Vol 5, No 1 April 1989

MELANESIAN JOURNAL
OF THEOLOGY

EDITORIAL
Revd Christopher Garland
GATARI JI AMONG THE YEGA
Fr Spencer Kombega
A POLITICAL THEOLOGY: MELANESIAN
MILIEU
Revd Kasek Kautil
DREAMS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA,
AND THEIR INTERPRETATION
Meg Maclean
MAN AND HIS WORLD: BIBLICAL AND
MELANESIAN WORLDVIEWS
Fr Theo Aerts
A DANCE TO THE GIVER OF LIFE
Revd Christopher Garland

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal of the Melanesian Association of Theological Schools

K3.00
The Melanesian Journal of Theology aims to stimulate the
writing of theology by Melanesians for Melanesians. It is an
organ for the regular discussion of theological topics at a
scholarly level by staff and students of the member schools of
the Melanesian Association of Theological Schools (MATS),
though contributions from non-members and non-Melanesians
will be considered.

The Melanesian Journal of Theology is ecumenical, and it is

committed to the dialogue of Christian faith with Melanesian
cultures. The Editors will consider for publication all
manuscripts of scholarly standard on matters of concern to
Melanesian Christians, and of general theological interest.
Manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, and in duplicate.

The Melanesian Journal of Theology appears twice yearly,

in April and October.

EDITORIAL ADDRESS SUBSCRIPTIONS

ADDRESS
Revd Christopher Garland Revd Kasek Kautil
B.A., Cert. Ed., Ph.D. Secretary/Treasurer,
MATS
Lecturer in Theology Martin Luther Seminary
Newton College PO Box 80
POPONDETTA LAE
Oro Province Morobe Province
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea

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MELANESIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY

Journal of the Melanesian Association of Theological Schools

EDITORIAL BOARD

Esau Tuza, B.D., M.A.

On the staff of the Melanesian Institute, Goroka EHP

Joshua Daimoi, B.A. (Hons.), L.Th.

Principal, Christian Leaders’ Training College, Banz
WHP

Roger Jordahl, B.Th., Ph.D.

Lecturer in Scripture, Martin Luther Seminary, Lae
Morobe Province

Theodoor Aerts, MSC, S.S.L., S.T.D.

Lecturer in Sacred Scripture and Dean of Studies, Holy
Spirit Seminary, Bomana NCD

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Christopher Garland, B.A., Cert.Ed., Ph.D.

Lecturer in Theology, Newton College, Popondetta Oro
Province

Typesetting by Kristen Pres Inc, Madang

Cover design by Br Jeff Daly CP and John Kua

ISSN 0256-856X Volume 5 Number 1, April 1989 PNG K3.00

Copyright © by the Melanesian Association of Theological

Schools

NO REPRINTS MAY BE MADE

WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR
 CONTENTS

Editorial: The compatibility of Melanesian and biblical

approaches to life. Whence comes a holistic approach to
justice, peace, and the integrity of creation
Revd Christopher Garland ..................................... 7

Gatari Ji among the Yega

Fr Spencer Kombega.............................................. 11

A Political Theology: Melanesian Milieu

Revd Kasek Kautil.................................................. 20

Dreams in Papua New Guinea, and their Interpretation

Meg Maclean ......................................................... 27

Man and His World: Biblical and Melanesian Worldviews

Fr Theo Aerts......................................................... 29

A Dance to the Giver of Life

Revd Christopher Garland ..................................... 56

Book Reviews:

Harvey Cox: The Silencing of Leonardo Boff

Bishop Paul Richardson ............................... 65

Dom Helder Camara: Questions for living

Fr Theo Aert................................................. 67

Suliana Siwatibau and David Williams: A Call

to a new Exodus
Garry Trompf ............................................... 68

Contributors ..................................................................... 70

[Note: Page numbers are different to original edition – see

page 29 for explanation. –Revising ed.]
 EDITORIAL

The compatibility of Melanesian and biblical

approaches to life. Whence comes a holistic
approach to justice, peace, and the integrity of
creation?

In this issue, Fr Spencer Kombega, an Anglican priest,

shows how traditional Ewa Ge chants to a creator spirit,
Sirorari, have been given Christian words, and used in
Christian worship. Has the music brought with it overtones of
yearning and wander from its pre-Christian origins? Are these
overtones of feeling satisfied and transformed by their
Christian interpretation, or does an undercurrent of convert
meaning subvert the overt sense? In their traditional setting,
the chants united feeling and sense in a way that reflected the
holistic approach to mind and body of the community that
formed them. Through the incarnation of Jesus Christ,
Christian faith sums up all previous incomplete unities. The
gospel can convert and sanctify all human feelings. Therefore,
there is a long history of stirring secular music being put to
good Christian use. In the case of the Ewa Ge chants, also, the
rhythms alert the senses and minds of the participants and
hearers, so that they attend and respond to what is chanted.

Pastor Kasek Kautil, secretary of MATS, offers a

Lutheran approach to the unity of religious and secular life.
He points out that we each have a “third eye”, which is our
ability to reflect on ourselves, as we are involved in the
various compartments of our lives: economic, political, and
religious. As we stand outside ourselves in this way, we have
a vantage point, from which to see life as a whole, and
reconcile all dichotomies, including the Luthern dichotomy
between church and state. From our reflective vantage point
beyond our active selves, we recognise that all our lives take
place in the presence of God, and we are challenged to take
responsibility for the whole of our lives, religious and secular,
7
as calling for obedience to God. Melanesian culture agrees
with this holistic view of religion and secular life, since human
beings are seen, not as individuals, but as members of a
community. Therefore, any religious feeling will have both
economic and political consequences, which will need to be
worked out. So, once more, there is a link between a Biblical
and a Melanesian approach.

Fr Theodoor Aerts shows how Melanesian culture is in

tune with the holistic vision of the Bible. His approach is
reminiscent of that in John V. Taylor’s book, The Primal
Vision. We may quote Fr Aerts’ article: “A close look at
Melanesian worldviews cannot be without benefit, for a
correct understanding of the scriptures, which were written by
men of a comparable world view . . . yet always they were
related to man’s needs, and are a part of his so-called
integrated experience.”

So Melanesian culture provides an integrated approach,

which helps redress the unbiblical dichotomies between man
and God, man and man, man and nature, which are fostered by
Western culture. What does this sense of integrated
community have to teach us about the current concern for
justice, peace, and the integrity of creation? Justice and peace
are the result of true community, stemming from the agape-
love of God. God loves by taking delight in His creatures, and
blessing them, so that they become what He created them to
be. The love He gives helps those who appreciate it to do the
same, and it is such agape-love that we see in Jesus. He loved
people for what they really were, confronting the hypocritical
and affirming the misunderstood. He saw beyond the outward
effects of oppression and rejection to what people had it in
them to be. So He was on the side of the poor, and by
restoring them to their rightful place in the community, offered
healing, not only to them, but to the community as a whole.
When the community recovered the proper order between its
members, the unease caused by disorder was removed, and
there could be peace. So the good of the individual could not
be divorced from the good of the community, nor could justice

8
be divorced from peace. If we may see the stilling of the
storm, not as an act of arrogant domination, but as an act of
love, symbolising peace between man and nature, then Jesus is
working to bring all creation into one community under God.
In that community, the nature of every created force, and
every creature, has the potential, if treated with agape-love, to
contribute to the building up of the community. The lower
orders of creation are not to be treated as if they were persons
with wills like human beings, but they have the right to the
respect due to a proper understanding of their God-given
nature.

In Melanesian culture, natural forces and objects are

seen as belonging to the same community as human beings. Is
this holistic view the same as what we see in the Bible? In
Melanesian culture, the community, as a whole, exists
primarily to conserve itself, and so its openness to what is
beyond itself, above all to God, is limited. In many PNG
stories of the origins of life, the life-giver is put under duress
by the community, and made to yield his secret power, so that
it can be used by the community. So, the life-giver is than a
fully-free and fully-loving God, and the blessing He gives are
judged solely in terms of their usefulness to the community,
and not for any intrinsic goodness. Thus, any tree that cannot
be used for food or shelter is seen as a “tree natin”, and may
be cleared away, without compunction, when the time comes
to make gardens. Therefore, there is an integrated, holistic
view of nature in Melanesian culture, but it is restricted by the
needs of self-preservation, and falls short of the Christian
vision of dying to self, as the means to life.

In a PNG community, the good of the community, as a

whole, seems to override the good of individual members, and
this applies to both human and non-human members of the
community. All would be governed by exchanged or payback.
As long as a person, animal, or tree could contribute to the
society, he would be supported, so that he could make his
contribution as payback. He would make his offerings,
including his life, not as a free act of sacrificial love, but as the

9
making of, or submitting to, a demand. So, the land and trees
are conserved, not for their own sake, but because of the
contribution they make to society. So, when the land and trees
are threatened with being laid waste, the concern is not with
their preservation, for their own sake, but for compensation for
the loss of their “payback” contribution to the community.

Although the approach of the community to its natural

environment is holistic, and includes a sense of
interdependence, it is based on communal self-interest, and not
on agape-love. Trees, of course, do not willingly give their
fruits for the good of others, but, according to a Christian
doctrine of creation, they have a natural potential for growth,
which is worth developing beyond any consideration of the
usefulness of the tree to society. When this potential is
properly cultivated, the fruit of the tree becomes available to
human beings as God’s free gift. Human beings have a duty to
husband the natural processes of death and rebirth, by pruning
and thinning, but this is far from wanton destruction. So, good
as it is, Melanesian culture will still need transforming by
gospel insights, based on the self-giving love of Jesus Christ.

This article may seem over-critical about Melanesian

culture, and over-naïve about the relevance of the gospel to the
conservation of the environment. It is hoped that it is, at least,
sufficiently controversial to prompt articles and letters to the
editor that can be included in a future issue.

Revd Christopher J. Garland

10
 GATARI JI AMONG THE YEGA
Spencer Kombega
Anglican church, Simbu Province

Introduction

This article describes the local traditional music of the

Yega tribe in Oro Province. The Yega people have adopted
music from all over the country (like Kiwai, Sia, Dobu,
Baruga, Buari ya, Gauma,and Geve),which was not originally
from the Yega tribe. However, I will deal specifically with
Gatari Ji, because it shows the true identity of the Yega.

The Yega people speak the Ewa ge dialect, in which the

word Gatari Ji emerges. Gatari means “voice out” and Ji
means “cry”. The Gatari Ji has two parts, the primary form
and the adjusted form.

The Yega musician uses the tune of the primary and the
adjusted Gatari Ji to compose religious chants. Traditionally,
some were dedicated to the deities, as well as to the supreme
spirit, known as Sirorari. The word Sirorari derives from the
word Siroro, meaning “creation”. The practical worship of
Sirorari by the Yega tribe, and the neighbouring villages, led
the Yega people to adopt some chants belonging to the
neighbouring villages, which were dedicated to Sirorari,
because they all have one common belief.

The primary form of Gatari Ji

Crying is an outward sign of a person in sorrow. It is

natural and worldwide. Focusing, in particular, on the Yega
tribe, and the Gatari Ji, this crying develops into the form of a
chart. The utterance is traditional, common, and it expresses,
descriptively, a person’s core feelings.

11
 This mostly occurs after a death. The Yega mourners
sit around and weep, while some stand to hug and dance. The
two rites differ, but the tune of Gatari1 remains the same,
because the form of the tune is fixed in the mentality of every
old and young Yega person. Actually, the real crying follows
after the utterance of the chant. So, the combination of the
chant uttered, and the real crying, is known as Gatari Ji.

At the death scene, musicians do their part to record, in

memory, the words uttered. After the occasion, at leisure
time, the chant is sung repeatedly to make it firm, so that
everyone learns it by heart, and sings it for himself or herself,
as well as for remembrance.

Henry Kombega’s death in 1984, at Isivini, brought

many relatives together to share their sorrow. At that time, an
old man, Colin Ijivi, uttered a chant while crying:

O poio ari o ritari vitido poio ari o

O ritari vitido poio ari
O pikide rare eriri2.

Which means:

Migrated boy grew up, was migrated

Boy migrated and grew up
Wasn’t a right time to depart, but departed.

Apart from the occasion of death, during hunting,

fishing, gardening, and on their own, the villages compose
their own chants, using the same tune as the original Gatari Ji,
describing the particular situation. Although the composition
may now contain remembrance, happiness, petition, and
praise, the Yega people continue to call it Gatari Ji, because
the idea still originates from the act of crying.

