Theology: not a one-off educational experience

As a former missionary, I have experienced the richness of a God, who spoke in different languages and genres, and to people in different times and places. I also saw his word could speak truthfully and clearly into different cultures, and I came to believe that it applied to all Christian ministries.

theological anthropology and the art of ministry. Christian practice (practical theology) attempts to work between these two fields. In cases where society gives broad assent to the underlying assumptions of Christian faith, it is quite easy to conflate theology with anthropology, and much of ministry

and eternal life are foreign terms. Very often, they are seen negatively and obliquely through news stories and other second-hand encounters. In many ways for me, Australia was little different to Tanzanian society that had people of Christian, Muslim and Animist backgrounds who did not share a scriptural understanding of being human. And so, there was a need to really listen in order to understand what people really did believe and what were their underlying assumptions and questions.