Restoring Life in Christ

Dialogues of Care in Christian Communities
An African Perspective

This book is the fruit of a team's work, a joint venture between scholars and pastors from South and North. The members of the project group have been two Tanzanian scholars, Rev Emeline Ndossi and Dr Lechion Peter Kimilike from Makumira University College and two Norwegian scholars, Dr Leif Gunnar Engedal, MF Norwegian School of Theology and Rev Dr Oyvind M. Eide, The School of Mission and Theo-logy.

This book is about the Christian ministry of pastoral care and counselling. The aim of the book is to give support to anyone involved in the ministry of restoring what is broken in Christian communities in Africa. If this healing is to take place, faith and message must be conscious of the questions, values, fears and aspirations which dominate the life and thought of women and men there. We have opted for the concept of hospitality. This concept relates to a basic characteristic in African anthropology and to one of the most crucial characteristics of Christian spiritual life.