SCOLMA: The UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa

50^th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE

Dis/connects:

African Studies in the Digital Age

Oxford, 25–26 June 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS

The digital revolution is profoundly affecting African studies. New digital resources are making available large areas of content, as well as greatly improving access to bibliographies. In Africa, governments and NGOs are publishing online, some publishers are moving to print on demand and e-books, and international academic journals are increasingly becoming available in university and national libraries.

Yet the story, as is well-known, is far from straightforward or unproblematic. This conference will mark the 50^th anniversary of the founding of SCOLMA by taking a critical look at the field of African studies and how it is changing. In particular, although there has been much discussion of new digital resources and what their creators plan to do, we have a limited understanding of their impact on their users and on knowledge production in general. For example, what are the implications for historical research of the availability of digitised sources, and of the choices made in their selection? How do social science researchers work in a field in which much, but not everything, is now available online? Are e-journals – or indeed mobile phones – beginning to change the research process in Africa? And, more generally, how have broader historical and political developments changed African studies and librarianship over the last half-century?

We welcome papers on these themes across the humanities, arts, social sciences and sciences. Papers may deal with digital content, whether digitised or born-digital, of any kind, e.g. archives and manuscripts; audio-visual material; maps; newspapers; books, journals and theses; photographs, prints, drawings and paintings; ephemera; statistical databases; and social media.

The conference will bring together academics and other researchers with librarians and archivists. We aim thus to have a productive exchange of expertise, experience and analysis on the question of knowledge production in African studies.

Themes may include, but are not limited to:

• How scholars, researchers, librarians and archivists use digitised resources.
• How African studies is changing, and the place of the digital revolution in these changes.
• Access to, selection of, and training in the use of digital resources in the library context. Are resources under-used?
• To pay or not to pay? How easy is it for researchers to find subscription e-resources? And for libraries to fund them? What is the balance of free and charged resources in the research process? How well do the models for making e-resources available in Africa work?
• How well does user consultation work?
• Access to the technology that underpins e-resources.
• Digital scholarship: are scholars in African studies using digital collections to generate new intellectual products?
• The impact of mobile phone technology on African studies.
• How patchy is the creation of digital resources, and what – and who – is being left behind?
• Language in Africa and new technology.

One-page abstracts of papers on these themes are warmly welcomed. If you would like to give a paper, please send your abstract to

Lucy McCann

SCOLMA Secretary

Email: lucy.mccann@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Tel.: 01865 270908

God's Wisdom and Faith in Christ
 John Roxborogh, 3 July 2011.


Proverbs 1:1-7a; 3:5-20.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” “Trust in the Lord with all your heart”
I Corinthians 1:20
“God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness!”

