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Faith in African Lived Christianity – Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives offers a comprehensive, empirically rich and interdisciplinary approach to the study of faith in African Christianity. The book brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people’s faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality.
Price: $90.00
Pages: 360
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Publication Date:
26 September 2019
ISBN: 9789004398498
Format: Paperback
"This is an important book that indicates a paradigm shift in the study of religion in Africa. It is the first serious attempt to bring anthropological and theological perspectives together in a single analytical framework. The book provides new methodological approaches and offers refreshingly new insights on much-debated issues, notably on contemporary forms of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity. This is all done with due attention for historical contexts. African Christian spirituality, the book shows, is marked by an historical openness towards the spirit world that is perpetuated in the present. This is the case in Africa as well as among African Christians outside the African continent. [..] Several of the chapters have been contributed by young and upcoming scholars, representing a generational shift in the study of Christianity in Africa. This is a welcome development that will help bring about the much needed decolonization of the academic mind in the study of religion in Africa generally. This book is an exemplary case. [..] Faith in Lived Christianity in Africa is an innovative collection of essays that takes the academic debate to a different level. It should be read by all those engaging in the academic debate on Christianity in Africa." — Gerrie ter Haar, Em. Professor, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University
"For a long time, anthropological and theological approaches to the study of Christianity in Africa have existed alongside each other but with little dialogue and exchange. This important book demonstrates how enriching and stimulating it can be when the boundaries between these disciplines are explored and transgressed. The various contributions offer inter- and transdisciplinary interpretations of diverse forms of Christian faith and practice as lived religion in contemporary Africa, and they reflect critically on the methodological questions at stake." — Adriaan van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies, University of Leeds
"For a long time, anthropological and theological approaches to the study of Christianity in Africa have existed alongside each other but with little dialogue and exchange. This important book demonstrates how enriching and stimulating it can be when the boundaries between these disciplines are explored and transgressed. The various contributions offer inter- and transdisciplinary interpretations of diverse forms of Christian faith and practice as lived religion in contemporary Africa, and they reflect critically on the methodological questions at stake." — Adriaan van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies, University of Leeds
Karen Lauterbach, Ph.D. (2009), Roskilde University, is Associate Professor of African Studies at the University of Copenhagen, and a former postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University.
Mika Vähäkangas Th.D. (1998), University of Helsinki, is Professor of Mission Studies and Ecumenics at Lund University, and a former lecturer of systematic theology of Makumira University College, Tanzania (1998-2005), and president of the International Association for Mission Studies (2012-2016).
Mika Vähäkangas Th.D. (1998), University of Helsinki, is Professor of Mission Studies and Ecumenics at Lund University, and a former lecturer of systematic theology of Makumira University College, Tanzania (1998-2005), and president of the International Association for Mission Studies (2012-2016).