EDITORIAL

Editorial

Missiology is always in dialogue with various other theological and social scientific disciplines. This is a world-wide, global conversation. In future it will become critical for Missionalia to also provide an open platform for this kind of scholarly dialogue. We must grow wings for this challenge. Klippies Kritzinger, one of our previous editors, however always remind us to remain winged as well as rooted. We are rooted in and do our work from a specific African context, or at least, we are wrestling with questions that emerge from our continent. This new edition embody this identity.

In the first article entitled, "Charismatic Spirituality, Healing Evangelists and the Ebola Crisis in Sierra Leone", Dr Joseph Bankura, bring two critically important perspectives for this dialogue together, namely Charismatic spirituality and healing. These remain vibrant themes within the African context, whether on the continent or in the diaspora. Relating this specifically to, what he calls, "the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, it becomes for him more than merely an academic exercise - his research and words becomes part of the healing work of the Holy Spirit. This kind of study is also reflected in the article from Prof Anthony Court, where in this instance, he relate the calling of the church to the state in the context of the genocide in Rwanda. As indicated in a previous edition of Missionalia (Nov 2015), our work as scholars need to be in relation to the public sphere. This article take this calling further. Then, we also publish two articles from a very successful conference, hosted by the University of the Freestate, on the relationship between Mission and Eschatology. The articles of Prof Pieter Verster and that of Prof Derrick Mashau and Themba Ngcobo grapples with this theme. One the one hand Verster relates it to the Biblical texts, while on the other hand Mashau and Ngcobo to the African worldview. These two perspectives are kept in dialogue and while for some, it might be seen as dated, we would still invite colleagues to continue this conversation between the Biblical and Contextual dimensions of the Missio Dei. It also need to be noted that Prof Mashau worked with Mr Ngcobo, as a doctoral student in Missiology, and we would want to highlight the fact that three of the articles come from emerging (younger) colleagues, i.e. the one of Mashau and Ngcobo, then also the articles from Suderman and Counted. We are indeed seeing a steady growth in excellent articles from our emerging cohort and it underlines Missionalia's commitment towards providing a platform for the development of new voices. The themes from Andrew Suderman and Victor Counted indeed set the tone for a key agenda.

Again, we are excited to present this edition to you and are looking forward in this year for more engagement and dialogue at the upcoming Joint Conference of theological and religion study societies, in Pretoria, hosted by the University of Pretoria, as well as the 14th Assembly of the International Association For Mission Studies (IAMS) to be held on 11 - 17 August 2016, in Seoul, South Korea. May God's Spirit continue to stir new questions and new conversations.

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