mis- sionary in Basel, Switzerland, for the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS). From its base in London the CMS sent him to the Muslim-ruled and slavery-rid- den Mombasa area of present-day Kenya. There he stayed for 29 years before returning home to Gerlingen near Stuttgart, blind and sick, soon to die. Rebmann was a faithful witness of Christ in word and deed. He experienced a lot of suffe- ring and opposition, but was instrumental in establishing the Church in East and Central Africa. His lexicographical work facilitated succeeding missionaries. He compiled vocabularies of the Swahili and N(y)ika languages. Together with Sali- mini, a slave captured near Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) by the Swahili Arabs, he made a dictionary of the ‘Kiniassa’, an important language in Central Africa, which is now usually called Chichewa.