Sahel International Journal of Theology and Comparative Religion Studies

The Sahel International Journal of Theology and Comparative Religion Studies (SIJTCRS) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal publishing rigorous scholarship on theology, religious traditions, lived religion and the comparative study of belief and practice. The journal provides a forum for theologians, historians, philosophers, social scientists, educators, religious-studies scholars and practitioners to examine religious ideas, texts, institutions, communities and encounters across time and place.

SIJTCRS welcomes theoretically informed, methodologically sound and ethically conducted research from all regions of the world. It has a particular interest in Africa and the Sahel, including scholarship that places experiences from these regions in comparative and global perspective. The journal welcomes confessional and non-confessional approaches when their standpoint is transparent and their claims are argued according to scholarly standards. It does not privilege any religion, denomination, school, country, institution, methodology or political position.

About the Journal

SIJTCRS is an interdisciplinary scholarly journal established to advance research and informed debate on theology, religion, spirituality, ethics, sacred texts, religious history, institutions and lived experience. It publishes work that develops and evaluates theological and theoretical arguments, interprets texts and traditions, produces credible historical and empirical evidence, improves research methods and contributes responsibly to scholarly and public understanding.

The journal brings theology and the academic study of religion into constructive conversation. SIJTCRS welcomes contributions from biblical, Qur’anic and other scriptural studies; systematic, historical, moral, philosophical, practical and contextual theology; comparative religion; philosophy and psychology of religion; anthropology and sociology of religion; religious history; indigenous and African religions; interreligious studies; religion, politics and peacebuilding; and related fields. It values textual, historical, philosophical, comparative, ethnographic, qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods when appropriately designed, transparently reported and rigorously applied.

Although SIJTCRS has a distinctive commitment to research concerning Africa and the Sahel, its remit is global. The journal encourages North-South, South-South and cross-regional scholarship and seeks to counter the marginalisation of knowledge produced in developing, multilingual and conflict-affected settings. Regional or confessional relevance alone is not sufficient for publication. Every article must articulate a clear research problem, engage relevant primary sources and scholarship, employ a defensible method and make a contribution that extends beyond the immediate case.

Ownership, Management and Editorial Independence

SIJTCRS is owned and published by Sahel Academic Publishing Ltd. The publisher provides administrative, production and technical support but does not determine the conclusions of articles or interfere with individual editorial decisions. The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for the journal’s scholarly content and acts through an Editorial Board whose members are selected for relevant expertise, integrity and diversity. Commercial considerations, advertising, sponsorship, denominational interests and institutional relationships shall not influence editorial decisions.

Aim and Editorial Mission

SIJTCRS aims to be a trusted international forum for original research and critical scholarship that advances knowledge in theology, comparative religion and the wider study of religion. Its editorial mission is to publish work that is intellectually serious, methodologically credible, ethically responsible, respectful of religious and non-religious difference and accessible to scholarly and informed public audiences.

Objectives

SIJTCRS seeks to:

1. publish original theological, textual, historical, philosophical, empirical and methodological contributions;
2. deepen understanding of religious beliefs, texts, traditions, institutions, practices and lived experiences;
3. encourage disciplined comparison across religions, denominations, cultures and historical periods;
4. connect theological and religious inquiry with consequential questions of ethics, identity, justice, peace, development and social change;
5. strengthen the international visibility of high-quality scholarship from Africa, the Sahel and other underrepresented regions;
6. facilitate respectful knowledge exchange among scholars, religious communities, educators, policymakers and civil society;
7. advance transparent and ethically sound research practices; and
8. uphold editorial independence, procedural fairness and the integrity of the scholarly record.

Scope

SIJTCRS considers manuscripts that make a substantive contribution within one or more of the following areas:

Systematic, Constructive and Contextual Theology

Doctrines of God, creation, revelation, humanity, salvation, community and eschatology; constructive theology; public and political theology; African, liberation, feminist, womanist, postcolonial and decolonial theologies; contextual and intercultural theology; and contemporary theological responses to social and intellectual questions.