Below, is an example of a chant of happiness chanted

by Yauweri, when he was on his brother’s hunting track, very
early in the morning. The tune is adapted from the original

12
Gatari Ji, because it was, and remains, the only surviving
ancient tune.

O Jojae torido mama iba bojari o tenoda

O Roedo gido rojedo mama iba bojari o tenoda.3

Which means:

Before dawn, off for hunting

why follow the path by breaking saplings.

Adjusted Gatari Ji

The adjusted form of the Gatari Ji has many different

tunes, because many musicians, with many different ideas,
make their own adjustments. However, all adjusted chants
sound similar, so that they can be easily identified by
newcomers. They differ slightly from the original chants,
because the adjusted ones can be led by either one or two
leaders. The practice of individuals leading a chant is called
yabe.4 The adjusted form is also arranged to include a part that
can be danced to.

The musicians pick up the primary form of Gatari Ji at

the death scene, or elsewhere, and adjust it in their own time.
They then popularise it during feasting. The new version
becomes ceremonial music, that any group or clan can use at
times of happiness, such as marriage, initiation, etc.

The adjusted form is accompanied by instruments,

consisting of kundu drums, conch shell, and rattles. 5 All of
which sound and beat at the same time. The warning beat
starts in a way that tells the participants that the next song is
about to start. This is called Jogota. A leader chants the first
half of the adjusted Gatari Ji, then the group takes over, to
chant the second half. As soon as the group finishes, the beat
of Jogota starts again. The sequence is repeated until the
Jogota ends it.

13
 Most of the chants have only one verse, and, during
each chanting of the verse, one or two words are changed by
the leader.

Here is one example of an adjusted chant with one

Yabe.

LEADER:
O Bega re kundo bugera giwo
O Itadi sedo bugera giwo.
GROUP:
O oro tepoda yeira toriwo oro o oro orokaiva
oro.6

Which means:

LEADER:
We bring you peace
to give it to you.
FIRST LEADER GROUP:
Welcome, this is the place of peace, welcome,
welcome.

The other form of the adjusted Gatari Ji is led by two

leaders. The first leader chants the first Yabe, the second
leader chants the second Yabe, and finally the group joins in.
This means that three separate vocalists, or groups, participate
in one chant.

Here is one example of an adjusted Gatari Ji, with two

Yabe.

FIRST LEADER:
O Esega o bugudo pira o.
SECOND LEADER:
O Baiyau o kumbudo pira o.
GROUP:
O Toriwo oro kaiva oro.7

14
Which means:

FIRST LEADER:
A visitor is coming
SECOND LEADER:
He is bringing treasure
GROUP:
Come in, welcome, welcome.

Local Traditional Religious Chants

In all aspects of the relation to the deity, the ancestors of

the Yega tribe assumed supernatural power, and they were
classified under the existence of the spiritual world. Special
chants were composed, and dedicated to the deities, having in
mind, that all blessings would flow their way in hunting,
fishing, and gardening.

In the midst of this polytheism, a belief in a supreme

spirit also existed. This supreme spirit was known as
Sirorari.8 Sirorari was understood to have power over the
material and spiritual world. This understanding motivated the
Yega ancestors to offer sacrifice in a primitive way, in terms
of food and prayers.

The dedication of chants to the deities was common.

The composers had to compose a tune that would make the
deities happy. Some used the tune of the original tune, or the
adjusted Gatari Ji, and some used a monotone. All these tunes
were thought to be acceptable to the spiritual beings (they
could be heard quickly, for swift blessings).

Here is one example: Uareba Kombega, from Kanauje

village, using a chant for hunting. It was a chant of petition,
sung monotonously, so that edible animals would come his
way. Although the chant had no mention of the specific
hunting god, the idea remained that his hunting would be
blessed.

15
 Wo, wo, wo – O Undari wo budo dogedo itio
rejedo bane – wo, wo, wo.9

Which means:

Animal, animal – Give me the tamed animal

and I will easily catch it, animal, animal.

Another of the Uareba Kombega’s monotonous chants,

used before planting in the garden, was addressed to the
supreme spirit Sirorari. This was chanted to the tune of the
original Gatari Ji.

1. O Siroro ari embo iso poiwo mei rare

be ba itigae gowedo bane iso itari gido.
2. Natopo asisi iso ikowegari mei
itigae tano tigare iso itari gido.10

Which means:

1. Self-created man, I am your fatherless child

help me to plant and harvest the taro, because it
is your gift.
2. Everlasting spirit, for your lost son
give more than enough, because it is your gift.

Apart from the Yega circuit, the neighbouring villages

also held the same belief in the supreme spirit Sirorari. This
allowed the Yega people to exchange chants. The Yega
people also composed new chants, using tunes from
neighbouring villages.

Here is one example of a chant that was adopted from

the neighbouring villages, because of the common belief in
Sirorari.

O Siroro bemire e ai
E maiama yowa siroro, siroro
O siroro bemire e ae.11

16
Which means:

The truth about creation

The continuous creation of the pearl
The truth about creation.

Chanting in church worship

The pioneer missionaries introduced the worship of the

Christian God in60 the midst of this polytheism, and, in time,
supplanted the traditional religious worship. The Yega people
lost their traditional religious identity, in terms of belief and
chants dedicated to many deities, as well as to Sirorari.
However, a very few remained, that the old people taught to
the new generation, who brought them forward into the
structure of the church.

Bishop George Ambo, having in mind for the church to

move towards indigenity, introduced traditional instruments,
customary dress, and dancing into church worship in the early
1960s. This helped the Yega people understand Christ, in
their midst, and in the Gatari Ji. Many Yega musicians
composed chants in the form, and the tune, of the original, or
adjusted, Gatari Ji, and the adopted chants, using Christian
ideology. All these chants were accompanied by instruments.

Here is one example of a chant composed to the tune of

the original Gatari Ji. The tune remains, but the adjustment is
designed to be chanted by two Yabe.

FIRST LEADER:
O Bejeio nango gore o.
SECOND LEADER:
O Keriso da buari o.
GROUP:
Keriso da buari o bejeio nango gore o.

Which means:

17
 FIRST LEADER:
Speak out for us to hear.
SECOND LEADER:
The coming of Christ.
GROUP:
The coming of Christ, speak out for us to hear.

The Sirorari chants, adopted from the neighbouring

tribes and villages, were also brought into church worship, but
the words were slightly changed to focus on Christ. For
example, the chant siroro bemire, was rearranged for Holy
Communion.

O Siroro ge bemisi rare ingio

O Asisi bondo re siro siroro rare
O Siroro ge bemisi rare ingio.

Which means

Hear the tune creative message

The spiritual feasting is creative
Hear the tune, creative message.

Conclusion

The primary form of the Gatari Ji emerges from a

person in sorrow. This form is then adjusted by musicians, so
that a leader chants the first part, and the group chants the
second part. Some musicians go far as to adjust it so that three
parts are chanted separately.

The church within the Yega circuit has already adopted

three forms of the Gatari Ji, but it could move deeper into
indigenity, by using Sirorari chants in their original form,
without rearrangement.

18
 The three parts of the Gatari Ji can be theologised as
the Trinity. Thus the Gatari Ji could be as symbol of the
Trinity in the music of the Yega tribe.

NOTES

1. A descriptive chant before the crying.

2. I was present at the time, and learned it by heart.
3. Hayward Kombega explained to me, in 1987, at Isivini, how his
uncle, Yauweri, composed the chant.
4. Yabe derives from the word Ya, meaning “song”, and be, meaning
“mouth”. The leading part is a chant called Yabe.
5. Kundu drums and conch shell are common through out PNG.
Rattles are small nuts taken from a tree known as Bua in the Ewa
dialect.
6. This was adjusted and rearranged by Gordon Gill Tangara, from an
unknown surviving oral source in 1986.
7. My own chant, but I had to adjust it again to welcome Bishop Swing
into Newton Theological College in 1987.
8. Sirorari generally means “creator”. It is a common belief among the
people of the Killeton and the North Coast area.
9. This was explained to me by Hayward Kombega, when I
interviewed him in 1987 at Isivini.
10. Ibid.
11. Adopted chant from the North Coast area called Kasamba.

19
 A POLITICAL THEOLOGY:
MELANESIAN MILEU
Revd Kasek Kautil

(A case study presented at APATS Symposium,

Hong Kong, March 9-15, 1988.)

A search for appropriate political theology must be a

task that can be compared to Dr Theodor Reik’s famous
psychoanalytic title, Listening with the Third Ear, and has a
three-headed person as a cover design. The third person
turned out to be himself, because it is a psychoanalytic insight,
that a true psychologist is one who can listen to himself. 1
Listening with the third ear is exactly what we need in our
search for appropriate expressions of our convections.

We are embarking on a subject that must be a concern

to every Christian and citizen. No responsible person can
avoid it. That is why we must ask anew, what is true in our
experience, and contexts, that true for the Reformation milieu?
Luther, and Reformation, constitute immense works, that one
immediately faces the likelihood of reading too much into the
milieu, or deducing too much of the same. But this should not
mean taking a passive attitude towards issues of theology and
politics that were unique to Reformation milieu, as much as it
is a valid concern for our contexts. And, in order that we may
do justice to history and the traditions of the West, as well as
to ourselves, we must consider traditions other than the West,
for concern with politics is a universal one. I wish, therefore,
to present a brief description of the Melanesian political
milieu, or rather, the Papua New Guinea milieu, and then to
make a few comparisons with Luther’s responses.

20
 II

The Preamble to the Constitution of the Independent

State of Papua New Guinea states, in part:

We the people of Papua New Guinea . . . united in one

nation . . . pledge ourselves to guard and pass on to
those who come after us our noble traditions, and the
Christian principles that are ours now. . . . We, the
people, declare ourselves, under the guiding hand of
God. . . . And . . . that all power to the people. . . . And
community interdependence are basic principles of our
society.2

At lease three important aspects of the statement are

worthy of note. They account for history, traditions, Christian
principles, and community interdependence. Since Christian
principles, and community interdependence, were enshrined in
the constitution, there is a presupposition that all tribes belong
to the same family, and share the same history. Structures,
therefore, are not as important as the spirit and principles, on
which the nation was founded. It is the spirit of unity and
interdependence among the people and tribes. The
Constitution, as such, reflects the values of the people, and, in
a more-religious sense, the beliefs of the people. Statements
of values and beliefs, in turn, reflect the people, and their
identity. Let us how consider this preamble was reborn, by
looking briefly at the culture, religion, and history.

1. The culture milieu

The relation between the church and the government

can be described as close, even though there are marked
differences in structures and objects. The close relation can be
attributed to cultural milieu. There were traditional forms of
centralised government, with chiefs as head of the tribes, but
they were not our forms of central government, with warriors,
medicine man, and gardeners. What mattered most, was not

21
instruments of a tribe state, but how best the welfare of
members were served and guaranteed. Therefore, in large
parts of Papua New Guinea, in the past, as well as the present
time, we speak of government for and by the people. A tribal
state, and its structures, were established, not to serve itself,
but to serve its people.

An extreme example can be drawn from the traditional

payback practices in many parts of Papua New Guinea. When
the life of a member is endangered, the whole tribe is
endangered. The whole tribe retaliates, by payback, or
compensation demands, whether every member participates in
the act or not. The power to execute peace, war, or justice was
collective, not directed by written codes, but by the collective
power of reason. People had their ethical code of conduct and
wisdom, as complex as any written codes of modern times.
They were as capable of horrific crimes as any human being,
and as capable of godly virtues. People were neither religious
nor unreligious; worldly nor spiritual, for they belonged to one
and the same order of creation. I hope this will be made
clearer, when we look at the religious milieu.

2. The religious milieu

A Papua New Guinean, like the rest of his/her

Melanesian counterparts, is a religious person. Religion was
the central value, and provided the framework for daily work
and relationships between the members of the clan, with the
deity, with the environments (sea, rivers, and mountains). As
an ultimate concern, 3 religion is the complex whole of man,
with his surroundings and relationship, which all constitute his
existential concern. Religion was the way of life, and life was
religion. There was no separation of the secular and the
worldly, or the spiritual and the worldly. For religion is part
of the great drama of bio-cosmic4 life. Religion, in this sense,
plays the role of maintaining the proper balance in created
order and relationships.

22
 Another way of describing the Melanesian milieu, may
be described in the three senses used by a current writer on
Melanesian religions: religion is a system, a personal attitude,
or a complex of symbolic systems. As a system, religion is
part of the social structure, and the political structure of beliefs
and rituals. In this sense, the major religions of the world,
including Christianity, as well as ethnic religions, may be
included. And, as part of the social structure, religion plays an
important role in both the spiritual and secular spheres of life;
hence, dichotomy exists, but only superficially. For life
belongs to the one Creator and Father.

