Editorial

Social reality will always challenge and, to some degree, shape the way we produce scholarship. In turn, we would hope that our scholarship will, in a humble way, also contribute to the transformation of societies. For Missiology, there is also another dimension, i.e. the correction, critique or correlation of Scripture, i.e., the normative dimension. It remains important to keep this dimension in mind, and to keep on reflecting how we understand this relationship, as we engage with our social realities. It is the hope that this edition will continue this on-going work.

In this edition, therefore, we firstly present the article by Tobias Masuku, which speaks broadly on an agenda for prophetic mission praxis -he do this from a historical and missiological perspective. This is the type of [prophetic] scholarship that can and will continue to contribute to the aforementioned ideal. There is a growing number of scholars and public leaders who sense that the current kairos in the South African context calls for this. The second article, by McGlory Speckman, continues in this discourse on prophetic scholarship, through a New Testament Studies lens. This dimension is also picked up in the articles of Derrick Mashau and Credo Mangayi, who [again] reflects on their contextual Bible Studies project with homeless communities in the City of Tshwane. The on-going challenge of homelessness, in relation to land-ownership on the one hand, and poverty on the other, are understood through Biblical studies with the people. We indicated in the previous edition that this set of articles emerges from the Meal of Peace project, which started in 2012 and is co-ordinated by Credo Mangayi. The reflections that emerged from this engagement, was published in a peer-reviewed book called, "Pavement Encounters for Justice: Doing Transformative Missiology with homeless people in the City of Tshwane" (Mashau and Kritzinger 2014). The editors and the authors (as copyright owners), have given permission that it may be published in Missionalia, as an accredited South African journal, and we are excited to partner with this expression of prophetic scholarship.

The last article in our edition is coming from a SAMS Annual Congress in 2013, under the theme, "Transforming and Liberating Spiritualities in the 21st Century". With the Len Hanson, our hope is also that this contribution which deal with a Reformed perspective on monastic spirituality, may help us, as SAMS to explore the missiological relevance of what he calls, "alternative or lesser-known spiritualities." The theme of missionary spirituality, which is forged in the context of social reality, Biblical study and living in community, indeed challenge us to go deeper, in order to unearth the deeper layers of transformation, whether it be personal or societal. There is still a lot of work to be done by us. This collection of articles guides us on the quest for a prophetic scholarship, which may contribute to the public good.

Prof RW(Reggie) Nel & Rev GJ (Cobus) van Wyngaard