Today I sat down with two friends to discuss an interesting article they co-authored earlier this year. Garrett Best is a friend of the podcast and joins us again today. I really appreciated talking with him in June of 2021 about the book of Revelation, a book which simultaneously fascinates and disturbs many. He helped us demystify Revelation a little bit as we talked about the seven letters, the number 666, and other things: go check it out—Faith in the Folds episode 19.
Joining me and Garrett today is the primary author of the article which we’ll talk about today, Alan Howell. Alan and I have known each other for almost two decades now as my home congregation sponsored the Howells’ mission work in Mozambique—something we’ll hear more about later.
The article they wrote together is entitled “Apocalypse, Authority, and Allegiance: Interpreting Symbols and Revelation in Mozambique.” Doing missions in foreign countries involves interpreting social, cultural, and political symbols, much like the process of interpreting scripture.
I hope you enjoy the conversation I had with Alan and Garrett as we look at some real world examples of how even something as strange as Revelation can come alive in ways we didn’t expect.
Around 51:49, Alan mentions a song the Mozambican churches would sing. You can find an older clip of that song here: http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2015/03/and-then-they-sang-proudly-jesus-is-our.html
Access to Alan’s and Garrett’s article can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02653788211005813?journalCode=trna
The Howells featured their blog here, which was last updated near the end of their tenure in Mozambique: http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com
The Howells were featured several years ago in these publications as well:
Harding University’s The Bison: https://thelink.harding.edu/the-bison/2015/09/10/visiting-from-mozambique/
The Christian Chronicle: https://christianchronicle.org/after-armed-home-invasion-missionaries-overwhelmed-with-support-from-african-community/