Biblical, Qur’anic and Comparative Scriptural Studies

Interpretation, hermeneutics, textual history, language, rhetoric, translation, reception and material transmission of sacred texts; comparative scriptural reasoning; relationships between scripture and tradition; and the ethical, social, legal and theological use of texts in historical and contemporary settings.

Historical Theology and Religious History

Development of doctrines and institutions; councils, movements and reformations; biographies and intellectual networks; missions and religious expansion; encounters among religious communities; manuscripts and archives; African and Sahelian religious histories; colonialism, postcolonialism and religion; memory, heritage and historiography.

Philosophy, Ethics and Psychology of Religion

Arguments concerning God, faith, reason, evil, religious experience and religious language; epistemology and metaphysics; virtue and moral theology; bioethics and environmental ethics; comparative ethics; spirituality; conversion; cognition; emotion; wellbeing; doubt; unbelief; and the psychological study of religion.

Comparative Theology and Comparative Religion

Method and theory in comparison; comparative theology; cross-tradition study of concepts, texts, rituals and institutions; reception and translation across traditions; multiple religious belonging; religious hybridity; and carefully delimited comparisons that respect historical and cultural context.

Christianity, Islam and Other World Religions

Christian and Islamic traditions in their internal diversity; Judaism; Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Baha’i and other traditions; new religious movements; doctrinal and ritual developments; authority and interpretation; denominations, schools and sects; global and local religious change; and transnational religious networks.

African Indigenous Religions and Lived Religion

African indigenous religious systems; oral traditions; ritual, healing and material culture; cosmology; ancestors and sacred landscapes; religious specialists; everyday religion; vernacular theology; syncretism and hybridity; heritage; methodological decolonisation; and community authority over cultural knowledge.

Practical Theology, Ministry and Religious Education

Worship and liturgy; preaching; pastoral care and counselling; chaplaincy; missiology and da’wah; congregational studies; leadership; religious formation; theological education; pedagogy and curriculum; youth and family ministry; disability and inclusion; digital ministry; and evidence-informed religious practice.

Religion, Society, Politics and Media

Religion and governance; law; citizenship; human rights; gender; sexuality; race; ethnicity; class; migration; health; development; ecology; media and digital religion; popular culture; public opinion; secularism and non-religion; religious freedom; and the political economy of religious institutions.

Interreligious Relations, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Dialogue and encounter; religious pluralism; tolerance and coexistence; peace theology; mediation and reconciliation; religious nationalism; extremism; violence and non-violence; humanitarian action; conflict-sensitive religious engagement; and the roles of religious leaders, institutions, women and youth in building peace.

Submissions that are solely devotional, homiletic or polemical; lack a clear scholarly contribution; treat contested beliefs as undisputed historical fact; use comparison superficially; promote proselytism or hostility; or fall outside the journal’s remit may be declined without external review.

Article Types

*Word limits normally include notes but exclude the abstract, references, tables, figures and online supplementary material. Editors may approve exceptions where justified.

Why Publish with SIJTCRS?

• International and interdisciplinary readership.
• Double-anonymised peer review by subject specialists.
• Open access to the version of record immediately upon publication.
• Transparent editorial, ethics and post-publication policies.
• Particular visibility for robust scholarship from Africa and other underrepresented research settings.
• Persistent article identification and long-term digital preservation.

Journal at a Glance

Author Guidelines

General Requirements

Submissions must be original, within scope, written in clear English and not under consideration by another journal. Manuscripts should present a defined problem, an explicit contribution, an appropriate theological, interpretive, historical, comparative or empirical method, transparent analysis and conclusions proportionate to the evidence. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted texts, translations, manuscripts, images or other material.

Submission Files

Authors should provide:

• a title page containing the article title, author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs where available, corresponding-author details, acknowledgements, funding, competing interests and author-contribution statement;
• an anonymised manuscript without identifying information;
• editable tables and publication-quality figure or manuscript-image files;
• supplementary sources, instruments, protocols, data, code, translations or appendices where relevant;
• ethics approval and consent information where applicable; and
• a cover letter explaining the manuscript’s fit and contribution and confirming compliance with journal policies.