In another sense, religion is a personal attitude of an

individual towards God, or any object of one’s religion. 5
Politicians, civil servants, bishops, and pastors can become
objects of people’s religion, as much as the structures which
put them there. These public servants, from both the church
and the government, can actually become gods, if only little
gods. This is apart from the honour and respect all authorities
deserve. However, they will be either be servants of God, or
servants or the devil. This is the essence of the spiritual
meaning of the two kingdoms. “By their fruits, you will know
those who are My servants.”6 Jesus was invited to leave His
humanity, to usurp the kingdom from the Father. To leave His
humanity, to pursue self-glorification and power, was to abuse
His role. In a real sense, it means to cease to serve God the
Father, and to cease to serve the people.

Many religious values and beliefs are expressed through

symbols.7 In this sense, we may speak of the whole structure
of “church” and “government”. As symbols, they both point
to something. That something may be the good life, peaceful
relationships, material well-being, or power. They both
represent the same reality, in that they both exist as
instruments of God. The difference between the two may be a
matter of degree in quality of service, and experience of
fullness of life, rather than a choice of one or the other. True
denial of self, and the world, is measured by a faithful heart,
and the service of love, rather than merely outward gestures.

23
A good politician, or a minister of religion, does not become
either by right of inheritance, but by faithful service to his
neighbour, and obedience to God.

3. The historical milieu

From the very beginning of mission contacts,

Christianity was the only universal religion that penetrated the
largely tribal, and ethnic, religions of Melanesia. The gospel
of peace, reconciliation, and unity provided new attractions for
the people. Those who responded, were converted to the new
faith and life. The response was both individual and
collective. Conversion of a chief, or an elder, meant
conversion of his whole tribe or household. Those who held
political positions, traditionally did not change the old with
new title, but took on an added role. In many cases, the new
role was a religious one. For them, they were made both
political and religious figures. Because, for them, it was like
Joshua, who declared, “as for me and my family, we will serve
the Lord”.8 Tribes then became the church, because tribes
received the new faith, not individuals. Tribes become the
church, and the church was the tribe.

Christian Keysser, missionary to the Sattelberg people

from 1899-1921, was the first to recognise this, when he said:
“The tribe is, at the same time, the Christian congregation, and
considers itself as such, and acts as such.”9 Even those
individuals, who declared allegiance to the Christian faith,
were, in a sense, churches within a “church”. 10 An individual
cannot be a Christian, apart from his natural ties (tribes), for
that would be suicidal, and inhuman. Either the whole tribe is
converted, or they must face the consequences of being
ridiculed as not being members of one’s family. Many were
caught in a paradox. Am I for Christ, or Caesar? Am I for
church, or government? Etc. Thus, like the church in Corinth,
we break the body of Christ, and the order of God’s creation.
But the world, and its people, are one family of God.

24
 III

For Christians, Christian social responsibility is not an

option, but a duty. Christians are called individually, and
corporately, to bear witness in the world. This may be through
the priestly function of all believers, or a pastoral office. It
may be reflected through political office, or civil service.
From the point of view of cultural milieu, the question of the
relation of church and state is not a question of separation of
two spheres, rather it is fulfilling of duty to God. Demarcation
of territories is not the essential issue, but the quality of life
and service, characterised by love and obedience under God.
The substance of the issue is not one of spirit against body, or
church against state, but serving God against mammon –
children of the heavenly Father, or servants of darkness, the
Devil.

It would be quite safe to conclude that Luther’s concern,

in his polemics on Christian responsibilities, both for ministers
and lay persons, is a life of faithful service, according to the
call of office, be it office of the Word or politics. All are
under the rule of Christ, and His Word, which must prevail,
under whom all authorities in heaven, on earth, and under the
earth, shall bow. Thus, in dealing with our paradoxes and
dialectics, we may, all the more, listen with the third ear, to the
third person.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Althaus, Paul, The Ethics of Martin Luther, Philadelphia,

1972.

Hertz, Karl H. (ed.), Two Kingdoms and One world: a

Sourcebook in Christian Social Ethics, Minneapolis,
1974.

Bainton, Roland, Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther,

Nashville, 1950.

25
NOTES

1. Theodor Reik, Listening with the Third Ear, New York, 1948.
2. Gernot Fugmann (ed), Ethics and Development in Papua New
Guinea, Point Series No. 9, Goroka: Melanesian Institute, 1986,
p. xi.
3. Paul Tillich, Ultimate Concern, London, 1965.
4. Ennio Mantovani (ed.), An Introduction to Melanesian Religions,
Point Series No. 6, Goroka: Melanesian Institute, 1984, p. 31f.
5. Ibid, p. 26.
6. Matthew 7:15-20.
7. Mantovani, op. cit., p. 29.
8. Joshua 24:14-15.
9. Christian Keysser, A People Reborn, Pasadena: William Carey
Library, 1980, p. 213.
10. I use “church” here in a symbolic form sense, or typological form.
Referring to natural order, particularly the tribal units, with all its
spiritual and political concerns, as a total vehicle of God’s activities.

26
 DREAMS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
AND THEIR INTERPRETATION
Meg Maclean

Dreams are much more prominent in Papua New

Guinean culture than they are in the West. They are used as a
means of communication, and are full of symbolism.

My first encounter with dreams, as a means of

communication, was when young people wanted to test my
reaction to an idea without making a direct approach. On one
occasion, a girl on a course, told me how she had dreamt that
she and her friends had been climbing an Okari tree to collect
the nuts, and I had come, and had been angry with them.

Family fortunes are often the subject of dreams. At the

time, exactly what will happen is not very clear, except
something good, or something bad, is going to happen. In
retrospect, the symbolism is clearly understood.

Religious dreams usually involve religious personalities,

either from the past or the present, or have the religious theme.
One night, an Anglican sister dreamt of a lake, with a house on
one side, and a mountain on the other. Many people had
gathered for a celebration of the Mass by the Archbishop.
However, when a fire started on the mountain, the people
began to run away. The religious sisters in the congregation
were frightened also, but the Archbishop told them to stay, and
not to be afraid. As the Archbishop continued to celebrate, a
huge tree behind him caught fire, and was shooting out sparks.
When it started to fall, the Archbishop led them around the
lake towards the house. Months later, this was seen as a
prophecy of the resignation of a bishop, which resulted in a lot
of confusion, anger, and misunderstanding. The sisters were,
unwillingly, caught up in it.

27
 What guidance should we give to our people as to how
to know when dream is from God, and not the result of
worries, indigestion, or sickness? There seems to be no clear
indication in the Bible as to how to judge a dream, except by
whether the interpretation is proved true or not. This is only a
valid test if the dream contains a prediction, but it is no help in
deciding whether or not you should act on that prediction. In
Papua New Guinea cultures, I have seen dreams to be almost
as destructive as gossip.

In today’s terms, Old Testament figures, such as Daniel

and Joseph, would probably be said to have the gift of being
able to interpret dreams. Is the Papua New Guinean church
prepared to recognise anyone as having this gift? Can we rely
on the gift of discernment to distinguish between the dreams
that are of God and those that are not? Should we use the
same standard of measurement as scripture gives us for false
prophets and teachers: “By their fruits shall you know them”,
or should it be left to other members of Christ’s body to judge
their interpretation, as Paul directs in 1 Cor 14:29?

From my own experience, I would say that dreams are

very much like speaking in tongues. They are private, rather
than public, and provide edification, or revelation, for the
individual. I don’t think that dreams, in Papua New Guinea,
can be equated with the dream experience of the cultures if the
East, such as Tibetan Buddhist, or Hindu yoga, experiences.
All the dreams that have been shared with me by Papua New
Guineans, I can relate to similar experiences of my own,
except that I would interpret them according to a different
worldview. I have never established whether sorcerers, who
travel to other places by non-physical means, do so by dreams.

28
 MAN AND HIS WORLD:
BIBLICAL AND MELANESIAN
WORLDVIEWS
Fr Theodoor Aerts

[In the original edition of this article, the Bibliography and

endnotes 9 to 15 were omitted, and were published in MJT
6-1. They have now been included in this online edition, with
an increase to the page numbering. –Revising ed.]

People who are familiar with the existence of distant

planets and galaxies, and who are used to seeing, via satellite
transmission, what is happening on the other side of the globe,
need some mental changeover to re-place themselves in
biblical times. Yet, in everyday life, they still use biblical
language when they speak about “the end of the world” (cf.
Is 5:26), about “the rising of the sun, and its going down” (cf.
Mal 11:1), and about “stars falling from heaven” (cf.
Apoc 9:1). This is natural, and spontaneous, because all these
expressions derive from external observation, and from the
immediate appearance of things. They represent, also, the
scientific insights of an age past.

I THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW

1. Some ancient scientific views

Scientific knowledge is often present in the Bible,

starting already with the geographical location of the “garden
of Eden” (Gen 2:8). It is used to be said that Eden was the
name of the country, in which this garden was located, and
suggestions were made to place it somewhere on the west
bank of the lower Euphrates. Today, exegetes rather connect
the word “Eden” with the Sumerian term edinu (wilderness,
flatland), and believe that the Greek Old Testament was

29
correct in interpreting the whole expression as “a garden
(Greek: paradeisos) of delight”, for which no particular place
should be contemplated. In other words, the concept would be
related to similar ideas of Mesopotamian mythology. The
same is also true of the notation that, from this garden, started
four streams, to water the earth. The Tigris and Euphrates are
easily identified, but the two other streams – Pishon, near the
land of Havilah, and Gihon, encircling the land of Kush
(Gen 2: 10-14) – are not found in their neighbourhood, and
reflect, possibly, rivers known from Egypt. We have then,
once more, an apparently geographical, but, in fact, a half-
mythical localisation, in which the more important point is that
life-giving waters streamed out of Paradise, the place of the
tree of life, as is again known from Babylonian mythology.

A wider knowledge of the world is found in the “table

of nations”, which explains the people of the earth, starting
from Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth
(Gen 10:1-32). This lists sums up the historical and
geographical knowledge available to the scribes at Solomon’s
court, and gives us the widest-ever frame of reference found in
the Bible; it clearly falls short of embracing the whole-
inhabited world. 1 Hence, the “Solomon Islands”, so familiar
to us, must be sought near Israel, within the limits of the earth
known in the ancient Near East.2 The only conclusion, which
can be drawn of the table “of nations”, is that, even though
many of the genealogical links affirmed are hypothetical, it
nevertheless gives us a sum of ancient geographical
knowledge, as kept in some scholarly circles at the time of
king Solomon. The popular views, at that time, were surely
more limited than that.3

Natural science has left its traces, too, in scripture.

Quite incidentally, it is said, for example, that snow and rain
returned to heaven (Is 55:10), where the clouds dissolved in
rain (Jdg 5:4; 1 Kgs 18:45) to water the earth. The same
benefit derives, also, from the dew of heaven (cf. Dt 33:13,
28). Again, the rivers flow to the sea (Qoh 9:13), sometimes
explained as the moon,4 is a clear sign the weather is about to

30
change, and will become pleasant again. Such a down-to-earth
view contrasts sharply with the view expressed by the
Babylonian epic of creation, where it as said that the god
Marduk suspended “his bow” in heaven, after defeating his
rebellious god-mother, Tiamat, and those who supported her
(Enuma Elish 6:82-94: ANET 69:514). If this particular myth
inspired the biblical story of the flood, and its aftermath, we
would have our first example of de-mythologising a pagan god
tale, under the influence of the Israelite belief in the one God
Jahweh. However, this may be, the rainbow has, in fact,
become the sign of Jahweh’s benevolence, and of His promise
not to destroy the earth any more (Gen 9:13), while the earlier
example of the returning rain is used by Isaiah to explain the
life-spending function of the word of God (Is 55:11). Again,
the regularity of sun and moon (cf. Ps 72:5; 89:37), cold and
heat, winter and summer, etc. (Gen 8:22), are seen as reliable
signs of the same faithfulness and reliability of Israel’s God.

