As of April 2021, our colleague Dr. Kwabena Donkor has retired as associate director of the Biblical Research Institute (BRI), which he joined in 2004. Dr. Donkor hails from Ghana, and before his service at the BRI, had served as a church pastor in Australia and Canada and earned a PhD in systematic theology from Andrews University. His vast intercultural experience and theological expertise have been a blessing to the church throughout his years of service. His sensitivity to cultural issues and his ability to address them theologically was one of his many significant contributions to the publications, committees, and other projects during his service at the BRI.

Dr. Donkor coordinated a distinguished team of African scholars to address the spiritualistic African religious environment. As a result, he produced a volume titled The Church, Culture and Spirits: Adventism in Africa, published by the BRI in 2011. With this publication, Dr. Donkor provided an invaluable resource to pastors, missionaries, and evangelists as they minister in an increasingly syncretistic culture—not only in Africa, but in other regions of the world as well.

In addition to these achievements, he contributed book chapters to various projects and authored specific studies titled The Nature of Christ: The Soteriological Question (2005), The Emerging Church and Adventist Ecclesiology (2011), and God in 3 Persons—In Theology (2015), all published by the BRI. He also published scholarly articles in academic journals such as the Journal of the Adventist Theological Society. But his theological acumen found recognition also among evangelical scholars, as shown by his contribution to the volume edited by Millard J. Erickson and other distinguished scholars, titled Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times, published by Crossway in 2004.

Finally, we should mention that Dr. Donkor’s talents transcend the field of academic theology. He is a songwriter, having composed several hymns published in the Ghanaian Seventh-day Adventist hymnal. Thus, he does theology not only through academic papers and other technical publications, but also through music. He believes that theology must touch the heart as well as the mind. In this matter, Dr. Donkor joins the gallery of theologians who were also songwriters, such as John of Damascus (c. 675/676–749), Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), Martin Luther (1483–1546), and Charles Wesley (1707–1788).

We thank Dr. Donkor for his service and invaluable contributions to the BRI, his commitment to the authority of Scripture, and his unwavering support for the message and mission of the church. We wish him all the best in his years of retirement and pray that he will continue to bless the church with his theological writings and musical compositions.