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This book is a collection of essays in honour of South African theologian and best-selling author Albert Nolan OP, who died in October 2022 at the age of 88. Awarded the ‘Order of Luthuli in Silver’ by then President Thabo Mbeki in 2003 for his ‘life-long dedication to the struggle for democracy, human rights and justice and for challenging the religious “dogma” especially the theological justification for apartheid’, Nolan inspired a generation of Christian activists and theologians.
In the 1970s, he served as National Chaplain for the National Catholic Federation of Students (NCFS) and National Chaplain for the Young Christian Students movement (YCS) in South Africa. Thereafter he worked for the Institute for Contextual Theology (ICT) and he edited an ecumenical magazine, Challenge. He was elected Master of the Dominican Order in 1983 but was allowed to decline this and continue his work against Apartheid in South Africa. The 70 contributions in this volume are all from people around the world who knew him well and worked with him over the years. The contributions deal with his early family life, his contribution to student movements, his periods as Dominican Provincial in Southern Africa, his involvement with the ANC, his work as a writer and life in his later years.
‘Albert told Mark James OP: “If people want to know who I was, what I believed and what I stood for, they can read my books.” I would add “and meet my friends”. So this is an unusual book since it contains pieces by Albert’s former students and colleagues, his Dominican brothers and sisters, academics and activists, Catholics and Christians of other denominations. It is rare to have a collection of such different sorts of contributions, ranging from the highly personal to the academic. But this is what the People of God is like, a deeply and beautifully diverse community of pilgrims on the way to the Kingdom, conversing as we travel.’ From the Foreword by Timothy Radcliffe OP.
Mike Deeb OP is a Dominican in Southern Africa, who was General Promoter of Justice and Peace & Permanent Delegate to the United Nations for the Dominicans. Prior to that he was the International Chaplain to the International Young Catholic Students (YCS) and International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) before serving as the Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).
Philippe Denis OP is a Dominican in Southern Africa. He is Emeritus Professor of History of Christianity at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and he has authored or co-authored several books on a variety of topics. He currently works as Research and Development Manager in the KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council.
Mark James OP is a Dominican who is chaplain to the Deaf community in the diocese of Manzini, Eswatini, Southern Africa. He was National Chaplain of YCS (1999–2004), and was a member of the National Catholic Federation of Students (NCFS) and Young Christian Students (YCS) while a student at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (1981–1985). He was Provincial of the Dominicans in Southern Africa from 2004 to 2012.
Foreword by Timothy Radcliffe OP
Front cover photo was taken in August 2015 at Regina Mundi Church, Soweto, South Africa, while at a service to mark the 30th anniversary of the Kairos Document. Albert Nolan is pictured with Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC).
Book has 70 contributors