2. The external appearance of things

Most of the time, we should not suspect any scientific

pretensions, but merely a description of what is directly
observed, and a statement of what is inferred from it, without
further reflection. A worldview, as something unified and
scientifically secured, is not available; even a Hebrew word
denoting “world”, or “universe” is missing5, although, in the
later books of the Bible, we meet the Greek term kosmos, as,
for instance, in the following philosophical statement that
God’s hand “from formless matter created the world” (Wis
11:17). The typical Semitic view merely takes together what
one sees, that is “heaven and “earth” (Gen 1:1), or, from the
time of Solomon onwards, “heaven and earth and sea” (Gen
49:25; Ex 20:4, 11). The dual expression, combining two
opposites to include everything, is very common in the Bible6.
It would, therefore, not be significant enough to prove a
specific “dualistic” outlook. Analogous remarks might be
made concerning the tripartite division (Ex 20:4; Ps 115:15-
17), which some authors understand as defining a three-

31
storeyed universe, with water below, heaven above, and the
earth in between, but which often can be seen on a mere
literary level, without implying much speculative thought at
all7. In fact, the Semites did not have a single systemic view
of the universe; they used a multiplicity of approaches,
according to the circumstances. Comparisons with Egyptian
myths would allow us to find not only (two) bi-, or (three) tri-
partite divisions, but also, by distinguishing, for example, sea
and underworld, or the different superimposed heavens, a
universe with even more divisions. For our purpose, we keep
the common tri-partite division.

(1) The impression of having the sky as a ceiling

above one’s head is expressed in calling it “something
flattened” (Gen 1:6), like a thin sheet of iron (cf. Ex 39:3),
although it might be likened to a Bedouin’s tent as well
(Is 40:22c). Such a sky needs to rest its “edges” (Ps 18:6)
upon some distant mountains, which are “the pillars of
heaven” (Job 26:11). From the experience that the sky touches
all around the horizon, it was naturally inferred that the earth
itself was round surface (cf. Is 40:22a).

There are, however, some texts which reflect known

Babylonian myths, e.g., the view that the earth has four sides
(Is 11:12; Ez 7:2); pagan mythology assigned to each of these
sides another protecting divinity. Of the latter polytheistic
belief, however, we do not find any traces in the Bible.
According to a few passages, there is a “heaven of heavens”,
or a “highest of heaven” (Dt 10:14; Ps 148:4), which, once
more, mirrors a Babylonian view of three or seven
superimposed heavens, an idea, which later Jews picked up,
especially in the non-biblical books written between the Old
and New Testaments, such as 2 Enoch (cf. 8:7-22), and others.

(2) As to the flat earth, one view is that it floats or

rests upon the world-sea (Hebrew: tehom), which, in primal
time, covered the whole earth (Gen 1:2; Ps 105:6), and which
still surrounds it on all sides, only filled with some distant
islands (cf. Sir 43:23). To explain, however, that the earth

32
does not move, it needs a foundation, or “ pillars”, which,
during a mighty storm, might even be laid bare (Ps 18:15). No
thought is given, though, to what would support the world
foundations themselves.
In this geography, fits also the expression of a “navel of
the land”, which is used once to refer to the hills near Shechem
(Jdg 9:37), and, another time, to Jerusalem, built upon Mount
Zion (Ez 38:12). If for a moment, we disregard the different
periods to which these two texts belong, the double use would
suggest that different traditions have used the same expression
for their respective central places, which, in this case, are a
mere 50 kilometres distant from one another. This would
underline how very limited each of these societies did draw its
own limits.

Another earthly place with mythical associations is the

“mountain of the Lord” (Is 14:13), located in the recesses of
the North. A historicisation of this one-time Phoenician, or
Syrian, idea is found in Ex 3:1, where this applies to Mount
Horeb or Sinai (see also Ex 19), and, again, in Ps 48:3, where
the image is transposed to Mount Zion in Jerusalem8.

Not always is the earth seen as floating or fixed, there is

also the rare view of the earth as a building, perfectly
measured out (Job 38:4-5), which finds, again, its parallels in
Babylonian texts, and, in the scriptural analogy of the
underworld, as a city with gates.

(3) The third element, besides earth and sky, is the

underworld (Hebrew: sheol), which is just under the earth’s
surface (Num 16:28-34), or even below the nether sea
(Ps 24:2), from which the springs sprout forth. This is “a land
of murk and deep shadow, where dimness and disorder hold
sway, and light, itself, is like the dead of night” (Job 10:22).
Again, sheol can be seen as a city with strong gates
(Job 38:17; Is 14:17), as was done, already, by the
Babylonians.

33
 Within this general cosmological frame, other
phenomena find their place. The earth quakes, when its pillars
are shaken (Job 9:6), and the rain and hail fall down, when the
sluices of the respective storerooms are opened (Gen 7:11; Job
38:22; Ps 148:4). Sun and moon are the great lamps hung
against the firmament (Gen 1:16), or also running their
heavenly course from east to west, and then proceeding under
the earth, to resume, again, the same function (cf. Ps 19:5,
Qoh 1:7). Since experience shows that man does not need to
see them to have light, the Bible grants the light an
independent existence (Dan 3:73), and has it mentioned in
Gen 1:3-5, before even the luminaries themselves are
decorating the vault of heaven (Gen 1:14-19).

3. The different functional roles

The cosmology, here described, has no importance of its

own, but is part of a functional view of the universe. If there
is any unity, then it is because God, who “transcends heaven
and earth” (Ps 148:13), has made everything, including those
elements of nature, which the pagans venerated as their gods9.
In connection with this view, it will not be surprising that,
especially, the elements are in God’s hand. So, it is said that
the thunder is “the voice of the Lord” (as in Ps 29, which is
possibly a borrowed Canaanite hymn), or that lightning is the
arrow of His bow (Ps 18:14), or the scourges of His whip (Job
9:23). However, with the growing awareness of Jahweh’s
transcendence, it was also felt that the Lord was not in the
wind, not in the earthquake, and not in the fire, but that He
was different from all these impressive manifestations of the
nature (cf. 1 Kgs 19:11-12).

As to the main divisions of the universe, sky, earth, and

underworld, a definite functional view is adopted. Heaven is
simply the place of God (Is 66:1; Ez 1:1), although He is not
confined to it (Ps 115:3; 139:7-12), from there, He looks down
upon mankind (Dt 26:11), and, from there, He will reveal
Himself (Gen 22:11). Jacob saw, even in a vision, that there

34
were steps leading up to heaven, as if the place was a divine
palace (Gen 28:12, 17). The nether world is a kind of
counterpart of heaven, as appears from the parallelism
between the “gates of heaven” and the “gates of death”, this is
the proper place of those who are deceased, where they live on
as mere “shadows” (Hebrew: refaim).

Different, again, from these two distant places, is the

earth, which is the place of the living (Ps 115:16), here man
can be fruitful and multiply, and here seed-bearing plants and
trees are made for him (Gen 1:28-29). This earth is divided
according to the man’s needs: there are the arable land
(Hebrew: adamah, from which adam = man, is taken: Gen
2:7), the inhabited country side (Hebrew: tebel; cf. Prov 8:26;
Is 18:3; Ps 9:9), the steppe, where nomads still can pasture
their sheep (Hebrew: midbar; cf. 1 Sam 17:28; Jer 23:10), and
finally the desert, or wasteland proper, where there are not
even waterholes left (Hebrew: arabah; cf. Jer 17:6). As said
earlier, in relation to the “navel of the land”, such a world is
quite distinct from the continuous, homogeneous space,
without human qualifications of modern scientists.

That the immediate world is man-centred, can be seen

even more convincingly when we note what elements of the
landscape are, in fact, explained. There is, for example, the
human-like salt rock, standing near the Dead Sea, which is the
petrified figure of the too-curious wife of Lot (Gen 19:26), or
the piles of stones, covering the bodies of the sacrilegious
Achan (Jos 7:26), and the king’s son Absalom (2 Sam 18:17),
or the memorial erected after the treaty between Jacob and
Laban (Gen 31:45-48). Often, only one impressive stone has
become a monument, and is anointed (Gen 28:18; 35:14), or
given a symbolic name to remember the original incident (as
with Ebenezer, the “Stone of help” of 1 Sam 7:12). In many
instances, such stone monuments, or also sacred trees, were
the centres of places of worship, or private shrines, of which
there were so many in Israel (cf. Ex 20:24b), and which,
eventually, were condemned by the prophets (e.g., Is 1:29-31;

35
Jer 2:20; Hos 4:13). It was believed, of course, that on those
sites God kept revealing Himself.

4. New Testament concepts

Having touched upon the Old Testament worldview, in

its more-analytical, and its more functional, aspects, there is
not much to be added regarding the New Testament. The
traditional concepts are taken for granted, when the Christian
scriptures refer to “heaven and earth” (Mt 24:35), or to
“heaven, earth, and underworld” (cf. Mt 11:23; Rom 10:6-7;
Phil 2:10-11; Apoc 5:13), or allude to a plurality of heavens,
as in Matthew’s “kingdom of heavens” (indeed a Greek
plural), and in Paul’s reference to a rapture into the “third
heaven” (2 Cor 12:4). Even the picture of a four-sided world
is not absent, e.g., in the description of the heavenly Jerusalem
(Apoc 21:12-13), and, possibly, in the other passages as well
(Acts 10:10-11). The anthropocentric approach is also there,
with paradise as the place of those who are saved (Lk 23:43),
Hell: the place of those who are doomed (Greek: Hades; cf.
Lk 16:23), and the earth assigned to the ordinary humans (cf.
Lk 16:27).

Whereas, in the Old Testament, Jahweh was the creator

of the world, the New Testament professes that the world, with
everything visible and invisible, was made through Christ
(John 1:3; Col 1:16), and is subjected to Him (Phil 3:21).
Several texts are tainted with an ethical dualism, whereby “this
world” is counteracting the salvific will of God, yet – even in
John, who favours this view – we can read that Christ is the
light and the Saviour of the world (John 4:42; 9:5), and that
“God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so
that everyone . . . may have eternal life” (John 3:16). In
continuation of some Old Testament views that heaven and
earth will pass away (Is 51:6), the New Testament, too,
believes in the transitory nature of this world (1 Cor 7:31). To
describe the end of the world, the most impressive
catastrophes are listed, culminating in a final destruction by

36
fire (2 Pet 3:7, 10-13). Yet this is not a total annihilation, but
rather the means to arrive at a complete transformation, which
brings about “a new heaven and new earth” (cf. Apoc 21:1),
that will last forever (cf. Is 66:22).
II THE MELANESIAN WORLDVIEW

1. Contacts with the outside world

The majority of Melanesians live concentrated in the

New Guinea Highlands, and believe, according to their myths,
that this was their home place.

Yet, although the Polynesians outdo them, there are also

many local island people, with traditions about a distant land,
where they came from. From a Manus Islanders, who trace
their origin to Nimei, and his wife Niwong, their mythical
ancestors came, in a canoe, from a far-away unnamed country
(PARKINSON, 1907, p. 709). For the Trobrianders, the place
of origin is the island Tuma, only ten miles to the north-west
of Kiriwina, but, at the same time, the “other world” of the
spirits (SELIGMANN, 1910, p. 676). Actual knowledge of
distant countries is sometimes fantastic, as they are believed to
be inhabited by tailed people, and by people with wings, or
only by women, so that any man, who adventures to go to this
Kaytalugi, would die an untimely death (MALINOWSKI,
1922, p. 223).10

Recent archaeological discoveries have shown that, at

certain stages, actual knowledge of distant places may indeed
be assumed. In fact, coastal shells reached New Guinea
Highlands at least 9,000 years ago, while obsidian from
Talasea (West New Britain), used for knives and spearheads,
reached the Eastern Solomons up to 3,000 years ago. There is
evidence that the same material from Lou Islands, in the
Admiralties, did travel to the New Hebrides, be it in one or
more trips, but still linking places, which, in a straight line, are
separated some 4,300 kilometres (ALLEN, 1977, p. 389). On
these, and other, accounts the people engaged in kula-, hiri-,
and other trade expeditions, must have known more about

37
their surroundings than the ancestors of the Jewish people
knew about their outside world.

2. Traditional concept of the universe

Leaving the immediate geography, we come to the

broader view of man’s place in the universe. As far as these
Melanesian concepts are published, they look very similar to
those found in the Bible. One such view has been
reconstructed by H. I. HOGBIN, in relation to the Busama, a
people living on the coast of Huon Gulf, between Lae and
Salamaua. Here, it is believed that one, who would like to
journey beyond the small world of the ancestors, had to climb
up the blue vault of the sky, which is supposed to be solid,
“just like thatch” (HOGBIN, 1947a, p. 121).

