African Christian Theology
Journal / African Christian Theology / Submissions

African Christian Theology (ISSN 3006–1768; e-ISSN 3007–1771) is the academic journal of the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA). The mission of ACTEA is to strengthen theological education through accreditation, scholarship, and support services to serve the church and transform society. The journal is one way in which ACTEA engages theological educators and church leaders in addressing relevant issues facing the church and society in Africa. African Christian Theology is multidisciplinary. Meet our editors and our editorial board members.

Like ACTEA, the journal’s editorship has a committed evangelical perspective, but the journal is broader in scope and welcomes articles from scholars from various Christian traditions. This ecumenical commitment is reflected in the constituency of our editorial board. African Christian Theology serves the whole of Africa and provides a venue for conversations between different regions of Africa, as well as being an organ through which African voices can address World Christianity at large. Following in the footsteps of Athanasius, Antony the Great, Augustine, Kwame Bediako, Bénézet Bujo, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Giyorgis of Segla, E. Bolaji Idowu, Ogbu U. Kalu, Byang Kato, Kä Mana, Teresia Mbari Hinga, Afua Kuma, Anne Nasimiyu Wasike, Laurenti Magesa, John S. Mbiti, Charles Nyamiti, Origen, Pachomius, Lamin Sanneh, Tertullian, Andrew F. Walls, Yared the Melodist, and Isaac Zokoué, the journal promotes World Christianity perspectives through deep engagement with African contextual realities. Because, as Mercy Amba Oduyoye reminds us, “a bird with one wing cannot fly,” the journal actively promotes the voices of women equally with those of men.

In scope, the journal is concerned with matters of Christianity in Africa:

• Christian theology arising from/for African contexts and/or articulated by Africans (including the Diaspora)
• Christian praxis in African contexts
• theological pedagogy in Africa
• public theology, political theology, pastoral theology, practical theology
• Christian ethics
• missiology and ecclesiology
• Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, eschatology, etc.
• Christian history in Africa
• African biblical theology, hermeneutics, and homiletics
• Bible translation into African languages
• Biblical Studies (OT or NT) addressed to African contexts
• vernacular theology and vernacular hermeneutics
• orality in African Christianity
• Africa in World Christianity
• theology and development
• Ethnomusicology in African Christianity, vernacular hymnody
• Ecotheology / Creation Care in African contexts 
• African Christianity and other religions (ATRs, Islam, various Asian religions with communities in Africa)

Occasionally the journal may issue specific Calls-for-Papers for a themed issues, which will limit the scope for such issues. Non-themed issues may publish articles within the broader scope outlined above. Articles and book reviews are published in English, French, or Portuguese; each article is published with a trilingual abstract in those languages. The journal is registered with ISSN and CrossRef and all publications are assigned DOI numbers; registrations with AJOL and ATLA are pending.

SUBMISSIONS

Articles and Essays : should fall within the range of 5,000–6,000 words, including footnotes but excluding bibliography and abstract. The editors retain discretion to publish articles outside this range. Submissions should fall within the journal’s scope and should engage with Africana scholarship, that is with scholarship arising from and/or addressed to African contexts. Africana scholarship can be written by Africans or by those who have immersed themselves in African contexts. Submissions should contribute to the field. Articles and reviews composed by AI (Artificial Intelligence) programs or apps or services should not be submitted; these are unacceptable. Software may be used to detect plagiarism and AI composition. For more details, see the journal’s policy document.

African Christian Theology is
African, 
          and so bibliographies of submissions should richly engage with Africana sources (albeit not              precluding engagement with relevant contextual works written from European, American,                and Asian theological perspectives),
Christian,
          and therefore maintains a high view of Scripture as central to its foundation and takes                       allegiance to and alignment with Christ seriously, and
Theological,
          and therefore submissions should include reflections which contribute to the edification and            benefit of the Church.

Our academic standards are as anywhere else in the world, and yet are proudly African. The journal is open access and will be available across a number of platforms. As an academic journal, African Christian Theology practices double-blind peer review for all submitted articles and essays.

