Synopsis
Description: This is a book about Christianity in one particular region in Kenya. It walks into churches, listens to sermons, dances to music, and interviews the people sitting in the pews, all with the aim of understanding how spiritual power enables these churches to function as agents within their contemporary society. Ecclesiastical communities in Africa draw upon divine power in order to engage in modernity-related topics. Humans are not unresponsive to global flows of meaning; they are integrative agents who fashion their world by living in it. The kind of modernity arising from these churches does not blindly follow Western forms, but flows from its own internal logic in which spiritual power occupies central hermeneutical function. Theological resources contribute to the formation of sociological expressions. Divine power pertains directly to human constructs, which then allows the churches to actively ""image"" God for the development of unique forms of modernity arising on the continent. Endorsements: ""This is precisely the kind of extended and comprehensive, sympathetic yet critical, theological yet socially aware micro-study that we need to grasp the complex reality of Africa's emerging Christianity."" --Paul Gifford, Emeritus Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London ""I warmly recommend this book. It is a profound and illuminating search concerning the human condition, human agency, and vulnerability, love, and power. . . . This is contextual theology of a high order, full of insights in its weaving of local, national, and continental debates."" --From the foreword by Kevin Ward, Senior Lecturer, African Religious Studies, Leeds University About the Contributor(s): Gregg A. Okesson taught at Scott Christian University, Kenya, for thirteen years. He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, UK, in the field of African Christianity and is currently an associate professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky.
About the Author
Gregg A. Okesson is Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism. He received a BA from Wheaton College (Psychology and Bible), a MA from Wheaton Graduate School (Biblical Studies), a MA from Wheaton Graduate School (Intercultural Studies), and a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from University of Leeds, UK (African Christianity). Before coming to Asbury in July 2011, Dr. Okesson was a faculty member at Scott Theological College/Scott Christian University, Kenya, East Africa for ten years where he served as Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Prior to this, he was a pastor in upstate New York, worked in Student Development at Wheaton College, and was a church-planter among a Muslim people-group in north-central Tanzania. He and his family lived in East Africa for thirteen years. Dr. Okesson has authored numerous articles and serves on the editorial committee for the Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology. He is the author of Re-Imaging Modernity (Wipf & Stock, 2012) and is currently working on projects that deal with ecclesiastical theologies emergent within African Christianity, doxology and development, along with a co-authored book on the subject of evangelical advocacy. More broadly, Dr. Okesson is interested in attending to linkages between theology and global realities, particularly those dealing with poverty, development, power, and multiple modernities.
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