The sky itself is peopled with so-called “sky spirits”,

which are supposed to look like humans, but who always carry
torches. The two largest of these, representing the sun and the
moon, are borne by the headmen, the rest being content with
stars. Subsequent to the original chaos, sun and moon sent
some of their followers down to instruct men in the proper
way to behave, so that, in the end, the culture of the earth
duplicates the culture of the sky (1947a, p. 124). Having
completed their tasks, these spirits have forgotten all about
their handiwork, or, at least, they have displayed no further
interest in it. Rain is ascribed to the displeasure of certain of
the spirit men at the goings-on of the spirit women, and, when
the ground is shaken, it is as a result of their wars.

Another kind of supernatural being, which occasionally

took the form of bright, varicoloured eels, snakes, or lizards,
are the so-called “spirits of the land”: they are responsible for
tempests, thunderstorms, and heavy downpours, especially
when out of season, while their multicoloured breath is to be
seen in the sky, from time to time, forming the rainbow. The
dwellings of these types of spirits are definite sacred places,
noteworthy for their gloom, chill atmosphere, or danger – a

38
cave, with a fern-covered entrance, perhaps, a waterfall,
drenched with cold spray, a lonely pool, where a stray
crocodile may be lurking, or a slippery precipice. Dangerous
as these spirits are believed to be, however, it is though that
the group dwelling at each sacred place has made a promise to
the first claimant of the surrounding area to leave him, and his
heirs, unmolested, as long as they respect the holiness of the
site. Persons, however, who have no claim to ownership, were
not included in the contract, and could expect no favours either
(1947, p. 125).

A third category of supernatural beings is the “souls” of

the deceased. After an interval of one to three months,
depending on the dead person’s status, they leave the village
they have lived in, and go to dwell with the particular land
spirit, which has previously granted them his protection.
There is, in other words, no single afterworld, where all the
departed are assembled (1947a, p. 128). The Bukaua, who
live across the Huon Gulf, between Lae and Finschhafen, and
who are culturally related to the Busamas, hold very similar
concepts of the universe (cf. LEHNER, 1911; 1930b). They
are positive about the place of the deceased; first they stay a
while at the traditional ancestral places, but then they go to a
place under the earth, whose entrance is somewhere towards
the east (1911, p. 430). This place is also in some relation to
the bottom of the sea. From here, the souls of the departed
grant favours to those who survive them on earth, on condition
that the latter keep honouring them.11

The earth, itself, is seen, by the Bukaua, as a broad,

mountainous mushroom-like mass, surrounded by water. It is
flattened towards the sides, and tapers off, below, to a mere
stick. Earthquakes are happening, when the stick of the earth
is moved. This occurs when under-earthly being, with a long
and a short leg, who leans against the earth-stick, is changing
position. Other explanations of the earth tremors relate them
to powerful humans, or to the magic of some sorcerers (1930b,
pp. 105-106).

39
 The firmament is like a huge shell of a sea turtle, resting
upon the ends of the earth. Yet, there exists, also, the belief
that one “man”, called Nochta, is sitting on the horizon,
supporting the heavenly vault, lest it should fall down and
crush all the living (LEHNER, 1930b, p. 107). This heaven is
conceived as another inhabited world, planted with trees, of
which the stars are the roots.12 Sun and moon are the eyes of
dreaded, but also venerated, powers. When, at evening, “Lord
Sun” sets, it is believed that his grandmother came to fetch
him; he then passes underneath the earth, to appear on the
other side next day. The moon follows the same route, but
takes more time, because he is smaller, and also slower. There
exists a fear that, one day, the sun and moon will disappear,
thus marking the end of mankind; therefore, moon eclipses
cause a great show of sorrow and grief, because of the nearing
disaster. A halo around the moon is a premonitory sign that
somebody is about to retire into a seclusion hut, e.g., the next
widower, or the next girl coming to puberty. When a rainbow
appears, it is believed that it shows the blood of the killed
person, which mounts to heaven, or, also, somebody’s bile,
which burst and splashed up into the sky (1930b, p. 110).
Similar explanations cover nearly all atmospheric phenomena,
but those mentioned here will suffice for the people near the
Huon Gulf.

Elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, we find ideas, which,

in many instances, are exactly the same as those described, but
there are also differences to be noted. One missionary, noting
the keen interest in cosmological problems among the
Austronesian Palas of New Ireland, refers how, once an old
man asked him, whether he – a white man – had come from
below, evidently using a ladder, which was standing in the
world below (NEUHAUS, 1934, p. 87). According to these
islanders, the earth and the sea form a flat, round disk, like the
knots of a bamboo. Above us, there is, like another bamboo
knot, the upper world, while our earth rests upon pillars
planted upon another earth, right under us. The lower side of
our earth is, then, the heaven of the earth below, and the
heaven above us is the lower side of the earth above. Contact

40
between these worlds is quite feasible, with ladders, and the
same is true to go from one heaven to the other (NEUHAUS,
1962, pp. 218-219). One wonders whether this model does not
better fit some ancient Near-Eastern views, than some of the
complicated three-dimensional constructions, proposed thus
far (cf. WARREN, pp. 33-40, and frontispiece).

In some of the information gained from among a

Papuan society, the Mbowamb (near Mount Hagen), we meet
the greatest variety, from plain, naturalistic explanations, to
the most-mythical ones. The society, referred to, knows a
Western-type explanation of the rain, that it is evaporated
water in the clouds, which reliquefies, and falls on the earth
(STRATHERN, 1977, p. 8). In one mythical explanation, it is
said that the rain is the tears of the sky people (taewamb), who
own the game, and weep over the wild animals, which have
been killed by men. The other says that rain happens when
Rangkopa, a female sky being, urinates over the earth. This
explains, also, the rainy season, while, during the dry spell,
Rangkopa hitches her skirt, and allows the sun to shine all the
time (1977, p. 8).

The rainbow is understood as a heavenly reflection of a

giant snake lying in the forest. If there are two rainbows, it is
said that there is a married pair there, the “woman” lying
below, and her husband lying above (1977, p. 8). During a
thunderstorm, people hear the voice of Kukakla, and some say
a red man comes below to eat men, while others say it is a red
pig, which comes and kills men. Others are still more specific,
and see, in the lightning, the sexual act of a heavenly, flecked
boar, and an earthly red sow. When a man is struck by
lightning and dies, it is a sign that he stood on the spot where
the two animals mated, and burnt him, as with fire (1977,
p. 9). The human, or animal, form of these heavenly beings is
not really of importance, while the main idea is to connect the
various atmospheric events with the “parents of the world”, a
male-heavenly and a female-earthly principle, as is done in
many other religious systems.13

41
 To this complex, one can also reckon some myths of the
Samap (East Sepik), which compare the moon, either to the
genitals of, for example, a fish-women (GEHBERGER, 1950,
pp. 79-85), or those of a man, who could change himself into a
pig (1950, pp. 96-100). As such traditional tales should be
seen against their respective cultural backgrounds, there is
nothing absent about them, but they witness how, generally,
daily experiences are linked with the ever-present supernatural
beings, who secure survival and vitality for man, animals, and
plants, alike.

For the descriptions given, so far, one can see that no

rounded-off cosmology is intended, and that earth and sky, day
and night, and the most-varied phenomena, from earthquakes
to moon halos, used to be seen in direct relation to man’s
practical concerns.14 People believe that they depend,
somehow, on what is going on in the sky; hence they try to
avoid the dangers, which threaten them from above, or they
seek to catch the benefits which, according their observations,
are connected with the appearance, or disappearance, of some
definite atmospheric phenomena (LEHNER, 1930b, p. 105).
As a rule, the heavenly bodies, or events, are, themselves,
related to some spirit beings, whose nature is supposedly
known, and not further described. Finally, the views
expressed may have no wider currency than the one particular
society they derive from. As in the Bible, then, there is not
one authoritative worldview, but there is a multitude of partial
concepts.

3. The immediate human environment

Of more importance than either the geographical

knowledge of distant places, or the practical concern with
cosmology, and with atmospheric phenomena, is man’s
interest in his nearby physical environment: the village or
place he lives in, the soil he tills, or the sea he sails, the strange
shapes of beaches and rocks, the fascination of trees and
groves, and of many other features of his immediate

42
surroundings. 15 One story of the Siwai-Papuans (South
Bougainville) might illustrate this kind of concern (KINNA,
1972, pp. 22-26:

Long before the missionaries, and other Europeans,

came to Bougainville and Papua New Guinea, two gods
lived on the mountains above Tonelei Harbour in South
Bougainville. These two gods were TANTANU and
PAUPIAHE. Because they were gods, each of them
had servants to do his work.

Tantanu’s servants worked very hard in his gardens, and

Tantanu would reward them with four or five pigs every
day.

The servants used to have a feast every night.

Paupiahe’s men were very lazy, and never worked at all.

To make it look as though they were working very hard,
they would burn dry banana leaves and cover
themselves with ash. Paupiahe did not realise their
tricks, and he would also reward them with four or five
pigs. So they, too, feasted every night.

This went on for years, but, finally, Paupiahe realised

that he did not have any more pigs and food to reward
his men. He then knew that this had happened, because
his men had not really worked.

Tantanu’s men kept on, as usual, working hard in the

gardens, feasting, and having dances every night.

Paupiahe becomes jealous of Tantanu. He decided to

chase Tantanu away, so that he could get his property
and servants. Paupiahe stood on his high mountain, and
commanded Tantanu to move away. “If you don’t,” he
cried, “I’ll send you right out of this world, to the world
of spirits.”

43
 Tantanu had no choice. He started to move along the
beach towards the south-west. When he came to the
point, which is known as Moila Point today, he bent the
trees towards the sea, to hide himself. But, still,
Paupiahe could see him from the top of the mountain.
Tantanu kept on till he was out of sight, and he finally
came to a small coastal village, called Siwais. They got
their name from this small village.

When Tantanu came to Siwai village, he found only

children. They were alone in the village. Their parents
had gone to gather food in the jungle. At that time,
people were food gatherers. They did not plant gardens
of their own.

Tantanu told the children to cook him in a pot. They

did as they were told. After an hour, the children saw a
man coming along the beach, combing his hair. It was
Tantanu, himself. They asked him how he got out of
the pot.

“You did not cook me,” he told them. “You cooked

food for yourselves.”

So the children took the lid off, and each child picked
up one type of food and named it. “That’s my taro,”
said one.

“This is my yam,” said another.

“That is my singapore taro,” said a third.

This was how we got the various names of food. Then,

all around the village, the various sorts of food started to
grow by themselves.

Tantanu then started to teach the children a song, which

is translated:

44
 “God has found us.
God has found us.
Throw all the other food away.
The yams, and other food, are growing.”
Tantanu advised them to sing this song to their parents.
He lived with them as their leader, till the people
disobeyed him. Then he left.

Today, in Siwai, yams, taro, and other food, can be seen

growing around. The pot, in which Tatanu was cooked,
is also there, as a pool of water. Paupiahe still stands, as
a rock on the mountain above Tonelei Harbour.

When the missionaries came to Siwai, they chose

TANTANU as the word to mean the Christian God.
Today, the Siwai people still call the Almighty God and
Creator, by the name of TANTANU.

This tale is clearly confined to the coastal region,

inhabited by the Siwai, with the old village, Moila Point, the
mountains above Tonelei Harbour, with one specific rock
formation, and one definite pool of water. All these items are,
somehow, related to the “gods” Tantanu and Paupiahe. The
story is, of course, not isolated, and so one could add the
explanations of other noteworthy features of the landscape, as
the large sickle-shaped stone, lying behind the village
Koromira (South Bougainville), which is the petrified canoe
given by Bakokora, as model for canoe building, or also the
nearby fireplace and cooking pot used by the same “god”,
when he taught the people how to prepare food (cf. RAUSCH,
1911, pp. 814-815). Almost every particularly large tree in the
forest is connected with the tree spirit (OLIVER, 1955, p.
306), while one definite pool, elsewhere on Bougainville,
where people used to feed a sacred crocodile with pigs and
dogs (RIBBE, 1903, p. 148), has no doubt a similar spirit-story
to explain the corresponding custom.

Mountains and valleys, and various coastlines, all have

their own aetiologies. So, the Buka people tell us that their

45
island was created by a “god” and a “goddess”, which came in
a canoe from the south (Bougainville); while the “god” steered
the canoe, the coast line was straight, but later, when the
“goddess” piloted the craft, the course was crooked, and,
hence, the Queen Carola Harbour, on the north-west of the
island (THOMAS, 193, p. 220). Similarly, the Tolai people
explain that the region of Rebar is flat and dry, because it was
made by their good cultural hero To Kabinana, whereas the
Paparatava area is full of gorges and wells, because it is the
work of the hero’s silly brother, To Purgo
(KLEINTITSCHEN, 1924, pp. 18-19).