Authors should provide an abstract in the language in which the article is written; abstracts should be between 100–150 words. If authors are able to provide translations of the abstract into the other two languages, they should do so; otherwise the journal will provide translations of the abstract.

There are no fees required to submit to the journal and no fees required to publish in the journal: no submission fees, no page fees, no publication fees.

Submissions may be made online at https://AfricanChristianTheology.org or sent via email to
submissions@AfricanChristianTheology.org. Questions? Email Editors@AfricanChristianTheology.org.

Book Reviews
The journal publishes two types of book reviews, “Book Note” style short reviews of 300–600 words and critical review essays of 1500–3500 words; the full bibliographic information of the book being reviewed is included in this word count; variation may be allowed at editorial discretion.

Reviews should include a summary. At least half of the review should reflect critical engagement on the book’s strengths and weaknesses. For reviews of edited multi-author volumes, authors and chapter titles should appear in bold type in the body of the review.

If African Christian Theology arranged for a copy of the book being reviewed to be provided, the review should be submitted within three months of reception of the book.

Critical review essays require an article title; short reviews are not titled. See page 5 for citation instructions for reviews.

STYLE GUIDE FOR AUTHORS
African Christian Theology generally follows the usage of the Chicago Manual of Style (see also Turabian’s A Manual for Writers), the SBL Style Handbook, and Langham Literature’s “Style Guide for Authors.” Specifically, please note the following, which may vary from the manuals listed above:

Spellings:
For contributions in English, authors may adopt either American or British spellings or other local regional spellings (as long as they are consistent within the manuscript). Original spellings in quotations must be retained. Regardless of dialect of English chosen, do the following:
• Use ‘-ize’ and ‘-ization’, not ‘-ise’ and ‘-isation’ (e.g., ‘realized’ and ‘realization’)
• Don’t use ‘spelt’ or ‘learnt’ – change to ‘spelled’ and ‘learned’

Punctuation:

• Ellipses are 3 dots with spaces between, before and after: . . . instead of ...
• Two spaces may be used between sentences and after colons
• Possessives: when a name ends in s, add an apostrophe and an -s-, e.g., Jesus’s, Moses’s, and   Epaphras’s
• Quotation marks: “double” around speech, ‘single’ for speech within speech, single for ‘special’ words, and “double” for titles of articles and other titles not requiring italics
• Hyphens, -, are used for hyphenated compound terms and hyphenated names; e.g., twenty-one, old-fashioned, self-confidence, all-powerful, Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole, Emma Wild-Wood
• En-dashes, –, are used for ranges between numbers or days; e.g., 37–38 or 1998–2016
• Em-dashes, —, are used when a sentence requires a dash, indicating a break of thought; they function similarly to parentheses
• Use Oxford commas for lists
• Footnote numbers follow other punctuation:
  — . . . because “all theology is contextual.”²
  — Because “all theology is contextual,” no one contextualized theology is absolute.³
  — We should recognize that theology arising in Europe is precisely a European contextual
  theology, ⁴ and thus is not necessarily normative.

2Joshua Robert Barron, “The Camel Has Four Legs: A Contextual African Practical Ecclesiology,” 367.
³Barron, “The Camel Has Four Legs,” 367.
⁴Joshua Robert Barron, “Andrew F. Walls: Apostle of World Christianity.”

Abbreviations:

• Do NOT use a full-stop after abbreviations that are capital initial letters (ACTEA, USA, UK); units of measure (mm, cm, kg, in, lb); books of the Bible (Gen, Exod); or after contractions of titles of address (Dr, Mrs, Rev, Mr)
• DO use full-stops where the last letter of the word is not included, for both singular and plural forms (ed., eds., p., pp., ch., chs.)
• DO use full-stops for name initials, and do put a space between initials (e.g., Jesse N. K. Mugambi)
• v. for verse, and vv. for verses
• e.g. and i.e. should always be followed by a comma: e.g., . . . and i.e., . . .

