Department(s)

Religion and Philosophy

Document Type

Article

Version Deposited

Accepted manuscript

Publication Date

2012

Keywords

Stephen, Neill, IMC, Survey, Africa, Theological, Education, WCC, CMS, Missions

Abstract

From April to July of 1950, Bishop Stephen Neill (1900-1984) took a sweeping tour of East and West Africa to assess the state of African theological education. He visited Egypt, Sudan, and the six British territories in tropical Africa: Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Gold Coast (Ghana), and Sierra Leone. Employed by the World Council of Churches at the time, Neill was appointed by the International Missionary Council to spearhead the project. The overall objective was to shed light on what could be done to improve the quality of theological education and the training of ministry in Africa. Neill produced a considerable amount of material during and after the trip including a 120-page ‘travel diary’ and a 51-page confidential report.

Arising out of the Whitby World Missionary Conference of 1947 and spearheaded by Bengt Sundkler, Norman Goodall, Kenneth Scott Latourette, Neill’s tour of East and West Africa was part of an ambitious attempt to understand the state of the worldwide ecumenical church in the aftermath of war.

This paper has three goals:

  1. Explain how and why this tour of African theological education came together;

  2. Provide an overview of Neill’s research trip through his diary entries; and

  3. Reflect on Neill’s conclusions and suggestions for what ought to be done.

Publication Title

Studies in World Christianity

Volume

18

Issue

1

First Page

41

Last Page

62

DOI

10.2307/j.ctv1ddcphf.14

Comments

Publication can be accessed at this link: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1ddcphf.14

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