J Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
Biographic Data
| ID | 137124 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu |
| GIVEN NAMES | J Kwabena |
| FAMILY NAME | Asamoah-Gyadu |
| SIGNATURE | ASAMOAH-GYADU J K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Ghana |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Inter-religious Relations
Inter-religious dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa focuses on African Traditional Religion (ATR), Christianity, and Islam, noting the complex interplay of tolerance, tension, and violence. Historical perceptions of Christianity towards ATR, encompass early missionary views of ATR as inferior and the subsequent African reactions, including the rise of African Independent Churches. Relations between Christians and Muslims are influenced by their common…
Madagascar
Christianity in Madagascar began in the 17th century but gained momentum in the 19th century through the work of various missionary societies, such as the London Missionary Society. These missions introduced the Roman alphabet, translated the Bible into Malagasy, and established schools, contributing to the growth of Christianity despite initial resistance and subsequent persecution. Revival movements have played a significant role in shaping Mal…
Kenya and Tanzania
Christianity in Kenya and Tanzania has deep historical roots, with early Portuguese and later Protestant missionaries significantly shaping its development. In Kenya, the geographical positioning and use of English fostered widespread evangelization, leading to diverse denominations often associated with specific tribes. Despite challenges such as political and economic shifts, Christianity in both nations continues to evolve, addressing issues l…
Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo
Christianity in Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo faces challenges such as corruption, poverty, and violence that require liberating discourse and pastoral care. The Catholic Church and traditional Protestant churches form the main bodies of Christianity in these countries, while independent and charismatic churches act as branches. Despite various challenges, churches in the region cont…
Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe
Prior to Portuguese colonial rule, Angola was governed by tribal kingdoms with traditional religious practices that predisposed them to Christianity. Portuguese colonization, beginning in 1482, introduced Roman Catholicism, while Protestant missions arrived later in the 19th century, impacting local languages and cultures. São Tomé and Príncipe share a similar history of Portuguese colonization and Roman Catholic influence, with Protestantism arr…
Singing of the Spirit: Wesleyan Hymnody, Methodist Pneumatology, and World Christianity
‘Methodism was born in song’, so says the opening sentence of the preface to the 1933 edition of the Methodist Hymn Book. That edition, inherited from the Wesleyan Missionary Society from the early nineteenth century, is still in use in many Methodist Churches of British descent in Africa. Using the West African country of Ghana as a case study, this article reflects on select ‘hymns of the Holy Spirit’ in the hymn book. Through these hymns of th…
Spirit and Power: Charismatic Personality and the Symbolism of the Eagle in Contemporary African Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity
Contemporary Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity in Africa has adopted new and innovative symbols that fits its theology of prosperity, empowerment, and upward mobility. This article focuses on one of them: the eagle. The features and behavior patterns of the eagle help contemporary Pentecostals to use its symbolic features in articulating a pneumatology of upward mobility, elevation, success and prosperity. The pneumatology of the eagle is a gl…
Bless and do not curse’: Weaponisation of the Spoken Word in African Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity
Christianity in Africa has changed in several ways since the rise of the independent church movement early in the twentieth century. Among the changes that have taken place is the way in which Christianity is instrumentalised against the forces of evil that impair human efforts at flourishing. In contemporary Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity with its emphasis on prosperity and well-being, imprecatory prayers and curses have become important i…
Religion and Values in Contemporary Africa: Christian Interpretations of Vice/Virtue Discourses in Ghana
Despite the popularity of religion in African settings such as Ghana, reports of moral decline abound. This article reviews traditional, mission, and Christian theological perspectives of morality in Ghana. Using interviews, surveys, and content analysis of vehicle slogans, it examines what Ghanaians today consider to be values in terms of virtues and vices. It explores implications for Christian mission involvement in shaping morality in educati…
Pentecostalism in Africa: Experiences from Ghana's Charismatic Ministries
Introduction to Theology in Africa and the Kpelelogical Foundations of Christian Theology
Divine Epidemiologists: Christianity, Faith, and Public Health in Africa, 1918–2021
How have African Christians responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out at the beginning of 2020 and has affected every aspect of human life? Globally, the responses to the pandemic have ranged from the scientific to the religious. Many believe that it is simply a conspiracy wreaked on the world by a satanic medical scientist or that it is an apocalyptic signal. In Africa, the religious responses to the pandemic have been fascinating. Thi…
Obituary for Andrew Finlay Walls (21 April 1928–12 August 2021)
“I Will Not Leave You Orphaned”: Select Impactful Contributions of Global Pentecostalism to World Christianity
This article responds to a simple question: What are the distinctive contributions of Pentecostalism to the making of world Christianity? We cannot touch on every conceivable point in the discussion, and thus for our purposes I identify seven major interrelated areas that ought to stimulate our thoughts in reflecting on Pentecostalism as a global movement influencing world Christianity today. This article is devoted neither to global pentecostal …
