HEALTH, HEALING AND GOD'S KINGDOM
By W. Meredith Long
Paternoster Press. 288 pages. £9.99
ISBN 1 870345 36 3
This book is subtitled New Pathways to Christian Health Ministry in Africa and would interest anyone involved in Christian work in Africa, not just medics. The American author has worked in international health care for 20 years, with the last seven spent in Africa, but writes in an accessible style.
The first few chapters draw parallels between biblical Hebrew/Christian culture and African world-views that reveal the image of God, but which sin has distorted. The author cites, for example, that whereas the fear of God under the Old Covenant disappeared as grace came with the New, much African spirituality is still based on fear. Or again, while Africans strongly share the Hebrew concept of belonging to a family community, God's community is characterised by healing whereas the African concept is weakened by jealousy and mistrust.