Emphasis:

• Titles of books and journals should be in italics. Other titles (e.g., journal articles, chapters, theses, dissertations) should be marked in “Double Quotation Marks.” Titles of biblical books are an exception: e.g., Genesis, Romans, Revelation.
• Except for titles of other works (see above) and third level subtitles, italics should be used for
  emphasis rather than bold type or ALL CAPS, subject to editorial discretion.
  o First level subtitles (subheadings) should be in bold and 14 size font, second level
  subtitles should be in bold (size 12 font), and third level subtitles should be in bold
  italics (size 12 font).

Foreign language words:

• Words from a language other than that in which the article is written should, when using Latin script, be italicized, unless they have been adopted into the ordinary lexicon of the article’s language. E.g., in English-language articles, ‘ubuntu’ may be written in regular font but sankofa and umunthu and négritude should be italicized (obviously for submissions in French, négritude should not be italicized unless a special emphasis is intended).
• The first use of the term should include a definition of the word. When appropriate, words in other script forms can be used (e.g., key terms from Old Testament Hebrew or New Testament Greek), but for the first such usage in an article a transliteration and a gloss should be given parenthetically, marked with single quotations. E.g., , מלשׁ)shalom, ‘peace, wellness, welfare’ or χαρις  (kharis, ‘grace’).
  o For exegetical papers, in which entire phrases or passages of original language biblical text(s) are discussed, it is not necessary to provide a transliteration of each Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek word.
• When the article or context do not make it clear which language a non-English word or phrase is from, this should be indicated parenthetically. E.g.,

This is discussed in Kujilisha kwa Neno la Mungu (kiSwahili: ‘Eating the Word of God’), their
textbook on congregational vernacular hermeneutics.

Neckebrouck considers this type of resistance to cultural proselytization in his Les Maasai et le
christianisme: Le temps du grand refus (French: ‘The Maasai and Christianity: A time of great
rejection’).

Fischer beautifully captures the ideal of what Lygunda Li-M calls contextéisation (French: literally,
‘context-ed-ization’) in forms of Christianity which are authentically Christian and thoroughly
African1 in the title of his book, Maasai gestalten Christsein (German: ‘Maasai-shaped Christianity’).
     ¹Fohle Lygunda Li-M, “De la contextualisation à la contextéisation de la théologie en Afrique.”

• For transliterations of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, SBL style is preferred but where appropriate IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is accepted, as long as consistency is maintained throughout the article.
  o Note that SBL provides two transliteration conventions, an Academic Style (SBL Handbook of Style 5.1.1) and a General Purpose Style (5.1.2) for Hebrew and Aramaic; either may be used but the Academic Style is preferred.
  o For the Greek letter chi — Χ, χ — the journal prefers -kh-, contrary to SBL usage, as in English the digraph -ch- more often represents the sound / ͡tʃ / as in church — / ͡tʃɜː ͡tʃ/ in British English and / ͡tʃɝ͡tʃ/ in American English — rather than /x/ as in the German name Bach.
• Hebrew text may be written with or without vowel pointing; Hebrew text should be written without Masoretic cantillation marks except when an argument is being made for which Masoretic cantillation is pertinent. Greek text may be written with or without diacritical accents (but be careful not to omit rough and smooth breathing marks). For exegetical papers, using Hebrew and/or Greek script is preferred; for other papers Hebrew and Greek terms may be transliterated throughout.

Capitalizations:

