Pacific Theology Books

The Covenant Makers- Islander Missionaries in the Pacific

by Doug Munro and Andrew Thornley

The Christian Gospel was first announced by the European missionaries and after two to three decades, the young Christian communities of the pacific Islands started sending their own missionaries. In the last 150years, over 1200 Pacific Islanders served as Christian missionaries and many of them pioneered in the places they went to. This book examines the significant work and impacts influenced by the pacific islander missionaries.

Publisher: Pacific Theological College & IPS- University of The South Pacific (2011)
ISBN-10: 982-02-0126-8
Paperback: 321pages
Price:  $10.00 USD
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Footsteps in the Sea – Christianity in Oceania to World War 2

by John Garrett

The narratives introduce to the Islanders and mission leaders to show how Christianity was adopted into the pacific cultures and interacted with traders and colonial administrators. The book further exploits the role of women, islanders and expatriates and how the Pacific Island Nations imperial twilights led to changes in the Christian mission and the emergence of self-governing islands churches with distinctive leadership style.

Publisher: IPS- University of The South Pacific and WCC (1992)
ISBN-10: 982-02-0068-7
Paperback: 516 pages
Price:  $10.00 USD
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Polynesian Mission in Melanesia - From Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga, to Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia

by Ron Crocombe and Marjorie Crocombe

European missions to the Pacific Islands are well recorded. But most missionaries in the islands are, and almost always were Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians. This fascinating book contains the stories of Polynesian missionaries to Melanesia, written by Polynesian missionaries themselves or by descendants of missionaries. This book contains chapters on some of the first and most famous Polynesian missionaries in Melanesia, as well as on later missions to the present time.

Publisher: IPS- University of The South Pacific (1994)
ISBN-10: B000MRLTQU
Paperback: 143 pages
Price:  $10.00 USD
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From Darkness to Light in Polynesia

by William Wyatt

Blessed are the dead which die in the lord. These noble men and women who fell on the battle field were comforted by the thought that they were winning a new empire for their divine master.This volume is intended to present the past and presence of the kinship of the Harvey Islanders and the M?ori’s and the Christian missionaries. Missionary’s account of Cook Islands history up to 1894.

Publisher: IPS- University of The South Pacific (1984)
ISBN-10: B004GBEHSA
Paperback: 383 pages
Price:  $10.00 USD
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Uvea

by Elise Huffer, Mikaele Tui and Neil Carruthers

Uvea is the first book written entirely by Wallisians living on the island of Wallis. The authors chose the themes of their chapters which range from the chiefly system, to language, to traditional and contemporary education, to religion, culture  and custom today. The authors have produced a book that takes the reader on a voyage across time and into the multiple’s worlds of Uvea.

Publisher: IPS- University of The South Pacific (1984)
ISBN-10: 982-02-0363-5
Paperback: 189 pages
Price:  $10.00 USD
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Mangaia and the mission

by Peter Buck and Rod Dixon

The pre-Christian history of Mangaia — the southernmost of the Cook Islands — was documented by Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) in Mangaian Society, in 1934. Missing from the book was the final chapter, which documented changes in Mangaian society following the establishment of a London Missionary Society mission in 1824.

Publisher: IPS- University of The South Pacific (1984)
ISBN-10: 982-31-5001-X
Paperback: 74 pages
Price:  $5.00 USD
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The Turning Wheel – Columbian Missionaries in Fiji 1952-2017

by Frank Hoare

The Turning Wheel’ traces the maturing of a Church which in the 1950s was completely dependent on missionaries but now is sending out its own missionaries. There are four parts in the book. Part I deals with the development of parishes and schools. Part II with the renewal that took place after Vatican II until the first coups in Fiji. Part III deals with the Columbians’ response to the coups and their mentoring of local missionaries, both ordained and lay. Part IV examines and evaluates the different aspects of the missionary work done over the 65 years.

Publisher: Missionary Society of St Columbian
ISBN-13: 978-982-199-005-9
Paperback: 74 pages
Price:  $10.00 USD
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Oceanic Voyages in Theology and Theological Education

by PTC 50th anniversary committee

This book celebrates the 50th anniversary of the PTC with historical reflections and personal reminiscences in the Pacific region at the backdrop of theological studies. Stimulating the various island churches and missions to confer regarding questions facing the churches on the neo-colonialism and communities in which each denomination and mission found itself.

Publisher: PTC (2021)
ISBN-13: 978-982-348-025-1
Paperback: 168 pages
Price:  $8.00 USD
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Globalization and the RE- Shaping of Christianity in the Pacific Islands

by Manfred Ernst

In recent years religion has received a good deal of attention in the discourse on globalization. Christianity in its Pentecostal – charismatic, evangelical and fundamentalist forms seem to have thrived in the globalization climate.