Obituary: Rev. Canon Professor Emeritus John Samuel Pobee (1937–2020)
Right up to 1950 when I entered Adisadel College [Anglican mission boys' high school in Cape Coast, Ghana], I lived a life from one ailment to another.In the mysterious ways of the Almighty Creator God, the foregoing story did not stunt my life from what I became -an academic with some reputation, a priest, even becoming a
Reform, Renewal and Revival: Lamin O. Sanneh and the Place of Africa in World Christianity
Lamin O. Sanneh of the Yale Divinity School passed on in January 2019 at the age of seventy-six years. He would go down in history as one of the pioneering authors in the field of World Christianity. Sanneh’s impressive legacy of Christian scholarship includes his being a co-founder with Andrew F. Walls of the Yale-Edinburgh Conference that is held annually, alternating between the Yale and Edinburgh schools of divinity. Lamin Sanneh wrote a lot …
Pentecostal-Charismatic Prophecy: Empirical Theological Analysis, written by Samuel W. Muindi
God is Big in Africa: Pentecostal Mega Churches and a Changing Religious Landscape
This Outlook paper reflects on the adjective “mega,” in contemporary African Pentecostal discourses. This is a version of Pentecostalism that holds that not only is God a big God but that everythin
Communications, New Technologies, and Innovation
This chapter outlines the discussion over the influence of new media and communications technologies on the spread of (particularly charismaticized) Protestantism in Africa. It links the contemporary debate to the debate about the origins of Protestantism in the sixteenth-century communications revolution sparked by the invention of the printing press. Building on the work of scholars such as Lamin Sanneh, the chapter addresses issues of translat…
Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa
This comprehensive reference volume covers every country in Sub-Saharan Africa, offering reliable demographic information and original interpretative essays by indigenous scholars and practitioners. It maps patterns of growth and decline, assesses major traditions and movements, analyses key themes and examines current trends. Key Features: Profiles of Christianity in every country in Sub-Saharan Africa including clearly presented statistical and…
Pentecostalism and the Transformation of the African Christian Landscape
This chapter uses the umbrella expression to refer to Christian communities that privilege the experience of the Holy Spirit in Christian life and worship. It brings into the discussion groups such as the African independent churches (AICS) of the early 20th century, various classical Pentecostal denominations and other new or contemporary Pentecostal churches that have burgeoned in urban Africa in the last three decades. The chapter takes a reli…
Witchcraft Accusations and Christianity in Africa
January 2015 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, a contributing editor, is the Baeta-Grau Professor of Contemporary African Christianity and Pentecostal/Charismatic Studies, Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra, Ghana. He has served as visiting scholar at Harvard University (2004), Luther Seminary in St. Paul (2007), and the Overseas Ministries Study Center (2012). —[email protected] I the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Deliver us from evil.” …
Sighs and Signs of the Spirit: Ghanaian Perspectives on Pentecostalism and Renewal in Africa
Sighs and Signs of the Spirit: Ghanaian Perspectives on Pentecostalism and Renewal in Africa
Christianity and Sports: Religious Functionaries and Charismatic Prophets in Ghana Soccer
This paper examines the way in which, within an African religious and spiritual context, athletes – and in particular footballers of Ghana – employ religious functionaries and religious means from a variety of traditions in an attempt to achieve sporting success. Specific examples and case studies illustrate and contextualise this search. The connections of this mode of searching for success with traditional African views of causality and with a …
Anointing Through the Screen: Neo-Pentecostalism and Televised Christianity in Ghana
Christ is the Answer: What is the Question?' A Ghana Airways Prayer Vigil and its Implications for Religion, Evil and Public Space
Religion and life, both private and public, remain strongly linked in Africa. This was recently expressed in a prayer vigil organized by Ghana Airways when the staff and management invited a London-based Ghanaian evangelist, Lawrence Tetteh, to lead a 'healing and deliverance' service aimed at exorcizing evil spirits from the affairs of the airline and releasing it from its predicaments. The organization of a healing and deliverance session by a …
Broken Calabashes and Covenants of Fruitfulness: Cursing Barrenness in Contemporary African Christianity
Childlessness is an issue of deep religious concern in Africa. Men, women and couples with problems of sexuality and childlessness make use not only of the resources of traditional African religions but also of the many Pentecostal/charismatic churches and movements that have burgeoned throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the last three decades. Initially this was the domain of the older African independent churches, as far as the Christian response …
Therapeutic Strategies in African Religions: Health, Herbal Medicines and Indigenous Christian Spirituality
The use of herbs has been the main means of curing diseases in traditional Africa and this continued through the colonial period to present times. Widely held traditional views that interpreted certain diseases as caused by supernatural agents meant that, although some ailments could be naturally caused, in most cases, shrine priests and diviners were needed to dispense herbal preparations for clients. Christian missionaries mostly – though by no…
Of 'Sour Grapes' and 'Children's Teeth: Inherited Guilt, Human Rights and Processes of Restoration in Ghanaian Pentecostalism