• Capitalize proper nouns (including Trinity, Father, Son, Christ, Spirit, Word of God, Logos, Holy Spirit, Paraclete, when intended as a divine reference).
• Not capitalized — heaven, gospel, incarnation, christology, pronouns for God (the reflexive divine pronoun Godself, however, should be capitalized), hell, atonement, evangelical, etc.; ‘Gospel’ should only be capitalized when referring to a specific work, such as the Gospel of John.
• Do capitalize Scripture and Bible but do not capitalize scriptural or biblical; when word of God refers to words of God or to the biblical text, do not capitalize ‘word’.
• 'Church’ should only be capitalized when an emphasis on the universal Church is intended in contrast to local or regional expressions of the Church or when part of the name of a given denomination (e.g., Roman Catholic Church, Church of God in Christ, etc.); when used generally or of a specific congregation or congregational building, ‘church’ should not be capitalized.
• ‘chapter 1’, ‘appendix 2’ (digits, not words, and lower case unless beginning a sentence)
  • LORD, when referring to YHWH — use SMALL CAPS for -ord
  • missio Dei, not Missio Dei
  • In bibliographies, but only in bibliographies (not in the text of the article nor in footnotes), surnames of authors or editors should appear in SMALL CAPS, as in the examples below, pp. 6–8.

DATES:

• Form: 28 January 2014
• Centuries: the nineteenth century, nineteenth-century attitudes
• Decades: the fifties or the 1950s
• BC, AD, etc. — full caps with no full stops and separated from the numerals by a space; e.g., AD 325 and 476 BC.
• Ranges: use en-dashes to indicate date ranges, e.g. AD 68–73, not AD 68-73.
• For bibliographies, if no date is given for the reference indicate such as “n.d.” in place of the year

NUMBERS:

• Use first, second, third (not firstly, secondly, thirdly)
• En-dashes with no spaces for number ranges, 13–47 not 13-47.
• 6:30 a.m., 3:25 p.m.
• Avoid ff. and f.; instead give the full range of page numbers or verses.

BOOKS OF THE BIBLE:

• In the text of articles, names of books should be spelled out and not abbreviated.
• Use parenthetical references in-text for biblical citations, following SBL Bible abbreviations
  (Mark 2:1–9; Gen 12:2); see page 9 below.
• The abbreviation for verse is v. and for verses is vv. — although this abbreviation should not be used in the text of your paper but only within parenthetical references, charts, graphs, or footnotes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FOOTNOTES:

• Use footnotes. Do not use endnotes. Do not use in-text parenthetical citations except for Scripture references and in book reviews (for the latter, see immediately below).
• Citations in book reviews
  o For quotations from the book being reviewed, add the page number(s) parenthetically after the quotation. E.g., using quotes from Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement from the West: A Biography from Birth to Old Age, edited by Brian Stanley, Foreword by Gillian Mary Bediako, Studies in Christian Mission (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2023):

           Walls emphasizes that “globally, the church requires theological pioneering” (242).

            In part, AICs “grew from rereadings of Scripture by people who read the Bible in a different              way and saw things in the Bible” that European Enlightenment thinking simply could                          neither see nor imagine (229–230).
            o If it is necessary to cite a source other than the book being reviewed, this should                              generally   be done in text, e.g.:
             . . . Joseph Kenny’s The Catholic Church in Tropical Africa 1445–1850 (Idaban, Nigeria: Ibadan                University Press, 1983) provides additional details . . .
            o If a footnote is needed (unusual but possible for a book review essay), a full citation                        should be given in the footnote as the journal generally does not publish bibliographies                    with book reviews. E.g., ¹Joseph Kenny, The Catholic Church in Tropical Africa 1445–1850                        (Idaban, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press, 1983), 27–28.

            o Note well that this guidance is for book reviews only. For articles, see immediately below.

• Citations in submitted articles
  Generally follow the Chicago Manual of Style (examples below); for book chapters where a chapter number is given, include the chapter number (as in the fifth example immediately below).
  o Multiple Authors or Editors
  Here African Christian Theology follows the current guidance of The Chicago Manuel of
  Style (18th edition, 2024), section 13.23. For two or three authors or editors, all authors or
  editors should be listed in both footnotes and the bibliographic entry. For four to six authors
  or editors, list only the first author or editor in the footnote, followed by “et al.”; for
  bibliographic entries, list all of the authors or editors (up to six). For seven or more co-
  authors or co-editors, list only the first author or editor in the footnote and in the bibliography
  list only the first three, followed by “et al.” Examples are included below.