Not only natural features are explained in this way, but

also, what appear to be, early man-made structures. At
Wapaiya, for example, a village on Kitava Island (Trobriands),
there are several megalithic monuments. One big, standing
stone, measuring over 1.7 metres in height, is the petrified
ancestor Yanusa (compare Gen 19:26), whereas the nearby
remains of roughly-rectangular shapes are his wife, children,
and dog. The story goes that Yanusa and his family were out
hunting pigs, when, for some unknown reason, they all turned
to stone (OLLIER, et al, 1973, pp. 45-47).16 Again, in the
village of Barim, on the south-west coast of Umboi or Rooke
Island (West New Britain), one finds, outside the men’s house,
some standing stones, which, during feast time, are sprinkled
with the blood of pigs (compare Gen 28:18). People say that
they belong to the man bilong bipo, and that they now guard
the village (CHINNERY, 1928, p. 29). The explanations, just
quoted, show that essential elements of some legends, such as
the reason of Yanusa’s punishment, or the specific aetiology
for the Barim stones, can be easily be lost during the oral
transmission, or, maybe, because of changes in the population,
when earlier inhabitants have died out, or were chased away
by new immigrants.

In more recent times, several geographical myths have

emerged, in connection with some syncretistic movements.
As a rule, it has been observed that biblical stories do not have
the status of the tribal lore, because they did not leave any

46
proofs, or visible marks, in the immediate surroundings
(MALINOWSKI, 1922, p. 302). To obviate this deficiency,
local “prophets” often rename parts of their environment; this
explains in the Koreri movement (West Irian), the use of
Bethlehem, Judea, and the places of the unclean spirits,
Gadara (KAMMA, 1954, p. 161), or, in the story cult of Kallal
(West New Britain), the new location for Lake Jordan and
Nazareth, and for Mounts Sinai and Galilee (JANSSEN, 1974,
pp. 21-22). In the Mambu movement, something similar can
be observed, when actual and mythical geography are
combined into one single picture. A native of Manam Island
(near Bogia) explained it all to K. BURRIDGE, with drawings
in support. The concentric circles, in the middle of the design,
may recall the spherical form of the sky, and the waters
surrounding the earth (as in traditional myths). The central
point, however, was explained as the place where bikpela
bilong ol gat hap, or where the Creator generated Himself.
The frustrated Manam Islanders live at the far right, whereas
the “cargo” is to be found at the far left, beyond Europe and
America, although some benefits are trickling through to
Rabaul, Port Moresby, Aitape, and Manus, some of the
administrative centres in Papua New Guinea. The four
cardinal points show a factual knowledge of a ship’s
compass.17 We have, then, here, a good example of how
experimental knowledge about Manam, Rabaul, etc., and
learned facts about Tokyo, England, etc., are related to the
place “no one in the world has seen . . . or knows its name”
(BURRIDGE, 1960, pp. 10-11, 240-241).

CONCLUSION

A closer look at Melanesian worldviews cannot be

without benefit, for a correct understanding of the scriptures,
which were written by men, who had the comparable
worldview. In neither of the two views, is there an attempt to
ever arrive at the single valid synthesis; on the contrary,
different views were cherished at the same time, yet, always,
they were related to man’s needs, and are part of his so-called

47
integrated experience. In this matter, Israelite and Melanesian
views clash with modern scientific insights, based up on
experiments and logical deductions, but, at the same time,
showing hardly any relation to the daily experiences of one’s
senses.

One has not to choose between either a traditional, or a

scientific, view, because each applies to a different realm.
Again, the scholarly explanation is apt to indicate that the
more-imaginary views don’t pretend to be taken literally, or to
be matters of saving truth. In their own fashion, popular views
remain valid, though; they remind Melanesians that the Bible,
too, has a human scale, of which smallness, one has to be
aware, to grasp properly the greatness of its message. Even
the Manam Islander, “who brings out from his storeroom,
things both old and new” “(cf. Mt 13:52), reminds us of the
fact that, for a truly religious man, not he, himself, or his tribe,
or his land, are the centres of the universe, but, rather, what he
called the place bikpela bilong ol gat hap.18 Seen from
Manam, the “unknown land” is situated in the same
(westward) direction as the centre of all things, maybe thus,
betraying the conviction that “religion” is the means of obtain
“cargo”. The latter would be in line with much Old Testament
thinking, but it does not seem to follow from Jesus’ word of
guidance: “seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all the rest
will fall in line” (cf. Mt 6:33).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ALLEN, Jim, “Sea Traffic, Trade and Expanding Horizons”,

in ALLEN, J., et al, Sunda and Sahel, London, 1977,
pp. 387-417.
BAUSCH, Christa, “Das Nachtmythologem in der
polynesischen Religion . . ”, in Zeitschrift fur
Religious – und Geistesgeschichte 22, 1970,
pp. 244-266.
BURRIDGE, Kenelm, Mambu: a Melanesian Millenniun,
London, 1960.

48
CAMPBELL, Joseph, “The Masks of God I”, in Primitive
Mythology, London, 1960.
CHINNERY, E. W. P., “Certain Natives in South New Britain
and Dampier Straits”, in Anthropological Report 3,
Melbourne, (1928).
CLARK, Ross, “The Fell Controversy”, in The New
Diffusionist (Sandy) 6, 1976, pp. 88-91.
COON, Carleton S., The History of Man, London, 1955.
DORSON, Richard M., “The Eclipse of Solar Mythology”, in
SEBEOK, Momas A., ed., Myth: a Symposium,
Philadelphia, 1955, pp.15-38.
EVANS-PRITCHARD, E. E., Theories of Primitive
Religion, Oxford, 1965.
GEHBERGER, Johann, “Aus dem Mythenschatz der Samap
an der Nordostkueste Neuguineas”, in Anthropos 45,
1950, pp. 295-341, 733-778.
HOGBIN, H. J., “Pagan religion in a New Guinea Village”, in
Oceania 18, 1947, pp. 120-145.
HOELTKER, Georg, “Die maritime Ortung bei einigen
Staemme in Nor-dost-Neuguinea”, Geographica
Helvetica (Bern) 2, 1947, pp. 192-205.
JANSSEN, Hermann, “The Story Cult of Kaliai”, in Point
1974/1, pp. 4-18.
JENSEN, Adolf E., “Wettkampf-Parteien, Zweiklassensystem
und geographische Orientierung”, in Studium Generale
(Berlin) 1, 1947/48, pp. 38-48.
KAMMA, Freerk C., De Messiaanse Koreri-bewegingen in
het Biaks-Noemfooresecultuurgebied, Den Haag,
1954 (English translation, 1972).
KINNA, John J., “Tantanu and Paupiahe”, in
FUNGKARANG Agesta, et al, Creation Legends from
Papua New Guinea, Madang, 1972, pp. 22-26.
KLEINTITSCHEN, August, Mythen und Erzaehlungen
eines Melanesierstammes aus Paparatavo
(Neupommem), Moedling, 1924.
KOEHNKE, Glenys, Time bilong Tumbuna, Port Moresby,
1973.

49
KRAUSS, Gerhard, “More about Ptolemaic Presence (3rd
century BC)”, in Pacific and South America: The
New Diffusionist (Sandy) 5, 1975, pp. 46-53.
KROLL, H., “Der Iniet”, in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 69,
1937, pp. 180-220.
LAUFER, Carl, “Die Astralkunde der melanesischen
Gunantuna (New Britain)”, in Bulletin der
Schweizerischen Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie 45,
1968/9, pp. 16-45.
LAWRENCE, P./MEGGITT, M.J., eds., Gods, Ghosts and
Men in Melanesia, Oxford, 1965.
LEHNER, Stephen, “Bukaua”, in NEUHAUSS, Richard
Gustav, Deutsch Neu-Guinea 3, Berlin 1911,
pp. 397-488.
———, “Die Naturanschauung der Eingeborenen im N.O.
Neu-Guinea”, in Baessler-Archiv 14, 1930/1931,
pp. 105-122.
MALINOWSKI, Bronislaw, Argonauts of the Western
Pacific, London, 1922.
MEIER, Joseph, Mythen und Erzaehlungen der
Kuestenbewohner der Gazelle-Halbinsel (Neu-
Pommern), Munster, 1909.
———, (Mendi) Legends, privately printed by Capuchin
Mission, Mendi Diocese, nd.
NEUHAUS, Karl, Das Hoechste Wesen . . . bei den Pala
(Mittel-Neu-Mecklenburg), Vunapope, 1934.
———, Beitraege zur Ethnolgraphic der Pala, Koelin,
1962.
OLIVER, Douglas L., A Solomon Islands Society,
Cambridge MA, 1955.
OLLIER, C. D., et al, “Megaliths, Stones, and Bwala on
Kitava (Trobriand Islands): Archaeology and Physical
Anthropology”, in Oceania 7, 1973, pp. 41-50.
PARKINSON, Richard, Dreissig Jahre in der Suedsee,
Stuttgart, 1907.
PERRY, W. J., Children of the Sun, London, 1923.
POUWER, J., “A Masquerade in Mimika”, in Antiguity and
Survival (The Hague), 1, 1956, pp. 373-386, 432-437.

50
RAUSCH, J., “Gottesidee der Eingegorenen von Sued-
Bougainville”, in Anthropos 6, 1911, pp. 814-815.
RIBBE, Carl, Zwei Jahre unter den Kannibalen der
Salomo-Inseln, Dresden, 1903.
RIESENFELD, Alphonse, The Megalitic Culture of
Melanesia, Leiden, 1950.
SELIGMAN, C. G., The Melanesians of British New
Guinea, Cambridge, 1910.
THOMAS, Gordon, “Customs and Beliefs of the Natives of
Buka:, in Oceania 2, 1931/1932, pp. 220-231.
WICHMANN, Arthur, Nova Guinea I:
Entdeckungsgeschichtevon Neu Guinea, Leiden, 1909.
NOTES

1. One author, of the last century, believed that the Bible contained a
reference to New Guinea, in as far as this as this island, and
Australia, would have been settled by the descendants of Cush, the
son Ham (Gen 10:6); the time of such an immigration, together with
the occupation of India, might have occurred about 4,000 years ago
(S. F. H. UNGEWITTER, Der Welttheil Australien, Erlangen 1853,
p. 49, quoted in WHICHMANN 1909, p. 1). The dates proposed are
completely out of the question, while exegetes usually identify the
Cushites with the Nubians.

2. The Island, or Islands of Solomon, together with the places Ophir (1

Kings 9:28, 10:11) and Tarshish (1 Kings 10:22), are in the Bible;
the ports from which Solomon’s fleet brought, in its three-year-long
voyages, great amounts of gold (14 tonnes!), silver, precious stones,
sandalwood, etc. (1 Kings 10:20). Sixteenth-century European
explorers spread the news, founding them in Pacific Ocean, South of
islands Buka and Bougainville. The proposed identification only
shows what the Spaniards expected to find in 1568, while the false
rumours, subsequently spread in Europe and Central America, were
intended to nourish the once-awoken interests (cf. JACK HINTON,
1969, 1-5, pp. 80-82). Exegetes now believe that Ophir is rather to
be sought in India, Arabia, or Eastern Africa, while Tarshish could
be located somewhere near Italy or Spain. It is possible, though, that
“a ship of Tarshish” would not refer to any port called upon, but
simply to “a sea-going vessel”, able to make long voyages on the
high seas.

3. Modern authors have, sometimes, yielded to the temptation to

connect the South Pacific with the biblical lands; we will quote only

51
 two or three of these attempts. D. MACDONALD, a Presbyterian
missionary on the New Hebrides, was one who tried to proved that
the Oceanic languages had a common stock of purely, and
exclusively, Semitic words (triliteralism), with also the appropriate
word-forming additions (such as prefixes, infixes, and suffixes);
hence the contemporary Efate- language was a linguistic “cousin” of
modern Syriac, and vulgar Arabic dialects. The historical contact
would have occurred via the Phoenicians, manning Solomon’s fleet
(cf. his book: The Oceanic Languages: their Grammatical
Structure, Vocabulary, and Origin, London, 1907, 34, 52, 94, with
the long index of Semitic words on pp. 317-352). The suggestion
has not been taken up by later comparative linguists.

Again, the diffusionists of the Manchester School, like G.