Publisher: Pacific Theological College (2008)
ISBN-13: 978-982-348-020-6
Paperback: 866pages
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Gospel or law

by Michael Press

Church history cannot present a final identity; this remains subject to the final revelation. Until this time history explores the sins and struggles of Christians searching for their unfinished identity within their history of God.

Publisher: Pacific Theological College (2011)
ISBN-13: 978-982-348-023-7
Paperback: 228pages
Price:  $8.00 USD
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Restorying the Pasifika Household

by Upolu Luma Vaai and Aisake Casimira

This book opens up a lively and invigorating conversation. By critically expanding upon the concept of Pasifika households during a time of rapid social and ecological transformation, the authors offer compelling insights on interconnection, vulnerability, resilience and hope. All of the chapters are excellent, and together they are a powerful and harmonious talanoa.

Publisher: PTC Press (2023)
ISBN-13: 978-982-101-476-2
Paperback: 234 pages
Price:  $20.00 USD
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Vaa Fesokotaki – A Theology of God for a New Oceanian Climate Change Story

by Tafue Lusama

This book examines the theology of God from an Oceanian point of view, using a Tuvaluan relational philosophy called ‘Vaa fesokotaki’ which literally means, the relational sacred space. Vaa fesokotaki is used as the hermeneutical lens through which to redefine the theology of te Atua. It refers to the deeply interconnected and multifaceted ‘relational space’ which defines the Tuvaluan (and the Oceanian) worldview.

Publisher: PTC Press (2022)
ISBN-13: 978-982-101-394-9
Paperback: 74 pages
Price:  $26.00 USD
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Nafanua Theology – A Samoan-Christian argument for Women in Ordained Ministry

by Marie Ropeti

For most people life is governed by power and rule, but behind these there always lies the mystery of human nature, doubtful and mysterious, and right now and again to go off at an angle and disrupt the soft working of coordinated practice. Some man or woman will appear who departs from the normal method of practice, who follows values rather than rules, and whose methods are unpredictable, and often, in the eyes of on lookers, unwise.

Publisher: PTC Press (2022)
ISBN-13: 978-982-101-396-3
Paperback: 74 pages
Price:  $28.00 USD
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The Relational Self: Decolonising Personhood in the Pacific

 by Upolu Luma Vaai and Unaisi Nabobo-Baba

This book celebrates without apology the fact that indigenous spirituality lives and breathes in our Pacific person and personhood. In so doing, it celebrates what is core to indigeneity in the Pacific: our names and our naming; our knowing, being and seeing; and our identities and sense of belonging.

Publisher: PTC Press (2022)
ISBN-13: 978-982-101-395-6
Paperback: 302 pages
Price:  $26.00 USD
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Vanua Towards a Fijian Theology in Place

by I.S Tuwere

A theological reflection on the links between the Fijian vanua and theology. Dr, Tuwere (former principal of Pacific Theological College) takes us on a journey of reconciliation with Fiji’s multiculturalism as he searches to define contemporary Fijian identity. This voyage through different myths of migration and into the trinity of vanua, lotu and matanitu compels the reader to question assumptions about Fijian Society and Affirms the truth of the Gospel while challenging reigning falsehood. This book is seminal and proactive – it is an awakening.

Publisher: PTC Press (2023)
ISBN-13: 978-982-101-472-4
Paperback: 246 pages
Price:  $20.00 USD
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Methodist Revolutions: Evangelical Engagements of Church and World

by Joerg Rieger and Upolu Luma Vaai

Within the pages of this book, an international group of Methodist scholars are united in the belief that another church and another world are not only necessary but possible. Holiness traditions, even though at times addressing matters too narrowly and at other times to triumphantly, are in agreement that the status quo in both church and world can be improved upon significantly. The question is not whether but how does this happen and how far does it go.

Publisher: United Methodist General Board of Higher Education (2022)
ISBN-13: 978-1945935947
Paperback: 232 pages
Price: $26.00 USD
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Relational Hermeneutics: Decolonising the Mindset and the Pacific Itulagi

by Upolu Luma Vaai and Aisake Casimira

Decolonisation begins with our mind. I recall gratefully changing a sentence in my thesis: We live in one of the most isolated land masses in the world, to: We live in the most interconnected land mass in the world. Mahalo Epeli! That changed everything. Thus began my hermeneutic awakening.

Publisher: PTC Press (2022)
ISBN-13: 978-982-101-397-0
Paperback: 240 pages
Price:  $28.00 USD
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