Bibliography entries
ABEBE, Sofanit T., Elizabeth W. MBURU, and Abeneazer G. URGA, eds. Reading Hebrews and 1
Peter from Majority World Perspectives. Library of New Testament Studies. London: T&T
Clark, 2024.
ALOKWU, Cyprian Obiora. “The Anglican Church, Environment and Poverty: Constructing a
Nigerian Indigenous Oikotheology.” PhD dissertation. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa:
University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009. https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/items/8f5ca2b5-e4be-
48dd-ae9c-81c3655b3f37
ANDERSON, Allan, Michael BERGUNDER, André DROOGERS, and Cornelis VAN DER LAAN, eds.
Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, edited by The Anthropology of
Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
ASSEFA, Daniel, and Tekletsadik BELACHEW. “Values Expressed through African Symbols: An
Ethiopian Theological Reflection.” International Bulletin of Mission Research 41, no. 4 (2017): 312–324. https://doi.org/10.1177/2396939317728196
ATANSI, Chukwuemeka A., David M. M. LEWIS, and Diane B. STINTON. “Christology.” African
Theology Worldwide. 30 October 2023. https://african.theologyworldwide.com/encyclopaedia-african-christian-thought/christology                                                                                                        ATAL SA ANGANG, Dosithée, P. Buetubela BALEMBO, Laurent Monsengwo PASINYA, and J. Nyeme
TESE, éds.Congrès des Biblistes Africains : point de vue exégétique : actes du 1er , Kinshasa, 26-30 décembre 1978. Journées bibliques africaines. Kinshasa: Faculté de Théologie Catholique de Kinshasa, 1980.
FIEDLER, Rachel Nyagondwe, Johannes W. HOFMEYR, and Klaus FIEDLER. African Feminist Hermeneutics: An Evangelical Reflection. Mzuzu, Malawi: Mzuni Press, 2016.
HOLTER, Knut, and Justo LEMBURIS, eds. Maasai Encounters with the Bible. Nairobi: Acton Publishing, 2021.
KENNY, Joseph. The Catholic Church in Tropical Africa 1445–1850. Idaban, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press, 1983.
MANGAYI, Lukwikilu C. “The Baptist Union of South Africa’s mission orientation needs
transformation: A scrutiny by an insider.” HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 75, no. 4 (2019): Article 5551, 9 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i4.5551
MURIITHI, Kevin. “Toward a Theology of Creation: An African Approach to the Environment.”
Chapter 5 in God and Creation, edited by Rodney L. Reed and David K. Ngaruiya, 87–96. ASET Series. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Langham Global Library, 2019.
MTUKWA, Gift. “The People of God and Kingdom Political Ethics in Romans 13:1–7.” Didache:
Faithful Teaching 14, no. 1 (2014): 1–11.
MWANIKI, Lydia. Gender & Imago Dei: A Postcolonial African Reading of I Corinthians 11:1–16. Alameda, California, USA: Borderless Press, 2019.
SHAW, Mark, and Wanjiru M GITAU. The Kingdom of God in Africa: A History of African Christianity. Revised and updated edition. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Langham Global Library, 2020.

Footnote for first citation:
Give full author(s) names and full title, followed by appropriate page numbers.