ELLIOT SMITH and W. J. PERRY, did believe that a megalithic
culture (expressed in huge stone monuments like the pyramids, and
the South American temples) spread from Egypt via India, over
Indonesia, and Melanesia, to start at the end the Inca and Maya
civilisations (cf. PERRY 1923, esp. pp. 458-466, 473-476, and the
index under: “Melanesia”). A more-limited diffusionist view has
been defended recently, on the basis of some Egyptian/Greek
inscriptions found in different places of Polynesia, and even of West
Irian (cf. H. B. FELL, America B.C., New York, 1974; also
KRAUS, 1975). However, such affirmations are not taken seriously
by the scientific community, because all the evidence adduced has
not the strength of bridging several centuries in time, and many
thousands of miles of space (cf. RIESENFELD, 1950, p. 537),
whereas, against the latest attempts of B. FELL, serious linguistic
difficulties have been raised (cf. e.g., CLARK, 1976). The safer
position at this stage would be to admit different Neolithic centres of
diffusion, in, say, the Near East (agriculture, with wheat and barley),
South-east Asia (rice culture), and Peru-Middle America (maize) (cf.
COON, 1955, e.g., 126, CAMPBELL, 1960, e.g., 138, etc.).

4. The Hebrew word geset means, in other contexts, an ordinary

“bow”, and so it has been understood in the Greek Old Testament,
which has: toxon: “bow” (and not: iris: “coloured rainbow”, or
“moon halo”), so that, in principle, the text could apply to the moon
segment, although the explicit references to the clouds rather
supports the traditional understanding. The “bow” of God is referred
to in the cosmological fragment of Hab 3:11 (cf. also Ps 18:14). In
classical myths, the rainbow is often seen as a sign of disaster.

5. The Hebrew term olam, which, for late Rabbis, indicated the
universe, has, in the canonical books, the meaning of “unending
time”, “eternity”. Hence, Qoh 3:11 refers to God permitting man to

52
 have an overview of the course of “time”, not a contemplation of the
“world”, as in R. A KNOX’s translation of this passage. (For
“time”,’ see, e.g., the Jerusalem Bible).

6. Some well-known examples of this figure of speech, called

“hendiadys” (literally “one through two”), are: “flesh and blood”,
“bind and loose”, “morning and evening”, “coming and going”, and
many others more. We could refer here to the pidgin term:
bulmakau, “bull and cow” for cattle, manmeri, “men women” for
people, and even banara, “bow and arrow” for weapon.

7. Although less observed, and often obscured in translations, there are

quite a number of scriptural examples of threefold enumerations,
such as: decrees-laws-customs (Dt 4:45), suffering-punishment-
disgrace (2 Kings 19:3), riches-honour-life (Prov 22:4), wisdom-
discipline-discernment (Prov 23:23, terror-pit-snare (Is 24:17), etc.
See BRONGERS, 1965, esp. pp. 104-105.

8. The name El Shaddai, which Ex 6:3 places before the revelation of

the divine name Jahweh (Ex 6:6), has been explained as deriving
from the Accadian shadu = “mountain”, and pointing towards an
archaic hill-worship, but this interpretation is not secured. As to the
common biblical expression: “to go up to Jerusalem”, one should not
press its mythological associations (found, e.g., in Is 2:2), since it
might merely be an idiom, derived from Jerusalem’s geography
(compare the English: “to go down town”, of the Gunantuna “go up
to the village, go down to the forest” (cf. KROLL, 1937, p. 205 n. 1).

9. Sun and moon were commonly seen as gods of the gentiles (cf.
Dt 17:3), and some traces of such a view might be detected, even in
the Old Testament, e.g., where they are said to “govern” day and
night (Gen 1:16), or “to strike (men) down” (Ps 121:6), or that the
sun “comes out of his pavilion . . . to run his race” (Ps 19:5), or
“stands still” (Jos 10:12-13). Again, such concepts as tebel, “the
land”, tehom, “the deep” (compare the god-mother Tiamat), and
sheol/abaddon, “the underworld” (cf. Job 25:6), are often used
without an article, that is: as being personal names.

Finally, references to a primal battle between Jahweh and the

monsters, Rahab and Leviathan, are not completely expurgated, as
can be seen in Is 27:1; 51:9-10; Ps 74:13-14; 98:9-10; Job 7:12;
26:12-13, and might be suspected, in more innocuous-looking
places, as Hab 3:8; Ps 93, etc., which do refer, e.g., to the
subjugation of Rivers and Sea (without capitals in the translations!).

53
10. The “island of women” is a common theme in Melanesia, as seen
from MEIER, 1909, p. 85; PARKINSON, 1905, p. 688, and others,
while the specific treatment on the island Kaytalugi reflects the
customary mishandling of men, caught at certain stages of the
female communal work on Kiriwina.
11. Whereas, in Hebrew thought, the dead live on as frail “shadows”, the
general Melanesian view is that, when people grow older, they grow
in authority and spiritual power, and can even disregard the
commonly-observed taboos. After death, their power still increases,
till, finally, they obtain a full spirit existence, with the respective
magical powers to harm or to save. (For the latter distinctions, see
the correlations drawn by LAWRENCE-MEGGITT, 1965, p. 14).
There are, however, also cases where the attitude towards the
deceased is full of ambiguity, with elements of fear and mourning
and alacrity alike (cf. POUWER, 1956, pp. 381-386).

12. LEHNER, 1930b, p. 107, explains that this belief is founded upon
the fact that, during dark nights, one can see, in the forest, various
lights caused by the phosphorescence of putrefying wood, or also, of
certain species of moss.

13. In Egypt, where life is not so much dependent on sunshine and rain,
but, more visibly, on the fertilising floodings of the River Nile, the
primal time was described as the embrace of the protective Mother
Sky (Nut) with the Earthly Father (Geb), till the skygod Shu (their
son?) “separated” them from one another. One might possibly see
here the mythical background of the biblical “separation” of Gen 1:7
and Ps 74:13.

14. It is not clear whether Melanesians also dissociate sun and moon
from light and darkness, as this is sometimes done in the scriptures.
One should, however, observe that, although the Bible well develops
a kind of light-symbolism (e.g., 1 John 1:5c; Eph 5:8), it is not
altogether negative in its appreciation of moon and darkness and
night (cf. Gen 1:2; Ex 10:21; Ps 104:20; Lk 23:44, a fact which, no
doubt, has something to do with the climatic reality of the Near East.
Missionaries, who generally came from more-temperate zones,
lacked these experiences; for them, night was only associated with
darkness and gloom, with evil and all that is second rate. When
bringing the “light” of the gospel, they easily condemned the pasin
bilong tudak, whereas the South Sea Islanders did see the night with
respect and admiration (because of the closeness with the spirit
world), and the day as something ordinary and trivial, and without
such emotional appeals. This is even more true of Polynesians,
because of their distinct cosmologies (cf. BAUSCH, 1970).

54
15. In a different way, this immediate concern is expressed by EVANS-
PRITCHARD, 1965, p. 54, where he writes: “. . . it is a plain fact
that primitive man shows remarkably little interest in what we may
regard as the most-impressive phenomena of nature – sun, moon,
sky, mountains, sea, and so forth – whose monotonous regularities
they take very much for granted”. He wipes away, in one sway, a
library on solar mythologies, which also looked very much to
Melanesia. See further, DORSON, 1955.

16. Stories of petrified ancestors are very common in Melanesia. One

can compare, for example, the legends about the four Kekeni
(women) – rocks near Yule Island (Mendi Legends, 5), or the
explanation attached to the two rocks Ndekatl and Mokatl near
Mount Hagen (STRATHERN, 1977, p. 7 n. 53). Different versions
of one tale are the legends of Mount Sigul Mugal, near Kagamuga
airstrip, (Mendi Legends, 10) and of the rocks Tagal and Magal in
the Kuna river (KOEHNKE, 1973, p. 82).

17. Traditional geography has no “orientation”, according to the four

cardinal points, but bases itself, for example, upon the relation of a
place towards the sea, or downstream, and towards inland, or
upstream. Hence, for one group, with a river flowing towards the
west, the sun rises “up-stream”, whereas, in a linguistic-related
group, living near a river, which flows towards the east, the sun goes
down “up-stream”! Cf. JENSEN, 1947, pp. 43-47, HOELTKER,
1947, pp. 192-199.

18. From this insight, we might derive a practical hint for religious
instruction. In this part of the world, maps usually show Australia
and the International Date Line in the centre. A common term like
“the ancient Near East”. Coined by the English, becomes, then, a
manifest contradiction, since Palestine is located towards the west.
It might be more helpful to use, whenever necessary, so-called
European maps, with the zero meridian of Greenwich in the centre.
This would bring out how the “Holy Land” occupies a central
position to at least three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. This
visual aid will show how God’s word, which is historically bound to
this place, has a critical function to all men, and all cultures, Western
and Melanesian alike. In fact, Christians already use a similar
approach, when reckoning the time, and divine history, into “before
Christ” and “after Christ”.

55
 A DANCE TO THE GIVER OF LIFE
Revd Christopher Garland

Scene 1

Husband and wife emerge from their hut. The husband is

carrying a scrappy dancing mask, with some feathers missing.

HUSBAND: Tomorrow is the Forest Spirit’s dance

In which we must their power enhance.
And as, by dancing, we show for them
our care
We pray them, with us, their power to
share.
But, in a mask like this, I can’t appear.
You have forgotten about it all the year.
WIFE: You wear it: you prepare it.
Just some feathers are all you need
Which a proper man would find with
speed.
HUSBAND: You come with me on a hunting trip
And I’ll soon find feathers I can strip.

They set on a hunting trip, and there is slapstick, as the wife

points to birds, which the husband tries to go after, and
misses. The wife becomes tired, and the husband tells her off
in dumb show, and drags her along. Then, as she is being
dragged, she points to another bird, he drops to go after the
bird, she runs away, and hides, he comes back, searches for,
and finds, her, and then drags her along again. In the end,
they both settle exhausted against an egg-shaped object.

Scene 2

In this scene, there are a group of chanters and kundu at the

side of the drama-area, as well as the dancers waiting inside
56
the “egg”. The husband and wife are still sleeping against the
egg, as both kundu drums begin to beat, both inside and
outside the egg, and the husband and wife wake up and sit up.

HUSBAND: I feel the air alive with sound

I feel that spirits are all around.
WIFE: See, the egg, where you rest your back
Quick, turn, and see it crack.
We made it by our bodies warm.
Now life from it will outward swarm.
HUSBAND: The egg is home of wondrous power.
Come wife, behind that bush, let us
cower.

The egg opens, and the dancers slowly emerge, and begin to
dance, with movements that accompany the words of the
chanters.

CHANTERS: Beating, beating to the rhythm of life

Beating slowly, with no need of strife.
Slowly, we gather to a dancing pace
Emerging out, with natural grace.
Twisting and weaving, along the line,
Advancing and glancing, we intertwine
Now, freely and gaily, we stamp our
feet,
Giving ourselves, fully, to the rhythm’s
beat,
Nodding and swaying, in our dancing
dress.
Our every move to life says yes
The music and dance makes us into one
The rhythm of life has its work well
done
Now, our steps link us up, in a line of
peace
In turn, we settle in waking ease
In quiet, we quake with waiting vigour

57
 Till the dance grows again, bigger and
bigger.

Four other dancers enter.

With other spirits, we leap turn

To win the release, for which all life
must yearn
(This may be repeated)
Then, back to the egg, we make our way
To wait to be born, at the break of the
day.

The kundu drums die down, the dancers crawl back into their
egg.

HUSBAND: We have the paradise birds’ spirits seen.

But I do not know whether we wake or
dream.
WIFE: If we could, of those birds, some
feathers glean,
We would, of the dance, be King and
Queen.
HUSBAND: Now, of the birds, I feel such awe,
I could not kill them any more.
WIFE: You speak as a fool, and as a coward
Kill them, and, by them, be empowered.
HUSBAND: Speak not like, in this fearsome place,
Come, back to the village, at our
quickest pace.

(They go back to the hut.)

Scene 3

On the way to the hut, they meet the white man, who is
carrying the gun.

58
 WHITE MAN: Where are you going, at such fretful
speed.
What’s your problem, what’s your
need?
HUSBAND: Oh air, we have forest spirits seen
And, I would, we could, of our fears, be
clean
WIFE: Do not hear his talk of fright.
He is captive of the dreams of night.
What we have seen, could all be ours
If he didn’t fear its wondrous powers.
If in the forest, you dare to roam,
You’ll find the paradise birds’ secret
home.
HUSBAND: Of forest spirits, I have no care,
So to find the birds, is an easy dare.
I’ll follow your tracks back, right away.
While the trail is fresh, I need not stray.
WIFE: You’ll know you have the answer found
If you see the large egg upon the
ground.
WHITE MAN: If those birds, I can shoot and kill,
Of their feathers, I will take my fill.
The egg you saw, must be from a nest,
So, with my gun, I will go in quest.
HUSBAND: Those whom the spirits do not scare
May find they miss what is special
there.
Before you go, please, your heart
prepare,
For you are going to the spirits’ lair.
WHITEMAN: Delay me no more with your worries
poor.
I’ve left much worries behind; I’ve a
modern mind.
Into the forest I’ll press ahead. . . .

