Teaching at the Hill

What do you teach? Sociology. What courses? Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Religion and a post-graduate course on Social Theory. But what does that have to do with evangelization and mission? Nothing! You got any more questions?

How many times I've wanted to say that, but didn't. Over the past nine years I have spent my time teaching in a government university in Tanzania. The Univesity of Dar es Salaam, known as the "Hill," different from other Universities around East Africa, has no Religious Studies Department. When I first came, there was not a single course on religion. In fact, the topic was almost taboo. This was partially due to the Marxist heritage of the University, partially to the ruling Party's obsessive fear of religious conflict and drive to create a civil religion, and partially to the very real friction that may evolve when two evangelizing religions like Christianity and Islam meet.

I stepped into this situation trying to maintain a delicate balance of being a lecturer in a secular university and a missionary. While admittedly, the lecturer part of the balance has been in the public forefront, the missionary part has been in fact the basic guiding element. After assessing the real limits that existed, I lowered my missionary expectations to "getting people to talk about religion, religious change and religious conflict in an academic way" without the polemics that so often surround these issues in Tanzania. It took five years of bureaucratic wangling, to finally have a course on the Sociology of Religion accepted into the official curriculum of the University. That course offers Moslems, Christians, Hindu and New Age students from the U.S., the only opportunity they have at the "Hill" to share with one another their faiths and questions about one another. It encourages discussions about the present reality of religion in Tanzania and hopefully contributes to building an environment of understanding that destroys the view that the "strange" or the "other" is an enemy.

Besides that, in all the other courses, the opportunity to help students reflect on themselves as future leaders; to reflect on the situation of their country; to study seriously the major social problems of Tanzania; to prod them to think of a different vision for the future, for me, is evangelization. To sit with students and listen to them describe their fears for the future; their limited chances; their struggles with one another and future family life, for me is evangelization. But is it "really" evangelization? I think so, . . . besides being fun and rewarding.

Discover more of John's words of wisdom

John's Biography             John's Reflections

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