1. Cyprian Obiora Alokwu, “The Anglican Church, Environment and Poverty: Constructing a
Nigerian Indigenous Oikotheology,” 73.
2. Chukwuemeka A. Atansi, David M. M. Lewis, and Diane B. Stinton, “Christology.”
3. Joseph Kenny, The Catholic Church in Tropical Africa 1445–1850, 32–33.
2. Gift Mtukwa, “The People of God and Kingdom Ethics,” 5.
3. Lukwikilu C. Mangayi, “The Baptist Union of South Africa’s mission orientation needs
transformation: A scrutiny by an insider,” 4–5.
4. Kevin Muriithi, “Toward a Theology of Creation: An African Approach to the Environment,” 87.
5. Mark Shaw and Wanjiru M. Gitau, The Kingdom of God in Africa: A History of Christianity in Africa, 81–87.
6. Esther A. Acolatse, For Freedom or Bondage? A Critique of African Pastoral Practices, 19–20.
7. Knut Holter and Justo Lemburis, eds, Maasai Encounters with the Bible.
8. Allan Anderson et al., eds, Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods.
9. Daniel Assefa and Tekletsadik Belachew, “Values Expressed through African Symbols: An
Ethiopian Theological Reflection,” 319.
10. Sofanit T. Abebe, Elizabeth W. Mburu, and Abeneazer Urga, eds, Reading Hebrews and 1 Peter
from Majority World Perspectives.
11. Dosithée Atal Sa Angang et al, éds, Christianisme et identité africaine : point de vue
exégétique : actes du 1er Congrès des Biblistes Africains, Kinshasa, 26-30 décembre 1978.
12. Rachel Nyagondwe Fiedler, Johannes W. Hofmeyr, and Klaus Fiedler, African Feminist
Hermeneutics: An Evangelical Reflection, 78.
13. Lydia Mwaniki, Gender & Imago Dei: A Postcolonial African Reading of I Corinthians 11:1–
16, 27.

Short form footnote for all subsequent citations — author(s) last name and abbreviated title; do not use ibid. or op. cit.:
1. Alokwu, “The Anglican Church, Environment and Poverty,” 55.
2. Atansi, Lewis, and Stinton, “Christology.”
3. Kenny, The Catholic Church in Tropical Africa, 32–33.
4. Mtukwa, “The People of God,” 5.
5. Mtukwa, “The People of God,” 7.
6. Mangayi, “The Baptist Union of South Africa’s mission orientation,” 8.
7. Muriithi, “Toward a Theology of Creation,” 87.
8. Shaw and Gitau, The Kingdom of God in Africa, 81–87.
9. Acolatse, For Freedom or Bondage?, 57.
10. Holter and Lemburis, eds, Maasai Encounters with the Bible.
11. Anderson et al., eds, Studying Global Pentecostalism.
10. Assefa and Belachew, “Values Expressed through African Symbols,” 315.
11. Abebe, Mburu, and Urga, eds, Reading Hebrews and 1 Peter.
12. Atal Sa Angang et al, éds, Christianisme et identité africaine.
13. Fiedler, Hofmeyr, and Fiedler, African Feminist Hermeneutics, 151.
14. Mwaniki, Gender & Imago Dei, 38.

• Titles of webpages should be included for bibliographic entries of online articles but should not be included in footnotes (e.g., see the examples for Atansi et al in the bibliography, and #2 in the two footnote listed immediately above). 

• For articles that exist in paper and digital form, an internet address should be provided if known. For articles that exist only online, the internet address must be provided in the bibliography. Do not include an “Accessed” date. Working DOI addresses, when available, are preferred. When DOI addresses exist for books or book chapters, these should be appended to the bibliographic entry. Do not include such addresses in footnotes. 

• For books that are part of a series — e.g., African Christian Studies Series (Pickwick Publications), ASET Series (Langham Global Library), Bible and Theology in Africa (Peter Lang), etc. — the name of the series should be included in the bibliographic entry but not in footnotes. When applicable, include volume numbers. Thus:
  GAISIE, Rudolph K. Jesus Christ as Logos Incarnate and Resurrected Nana (Ancestor): An African Perspective on Conversion and Christology. Foreword by Anthony Oswald Balcomb. African Christian Studies Series 19. Eugene, Oregon, USA: Pickwick Publications, 2020. 