(He blunders roughly in the direction from which the husband

and wife have come. The husband and wife return to their hut.

59
The white man wanders round and round, until he comes near
the egg.)

Now does that, or that, mark their

trend?
Confound those people, I’ve lost my
way
And now it is no longer day.
My mind, with anger, is disturbed
And empty fears, I must keep curbed
The air heavy, I want to sleep,
I can just up to this white stone creep.

(He crawls up to the egg, rests against it, and sleeps almost till
dawn the next day.)

Scene 4

The kundu drums begin to beat out odd taps, with no real
rhythm. The white man wakes up.

WHITEMAN: Desire for riches disturbs my rest

But I will not, by forest fears, be
oppressed.
This stone is the egg, of which they
spoke,
My body’s warmth has the egg shell
broke
An egg so big is a foolish dream,
But I’ll take my distance, so I can
scheme.
CHANTERS: Doubt and anger disrupt our dance
One by one, we must take our chance.

The egg splits open, and spirit dancers came out one by one.
As they do so, the white man shoots at them. One or two he
hits, others struggle off into the forest to hide. The white man
takes some feathers from the birds that have been shot.

60
 CHANTERS: One by one, one by one
Our line has gone,
Our dance is done
We are scattered, by the gun.
WHITE MAN: With the feathers I’ve caught
I’ll see what wealth can be bought.

(He starts back to the direction of the hut.)

Scene 5

The white man goes the hut, where the husband and wife are
waiting.

WHITE MAN: Come out, come out,

And obey my shout.
No thanks to you,
I’ve feathers few.
Now, I’ll make my way.
To see for what they’ll pay.

(The white man goes off.)

HUSBAND: Wife, it’s with you I’m annoyed

That he’s the spirits destroyed.
By your sharp tongue and scorn
You have the weaving torn
That wrapped our world with the spirit
powers
And linked the rhythm of their life with
ours.
WIFE: That link do we, with music, make
Our dance can the rhythm, from the
spirits, take.
HUSBAND: But now, the spirits are death and done,
Doomed by the white man’s doubt, and
his gun.
The world they lived in is split apart

61
 And can’t be renewed by the dancers’
art.
The white man’s feathers were the
marks of death,
For they were all of the spirits that he’d
left.
WIFE: Death shall have the final word,
Our life is not tied to the spirit of a bird.
Now I will, the Christian preacher, hear
Who has told me, of death, to have no
fear.
For Christ has risen from the dead
And with new life has His people fed.
It is to Him, we should reverence give,
And, in His name, respect all things that
live.
Come, your dancing mask, now let us
take
And back to the egg, our way now
make!
The egg that breaks, new life to free,
In that a sign of life we see.
Though forest spirits have no power to
scare,
For the life of the forest, let us show our
care.
The good news of Christ, let us
celebrate
By giving new life to our former state.

Scene 6

The husband and wife return to the forest, and the broken egg.

HUSBAND: By calling spirits, by magic, we tried,

To gain their power upon our side.
Now, grace, we know, by God is given,

62
 And by no earthly power may life be
driven.
So, for God’s sake, His gift we praise,
And our thanks to Him, for them we
raise
Our dance, we see, from spirits draws
no power
But prays God, on life, His blessings to
shower.

The man begins to dance, with his mask on, the kundu drums
begin to play. One by one, the fallen spirits wake, and join in
the line of the dance, and preform a dance similar to that
performed in Scene 2. The chanters chant.

CHANTERS: Bless the Lord, all created things

Sing his praise, and exalt him forever
Bless the Lord, you heavens
Sing His praise, and exalt Him forever
O let the earth bless the Lord
Bless the Lord, you mountains and hills
Bless the Lord, all that grows in the
ground
Sing His praise, and exalt Him forever.
Bless the Lord, all the birds of the air,
Bless the Lord, you beasts and cattle.
Bless the Lord, all men on the earth,
Sing His praise, and exalt Him forever
O people of God, bless the Lord
Bless the Lord, you priests of the Lord
Bless the Lord, you servants of the Lord
Sing His praise, and exalt Him forever.
Bless the Lord, all men of upright spirit
Bless the Lord, you that are holy, and
humble in heart.
Bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit
Sing His praise, and exalt Him forever.

63
The dancers end the play by dancing out of the drama area.
The wife has been watching the dancers, and she may make an
act of worship, such as kneeling before the cross, which may
be brought on, and then she may leave by following the
dancers.

64
 BOOK REVIEWS
The Silencing of Leonardo Boff, by Harvey Cox. Meyer
Stone, 1988. Price: US$9.95.

Harvey Cox will probably score another major success

with The Silencing of Leonardo Boff. As, in his famous work
of the 1960s, The Secular City, Cox writes fluently, and never
asks his readers to accept an unusual point of view, or an
unfashionable opinion. He describes the events of 1986 (when
the Brazilian Franciscan, Fr Leonardo Boff, was asked by the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to undertake a
period of silence), with an attempt at fairness, but it is obvious
where his sympathies lie. He gives us a good old-fashioned
story, with a hero, and a villain. Boff is the hero, valiantly
struggling for the right of the local churches to develop their
own theologies, and incarnate the gospel in their own culture.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is the villain, busy seeking to retain
Rome’s control over the church, and over all forms of
theological expression.

A careful reader of Cox’s own text, might wonder

whether the issue is really so simple. It is notable that the
proponents of liberation theology seek recognition beyond the
bounds of South America. We are told, for example, that Boff
praised the Vatican’s second statement on liberation theology
as “giving a universal significance to values that were those
only of the Third World” (page 7).

Boff shows good judgment in seeking recognition

beyond the confines of his own religion. My own experience
at the Lambeth Conference, and elsewhere, has been that
Western liberals are always ready to invoke “pluralism”, when
they do not want to have to assimilate insights from other parts
of the world. However, if liberation theology has a message
for the universal church (and I believe it has), then its
advocates will have to be ready for critical scrutiny from the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and elsewhere as
well.
65
 Actually, Cardinal Ratzinger make a good point when
he ask how far liberation theology really is a product of Latin
America, and how far it is a European import. He is able to
show that Boff, himself, relies a good deal on European
theologians, and then there is a figure of Karl Marx, whose
influence on liberation theology cannot be denied, even if it is
sometimes exaggerated. For Cox to reply to all this, by saying
that Ratzinger quotes Hans Kung, is no answer to the
criticism. After all, Ratzinger does this, because he is
conducting a debate with a major theological figure in his own
culture.

Reading Cox’s book, made me wonder how he, and

other Western liberals, can also be blind to the contradictions
in their own position. He claims to be on the side of what he
sees as genuine Catholicity and cultural pluralism in the
church, but what happens when people from a non-Western
culture challenge the dearly held tenets of the liberal creed?
Take the question of women in the church, for example. For
Cox, and those who think like him, there can be no two
opinions about this. Role differentiation means inequality. It
cannot be tolerated. The current liberal North American view
of what constitutes a desirable relationship between the sexes
must be imposed on the rest of humanity, with as much
fervour as once led missionaries to clothe women in Mother
Hubbards, or to try to wipe out polygamy. So we are told that
“men still subject women to an under-caste in most parts of the
world, by appealing to traditional definition of womanhood,
many of them sanctioned by religion”. Here is the modern
inquisitor ready to get to work, and detect the sexist heresy,
wherever it be lurking!

I read Dr Cox’s book while on patrol, visiting Anglican

congregations in the mountains of Madang Province. As I
turned the pages, I marvelled at the facility of his style, but
wondered how far he, himself, is really ready to pass over into
a different culture. He certainly helps us to focus on what is,
perhaps, the key question for the church in our time: how far
can the gospel be incarnated in different worldviews, and still

66
retain a universal cohesion? For what it is worth, my
assessment would be that Cardinal Ratzinger has a more-
profound grasp of the issues at stake than either Fr Boff or Dr
Cox.

Rt Revd Paul Richardson

Anglican Diocese of Aipo Rongo
P.O. Box 893
Mt Hagen.

Questions for Living, Dom Helder Camara. Maryknoll New

York: Orbis Books, 1987, ISBN 0883445581, pp. 100.
US$8.95, paperback.

Among the current top 15 bestsellers of Orbis Books is

this slim volume by the Brazilian Bishop Camara. The
original French text dates back to 1984, and is – as J. de
Broucker explains in the forward – the result of the prelate’s
pastoral tour in Brittany during the previous year. The replies
he gave during the question time, after his well-attended talks,
have here been revised, and grouped in twenty short chapters.
They deal with the Archbishop’s personal background, his
place in his home church, and his relationship with the world
church, in particular, with the present Pope John II. We learn
about his religion and prayer life, his expectations and hopes,
but mainly about “his position on politics, economics,
pacifism, or non-violence, and on to concrete inquires about
how individuals can actually conform their lives to all the
lovely ideas, about which Dom Helder Camara speaks”
(p. viii).

Although the questions were raised in a European

context, and are somewhat different from those directed to the
Bishop, when, in 1974, he visited Papua New Guinea, and,
although the answers are given by a Catholic Archbishop from
South America, who does not shy away from making his stand
clear on Mary and the saints, his priesthood and the Vatican

67
billions, etc., his message has a universal ring. This is because
he acknowledges that the Spirit of God breathes even where
missionaries have not yet set foot (p. 20). Camara does not
provide ready answers, and would not agree that “young Latin
America has lessons to teach its old parent, Europe” (p. 39);
instead, he sees the benefits of informing one another, and of
stirring one another up, to be, or become, true Christians. His
words, illustrated with some twenty well-chosen photographs,
are substantial food for thought and action. They contain the
highlights of a biography, and the main points of the man’s
vision, in a language accessible for all.

Theodor Aerts.

A Call to a New Exodus: an Anti-Nuclear Primer for

Pacific People, by Suliana Siwatibau and David Williams.
Suva Fiji: Pacific Council of Churches, 1982, pp. 96.

This is a well-timed publication to answer a badly felt

need. It conveys basic information – pictorially,
diagrammatically, and in writing – about the nuclear-free-
Pacific issue. Many Pacific Islanders have not been informed
about the dangers and effects of nuclear war, let alone about
the way in which the world’s greater powers have abused their
region, through bomb testing, waste disposal, and the
deployment of nuclear arms (with their plentiful nuclear
submarines). This book does a superb educational job in
supplying this information gap, and it can be hoped that the
work will be disseminated as widely as possible throughout all
Pacific communities.

It is serviceable in walks of life. Politicians can use it to

draw attention to international political problems, of vital
concern to their nations, and particular constituencies. Church
leaders, school teachers, and many communities leaders,
working at the grassroots, will find the book invaluable for
study groups, school projects, and generally raising

68
consciousness about human survival. The style is simple, the
layout easy to follow, and non-literate persons can obtain a lot,
simply from the photographs.

The book (at a modest K5.80) contains 21 chapters,

organised into four major parts. The first part simplifies
technical questions on the nature of nuclear energy, the effects
of radiation, etc., the second, with economic, social, and
political questions (e.g., who control nuclear power?), the third
covers the nuclear debate, and the fourth asks what people can
do about the problems of nuclear threats to the Pacific. The
book does not stop short at the study of scientific and political
considerations. It is not just part of a (by now, worldwide)
campaign for nuclear disarmament. Its authors try to develop
a theologically- and biblically-based understanding of peace,
and a practical platform to pursue alternatives to nuclearisation
(with all the high-level technology it implies). In other words,
content, and not just lip service, is given to peace. Thus, in
this important book by two “church persons”, one a Fijian
woman, the other an expatriate, working in the same country,
we can find out how the church can take a crucial, even a
leading part, in “the way out” (Exodus) of the nuclear
nightmare.

Garry W. Trompf
University of Sydney.

69
 CONTRIBUTORS

The editor, Revd Dr Christopher Garland teaches at Newton

Theological College.

Fr Spender Kombega is an Anglican priest at Movi, Eastern

Highlands Province.

Revd Kasek Kautil is principal of Martin Luther Seminary,

Lae.

Meg Maclean is principal of the Anglican Bible College,

based at the Christian Training Centre, Jegarata,
Popondetta.

Fr Theodoor Aerts is a lecturer at Holy Spirit Seminary,

Bomana.

70