Love and Justice: The Foundations of Gudina Tumsa’s Social Engagement and Leadership

Different groups have laid claim to the legacy of Gudina Tumsa, a prominent Ethiopian evangelical theologian and church leader. Some consider him a prophet, others a theologian, still others a martyr, and many more a political activist. Gudina stands out among Ethiopian evangelical leaders of recent decades. As such he defies neat categorization into existing labels. Unable to reconcile his religious conviction and social engagement, many evangelicals describe him as controversial. Scholars have tried to explain his politically engaged leadership by referring to the influence of his formative years or his experiences in the United States of the civil rights era. In this paper, I argue that Gudina’s unique leadership was informed and shaped by his deeply erudite understanding of the theology of Christian realism that dominated theological and ecumenical debates earlier in his career in the 1960s. Understanding his intellectual foundation not only shows seamless consistency between his faith and his social engagement but also explains the roots of the holistic theology he championed and the adaptive leadership he provided in uncertain times for his church.Keywords: Adaptive leadership, Christian realism, holistic ministry, social engagemen

Expressed sequence tag analysis of khat (Catha edulis) provides a putative molecular biochemical basis for the biosynthesis of phenylpropylamino alkaloids

Khat (Catha edulis Forsk.) is a flowering perennial shrub cultivated for its neurostimulant properties resulting mainly from the occurrence of (S)-cathinone in young leaves. The biosynthesis of (S)-cathinone and the related phenylpropylamino alkaloids (1S,2S)-cathine and (1R,2S)-norephedrine is not well characterized in plants. We prepared a cDNA library from young khat leaves and sequenced 4,896 random clones, generating an expressed sequence tag (EST) library of 3,293 unigenes. Putative functions were assigned to > 98% of the ESTs, providing a key resource for gene discovery. Candidates potentially involved at various stages of phenylpropylamino alkaloid biosynthesis from L-phenylalanine to (1S,2S)-cathine were identified