•  For books that are part of more than one series, all series titles should be included in the
  bibliographic entry (but again, not in the footnotes). When applicable, include volume numbers for each series. Thus:
  LABEODAN, Helen A., Rosemary AMENGA-ETEGO, Johanna STIEBERT, and Mark S. AIDOO, eds. COVID-19: African Women and the Will to Survive. BiAS – Bible in Africa Studies 37 / Exploring Religion in Africa 8. Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2021.
  https://doi.org/10.20378/irb-51639

Place of Publication
As of 2024, The Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition) omits the place of publication for books
published after 1900 while giving only the place of publication, but not the publisher, for books
published before 1900 (See CMS 14.30 and 14.31). On this matter, however, African Christian
Theology keeps its own counsel and continues to include both place of publication and publisher,
regardless of publication date. Follow the examples above. In addition, do the following:

• For books from publishers based in more than one city, choose either the publisher’s primary location or the location nearest to you. Do the same for imprints which are joint endeavors between different publishers. E.g., HippoBooks is a joint imprint of Langham Literature, based in Carlisle, England, and of ACTS (African Christian Textbooks) based in Bukuru, Nigeria. Thus:
  MBURU, Elizabeth. African Hermeneutics. Forward by Samuel. N. Ngewa. Bukuru, Nigeria:
  HippoBooks, 2019.
  or
  MBURU, Elizabeth. African Hermeneutics. Forward by Samuel. N. Ngewa. Carlisle, Cambria,
  UK: HippoBooks, 2019. 

• For cities of publication that are known internationally — e.g., Accra, Addis Ababa, Berlin, Boston, Cairo, Cambridge, Cape Town, Chicago, Edinburgh, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos, Leiden, London, Oxford, Nairobi, New York, Paris, Rome — it is not necessary to include the country (or, for cities in the USA, the state) in the bibliography. Thus:
  BUJO, Bénézet. Le diarie d’un théologien africain. Spiritualité du Tiers Monde 1. Kinshasa :
  Editions de l’Église d’en bas, 1987.
  ÉLA, Jean-Marc. Le cri de l’homme africain : questions aux chrétiens et aux églises d’Áfrique.
  Paris : Editions L’Harmattan, 1980.
  GETUI, Mary N., Samuel Tinyiko Maluleke, and Justin S. Ukpong, eds. Interpreting the New
  Testament in Africa. Nairobi: Acton Publishers, 2001.
  LAUTERBACH, Karen, and Mika VÄHÄKANGAS, eds. Faith in African Lived Christianity:
  Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives. Global Pentecostal and Charismatic
  Studies 35. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
  TRULL, Richard E. The Fourth Self: Theological Education to Facilitate Self-Theologizing for
  Local Church Leaders in Kenya. Bible and Theology in Africa 14. Edited by Knut Holter.
  New York: Peter Lang, 2013, 2016. 

• For other cities of publication, both city and country should be listed. Thus:
  AIDOO, Mark S. Journeying with Ruth on a Mission: Expositions in the Book of Ruth from an
  African Perspective. Theologische Impulse der Missionsakademie (TIMA) 21. Hamburg,
  Germany: Missionsakademie an der Universität Hamburg Rupertistr, 2023.
  AJIBADE, Ezekiel. Common Pulpit Errors and Solutions. Foreword by Emiola Nihinlola.
  African Christian Preachers Series 1. Ibadan, Nigeria: Baptist Press, 2016.
  AWOH, Peter Acho. The Dynamics and Contradictions of Evangelisation in Africa: An Essay on
  the Kom Experience. Mankon, Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Research, 2011.
  MUNGA, Stephen. Beyond the Controversy: A Study of African Theologies of Inculturation and
  Liberation. Studia Theologica Lundensia 55. Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press, 1998.
  ROSS, Kenneth R., ed. Christianity in Malawi: A Source Book. Revised and Expanded Edition.
  Zomba, Malawi: Mzuni Press, 2020.
  TASIE, G. O. M. Thoughts and Voices of an African Church: Christ Army Church. Jos, Nigeria:
  Connack Nigeria, 1997.