Manuscript Structure

Original Research Articles should normally include:

1. concise and informative title;
2. structured abstract of 200-300 words covering background or purpose, method or approach, findings or argument and conclusion;
3. four to seven keywords;
4. introduction establishing the problem, gap, contribution and research objective;
5. literature review and theoretical, theological, philosophical or conceptual framework as appropriate;
6. methodology or approach, including sources, corpus or participants, selection, historical and religious context, interpretive principles, ethics and analytical procedure;
7. findings, results or argument supported by clearly identified evidence;
8. discussion engaging relevant primary sources, alternative interpretations and previous scholarship;
9. conclusion stating the contribution, implications, limitations and priorities for future research;
10. required declarations; and
11. references and any supplementary sources, data, instruments, translations or code.

Alternative structures are acceptable for systematic, constructive, historical, philosophical, doctrinal, ethnographic and practice-based theology when they fit disciplinary conventions and sustain a clear scholarly argument.

Sacred Texts, Languages and Primary Sources

• Original-language terms or passages may be used when they materially assist the argument; an English translation should normally accompany substantive quotations.
• Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit and other non-Latin scripts must render clearly. Transliteration must follow a recognised academic system consistently.
• Biblical citations should identify the book, chapter and verse and name the translation used. Qur’anic citations should identify the surah and verse and name the translation used.
• Citations from Hadith, rabbinic, patristic, classical, conciliar, liturgical and other religious corpora should include stable locators appropriate to the tradition.
• Historical and classical works should identify the author, title, editor or translator, edition, publication details, volume and page where available.
• Manuscripts and archival sources should include repository, collection, shelfmark or catalogue identifier and folio details where applicable.
• Authors must distinguish their own translations from published translations and explain material interpretive choices.
• Confessional terminology and honorifics may be used sparingly and consistently but should not replace precise scholarly citation or analysis.

Style and Presentation

• Use British English consistently, except in quotations and official titles.
• Prepare text in an editable Word-compatible format, with continuous page and line numbering.
• Define abbreviations and specialised theological or religious terms at first use.
• Identify traditions, denominations, communities, institutions, jurisdictions, historical periods, source editions and study locations precisely.
• Describe adherents and non-adherents using accurate, respectful and, where practicable, community-recognised terminology.
• State the software and version used for empirical analysis where relevant.
• Report sample sizes, coefficients, uncertainty measures and exact probability values wherever appropriate.
• Identify tables and figures in numerical order and cite each in the text.
• Provide informative titles, notes, sources and accessible descriptions where needed.
• Avoid sectarian, derogatory, triumphalist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, anti-Christian or otherwise stigmatising language.
• Distinguish theological claims, historical claims, empirical findings and personal commitments.
• Avoid claims of consensus, causality, superiority or authenticity that are unsupported by the evidence and method.

Referencing

SIJTCRS uses APA Style, 7th edition for secondary sources, adapted where necessary for scriptures, classical texts, manuscripts and legal or ecclesial documents. Authors must ensure that every in-text citation appears in the reference list and every listed reference is cited. Include DOIs as https://doi.org/… links where available. References must be accurate, traceable and appropriately weighted towards primary sources and relevant scholarship. Fabricated, irrelevant or citation-manipulated references constitute misconduct.

Required Declarations for Published Articles

Every article should carry the following headings, using “Not applicable” or “None declared” where appropriate:

• Ethics approval and consent to participate
• Consent for publication
• Competing interests
• Funding
• Author contributions
• Acknowledgements
• Data availability
• Materials and code availability
• Preregistration or protocol registration
• Use of artificial intelligence tools

Submission Checklist

Before submitting, the corresponding author should confirm that:

1. the manuscript is original, within scope and not under consideration elsewhere;
2. all authors qualify for authorship, approved the manuscript and agreed to submission;
3. the review manuscript is anonymised and the title page is separate;
4. the abstract, keywords, main text, references, tables, figures and declarations are complete;
5. methods, ethics, consent and reporting-guideline requirements have been addressed;
6. data, code and materials are deposited or restrictions are explained in a Data Availability Statement;
7. funding, competing interests, related works, preprints and AI use are disclosed;
8. every citation and reference has been checked for accuracy and relevance;
9. permission has been obtained for third-party copyrighted material; and
10. all files are readable, editable where required and free of identifying metadata in the anonymised version.