Christians need both Wisdom and Faith:
Faith leads us to Christ. Wisdom helps us know how to live.
The basis of real wisdom is our attitude towards God: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” “Trust in the Lord with all your heart”
Wisdom from the world in general can be helpful where it is consistent with biblical teaching, but it also has limitations.
However we face two problems
· Doing what we know to be right. This needs courage and determination.
· Knowing what the right thing is. Sometimes we know this very clearly, yet there are many situations in life when what is right is not so clear, we have to choose between actions when the consequences are unknown or the options seem equally good or equally bad.
We can ask ourselves about how different parts of the Scriptures may help us.
1) Is there a law intended for all people? We often think of the ten commandments.
2) Is there teaching of Jesus we can translate into our present circumstances?
We think of Jesus’ summary “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” We think of his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and in his parables. We think of the sorts of things Jesus said to his disciples as they travelled with him and after his resurrection.
3) We might ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?”
Some of you may have or have had a wrist band with the letters WWJD. These can help us exercise our imagination to think what might Jesus do in the situation we face. Of course it is more help in some situations than others.
4) Is there a story in the Bible which illustrates the problem we are facing and what a person of God did? We think of the stories of Joseph with his brothers, David facing Goliath, Daniel in the lion’s den. In the New Testament people carried their friend to Jesus so he could be healed. Paul praised God even though he was in prison. These are not laws, but they tell us the sorts of things people of faith have done.
5) Is there a message to a group of believers in the Bible facing similar problems to those in churches today? Problems of disunity and party spirit like in Corinth, problems with wrong teaching like Colossae, problems of failing to meet like Hebrews, problems of getting too excited about the return of Christ, like Thessalonians?
When we are not sure what is the right thing to do we often also pray for God’s guidance. Sometimes we wait for a sense of what feels right – are we at peace about it in our heart? Or are we troubled in our Spirits?
Sometimes God sends us a person. Sometimes a word in the Bible will speak to us. Often God leaves us to work things out using the gifts and abilities he has given us. We are not usually spared the task of thinking and working issues through. We need habits of mind and heart in tune with the sorts of things God usually wants people to do. In other words we need wisdom.
Wisdom is about everyday practical things and also about difficult questions where laws about murder, adultery, covetousness, or idolatry may not immediately tell us what is right.
Like the prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
Here the question is not first of all about what is right or wrong, but what is possible and what is not. We need wisdom to know what we just have to accept at least for now, and what we can do something about.
Wisdom is not the same as intelligence – people can be very wise who are not educated except in the school of life. Education can grow our wisdom, but there is no guarantee. Some of the wisest people I know have never been to university.
We can also learn wisdom from the Wisdom books in the Bible: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Some Psalms, the story of Joseph in Genesis and the Song of Songs are also this type of writing. In the New Testament the letter of James has this same quality and the advice “If anyone lacks wisdom he should pray to God.”
Sometimes these books do not seem to teach us so much about God as about life. Yet it is still God who is teaching us.
· Job is a reminder that suffering is not necessarily a consequence of our sin.
· Song of Songs is a reminder that sexual love is part of God’s creation.
· Ecclesiastes reminds us that even for believers, the mystery of existence is still in many ways a mystery, and that even the best of human success is a form of vanity.
· Proverbs is about learning how to conduct ourselves properly, about seeking wisdom and avoiding temptation.
Proverbs 1:1-7a; 3:5-20;
Just as David wrote songs, many of which are Psalms, so his son Solomon wrote and collected wise sayings we call proverbs – so much so that “the wisdom of Solomon” is itself proverbial.
Proverbs 1 and 3 highlight the fundamental principle that our attitude to God is the foundation for knowing how to live.
It is often repeated that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” We are not meant to be scared and run away from God, but we are accountable to him. Even for Christians he is judge as well as savior. Our attitude is everything.
Proverbs 3 expands on the “fear of the Lord” with trust: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart”
A basis for wisdom about what we do not know is also obedience to what we do know: – If we already know something is wrong we can turn away from that. We can honour God in our giving even if we are uncertain about some other area of Christian life.
We also learn wisdom by learning from our mistakes so that when something goes wrong, the experience is redeemed. Decisions have consequences and God, and sometimes others as well, are going to correct us. God can use it as a route to wisdom.
Wisdom from the world is not all “worldly”
Not all of Proverbs comes from Solomon or from within the community. Some come from collections of wise sayings drawn up by other peoples.
This is not some strange teaching. We all use resources we believe are consistent with Christian teaching even though they come from elsewhere. For instance there is a verse that is not in our Old Testament which says:
Seek advice from every wise man, and do not despise any useful counsel. 19 Bless the Lord God on every occasion; ask him that your ways may be made straight and that all your paths and plans may prosper. Tobit 4:18f
Tobit does not have the same spiritual authority as the books in our Bible. Yet in this passage at least what it says is consistent with what the Bible says.
There are other parallels in Christian experience. We read Christian authors and magazines for the wisdom they contain. That wisdom is frequently not just wisdom people have found in the bible, but wisdom they have found in other places.
Articles in Asia Beacon for example have helpful advice about coping with grief, sickness, healing, about healthy living, about how to deal with ethical issues, about the responsibility of Christians in society. It seeks to be consistent with biblical teaching but it does not all come from the Bible.
It is one of the tasks of young Christians and Christians of every age, to learn to discern whether what we come across in our education, in the newspapers, TV, internet, advice from other people, Christian or not really is wisdom that is consistent with the Bible or not.
It may not be how we would like things to be, but the reality is that not all worldly wisdom is wrong and not all the wisdom of Christians is good. Some people who are not Christians can be wise about many areas of life. Some Christians claim wisdom in areas they do not understand.
This can be very confusing, but one verse in the Bible can help us: In Philippians 4:8 Paul says “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” Our understanding of truth, excellence and what is lovely comes from the Bible itself, but we also recognise these things where we find them.
However even the greatest wisdom has a limitation. We know we need wisdom to live the Christian life, yet to become Christians we need something that wisdom itself cannot provide.
Paul and I Corinthians 1:18-25
This refers back to Paul’s ministry in Athens (Acts 17) where Paul had pointed people to an “unknown God” as the God who had revealed himself in Jesus Christ, and talked about philosophical teaching.
In Corinth he decided to focus his preaching on Jesus’ death on the cross and forget about trying to make a connection through people’s interest in philosophy, or their desire for signs, or miracles or whatever.
Each of these approaches has their champions, but I do not think that the lesson is that one or the other is the better way; rather that in different times and circumstances, different ways of preaching the Gospel are appropriate.
Paul’s real point of contrast with his more philosophical – or if you like wisdom-centred approach – is that although wisdom is great (and Paul was a very educated and wise person who fully used his education and wisdom to communicate the Gospel and its implications), when it comes to faith in Christ we need another sort of message altogether – the message of Christ on the Cross.
Today some of us need to hear the message of the Wisdom books of the bible. We do not know how to live as Christians in areas of our lives and we need wisdom. Churches need wisdom. Countries need wisdom. The world needs wisdom. You and I need wisdom, and the fear and the trust of the Lord is the beginning of that wisdom.
But today some of us also need the message, that whatever wisdom we have, whatever wisdom gifts we have cultivated, however important they are even in the sight of God, our need at this point of our life is to receive the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
John Witherspoon (1723-1794)
Tomorrow is the 4 of July, Independence Day. I would like to honour and recognize our American friends from the United States as they remember the birthday of their country.
When the United States Declaration of Independence was signed some 236 years ago, it is interesting that there was just one pastor who lent his signature to the document, the Presbyterian minister, John Witherspoon. His sermons are still studied which is astonishing.
Witherspoon passionately preached salvation through Jesus Christ alone. He had migrated from Scotland to be president of the struggling theological seminary that is now Princeton University. He introduced strong emphases on moral philosophy and science to train not just ministers but leaders for the new nation. He became very involved in the first Congress, serving on committees, creating the principles by which a new country would be governed for the good of all.
Witherspoon preached Christ crucified and risen, yet in his faith in Christ he valued wisdom where he found it and worked with those of good will whether or not they shared his faith.
Perhaps here, we might also learn from his wisdom as well as his faith.
Amen.