• Most publishers follow the convention of identifying lesser-known cities in the USA with the US Postal Code abbreviation of their state. However, as those codes may not be common knowledge among the journal’s readership, the state names should be spelled out in bibliographic entries for African Christian Theology articles. For other countries, if there is another city or town with the same name as the location of publication, the name of the state, province, or county (as applicable) should be included. The same should be done for lesser-known cities. Thus:
  DICKSON, Kwesi A. Theology in Africa. Maryknoll, New York, USA: Orbis Books, 1984.
  GITAU, Wanjiru M. Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered: Millennials and Social Change in
  African Perspective. Foreword by Mark R. Shaw. Missiological Engagements. Downers
  Grove, Illinois, USA: IVP Academic, 2018.
  KUMA, Afua. The Surprising African Jesus: The Lost Prayers and Praises of Afua Kuma.
  Translated by Jon P. Kirby. Transcribed by Joseph Kwakye. Eugene, Oregon, USA: Wipf and Stock, 2022.
  KUNHIYOP, Samuel Waje. African Christian Ethics. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Zondervan
  Academic, 2019.
  MUGAMBI, Kyama M. A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya. Studies in World Christianity. Waco, Texas, USA: Baylor University Press, 2020.
  OREDEIN, Oluwatomisin Olayinka. The Theology of Mercy Amba Oduyoye: Ecumenism,
  Feminism, and Communal Practice. Notre Dame Studies in African Theology. Notre Dame,
  Indiana, USA: University of Notre Dame Press, 2023.
  REED, Rodney L., and David K. NGARUIYA, eds. Salvation in African Christianity. ASET Series
  8. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Langham Global Library, 2023.

IMPORTANT:
Any Greek or Hebrew fonts in your manuscript must be Unicode. Recommended fonts for Greek and  Hebrew include Times New Roman, SBL Greek, and SBL Hebrew. SBL fonts can be downloaded here: http://www.sbl-site.org/educational/biblicalfonts.aspx

Other special fonts must be Unicode; i.e., for languages that do not use a Latin-based script — e.g., Amharic, Arabic, Coptic, Ge’ez, Syriac, etc. If these are used, please select the MS Word option to embed fonts into your document. When appropriate, International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols may be used for transliterations of non-English words; for Latin script (i.e., the ordinary English alphabet) transliterations, note the Foreign language words section above, on page 4.

Please let us know if you have any problems; questions may be addressed to
Editors@AfricanChristianTheology.org

SBL ABBREVIATIONS FOR BOOK OF THE BIBLE:

Old Testament
Genesis -  Gen
Exodus -  Exod
Leviticus -  Lev
Numbers -   Num
Deuteronomy -   Deut
Joshua -  Josh
Judges -   Judg
Ruth --  Ruth
1–2 Samuel 1–2 Sam
or, 1–2 Kingdoms 1–2 Kgdms
                                 (LXX)
1– Kings 1–2 Kgs
or, 3–4 Kingdoms   3–4 Kgdms
                                  (LXX)
1–2 Chronicles 1–2 Chr
Ezra - Ezra
Nehemiah - Neh
Esther - Esth
Job - Job
Psalms - Ps/Pss
Proverbs - Prov
Ecclesiastes - Eccl
or, Qoheleth -  Qol
Song of Songs - Song
or, Song of Solomon - Song
or, Canticles - Cant
Isaiah - Isa
Jeremiah - Jer
Lamentations - Lam
Ezekiel - Ezek
Daniel - Dan
Hosea - Hos
Joel - Joel
Micah - Mic
Nahum - Nah
Habakkuk - Hab
Zechariah - Zech
Malachi - Mal

New Testament
Matthew - Matt
Mark - Mark
Luke - Luke
John - John
Acts - Acts
Romans - Rom
1–2 Corinthians - 1–2 Cor
Galatians - Gal
Ephesians - Eph
Philippians - Phil
Colossians - Col
1–2 Thessalonians - 1–2 Thess
1–2 Timothy - 1–2 Tim
Titus - Titus
Philemon - Phlm
Hebrews - Heb
James - Jas
1–2 Peter - 1–2 Pet
1–2–3 John - 1–2–3 John
Jude - Jude
Revelation - Rev

For Deuterocanonical Works and Septuagint, see The SBL Handbook of Style, section 8.3.3. For Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha, see The SBL Handbook of Style, section 8.3.4.