The rise of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement in African countries like Ghana has inspired new ways of dealing with the challenges of life. A critical area of operation for the movement is the 'healing and deliverance' ministry. One of its main aims is to help people deal with inherited guilt through rituals for healing the past. The worldview of mystical causality that underlies a system of shrine slavery among the Ewe of Ghana called Trokosi…
Of faith and visual alertness: The Message of "Mediatized" Religion in an African Pentecostal Context
Pentecostalism and its recent progenies, the Charismatic movements, have within the last three decades moved from the periphery to the center of Christian life in Africa (Asamoah-Gyadu 2005; Gifford 1998). An unprecedented use of the mass media by these relatively new religious collectivities has contributed significantly to the visibilities they enjoy. This paper looks at the relevance of visual media in contemporary African Pentecostal/Charisma…
The Evil You Have Done Can Ruin the Whole Clan’: African Cosmology, Community, and Christianity in Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Get on the Internet!” Says the Lord’: Religion, Cyberspace and Christianity in Contemporary Africa
God is Big in Africa: Pentecostal Mega Churches and a Changing Religious Landscape
This Outlook paper reflects on the adjective “mega,” in contemporary African Pentecostal discourses. This is a version of Pentecostalism that holds that not only is God a big God but that everythin
To the Ends of the Earth”: Mission, Migration and the Impact of African-led Pentecostal Churches in the European Diaspora
The rise of immigrant churches and African-led churches in the Diaspora is one of the most important developments to occur in world mission at the end of the 20th century. Most of these churches are made up of Africans who felt left out in the historic churches of the West. A number of these are of Pentecostal/charismatic persuasion and have developed into some of the most dynamic religious communities in the countries where they exist. Additiona…
Your Body is a Temple: Conversion Narratives in African-Led Eastern European Pentecostalism
Christianity and Sports: Religious Functionaries and Charismatic Prophets in Ghana Soccer
This paper examines the way in which, within an African religious and spiritual context, athletes – and in particular footballers of Ghana – employ religious functionaries and religious means from a variety of traditions in an attempt to achieve sporting success. Specific examples and case studies illustrate and contextualise this search. The connections of this mode of searching for success with traditional African views of causality and with a …
Of 'Sour Grapes' and 'Children's Teeth: Inherited Guilt, Human Rights and Processes of Restoration in Ghanaian Pentecostalism
The rise of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement in African countries like Ghana has inspired new ways of dealing with the challenges of life. A critical area of operation for the movement is the 'healing and deliverance' ministry. One of its main aims is to help people deal with inherited guilt through rituals for healing the past. The worldview of mystical causality that underlies a system of shrine slavery among the Ewe of Ghana called Trokosi…
An African Pentecostal on Mission in Eastern Europe: The Church of the "Embassy of God" in the Ukraine
Anointing Through the Screen: Neo-Pentecostalism and Televised Christianity in Ghana
Christ is the Answer: What is the Question?' A Ghana Airways Prayer Vigil and its Implications for Religion, Evil and Public Space
Religion and life, both private and public, remain strongly linked in Africa. This was recently expressed in a prayer vigil organized by Ghana Airways when the staff and management invited a London-based Ghanaian evangelist, Lawrence Tetteh, to lead a 'healing and deliverance' service aimed at exorcizing evil spirits from the affairs of the airline and releasing it from its predicaments. The organization of a healing and deliverance session by a …
Of faith and visual alertness: The Message of "Mediatized" Religion in an African Pentecostal Context
Pentecostalism and its recent progenies, the Charismatic movements, have within the last three decades moved from the periphery to the center of Christian life in Africa (Asamoah-Gyadu 2005; Gifford 1998). An unprecedented use of the mass media by these relatively new religious collectivities has contributed significantly to the visibilities they enjoy. This paper looks at the relevance of visual media in contemporary African Pentecostal/Charisma…
Get on the Internet!” Says the Lord’: Religion, Cyberspace and Christianity in Contemporary Africa
On the "Mountain" of the Lord' Healing Pilgrimages in Ghanaian Christianity
In Ghana, as with other African religious and cultural contexts, religion is a survival strategy. It is a dynamic phenomenon, which at every level of appropriation has been experiencing certain innovations informed by existential and supra-mundane needs. Some of these innovative appropriations of religion in contemporary Ghana include pilgrimages to religious sites in search of God's intervention for healing. Roman Catholicism, mainline Protestan…
Broken Calabashes and Covenants of Fruitfulness: Cursing Barrenness in Contemporary African Christianity
Childlessness is an issue of deep religious concern in Africa. Men, women and couples with problems of sexuality and childlessness make use not only of the resources of traditional African religions but also of the many Pentecostal/charismatic churches and movements that have burgeoned throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the last three decades. Initially this was the domain of the older African independent churches, as far as the Christian response …
Your Body is a Temple: Conversion Narratives in African-Led Eastern European Pentecostalism
Bediako of Africa: A Late 20th Century Outstanding Theologian and Teacher
Kwame Bediako of the Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture based in Akropong-Akwapim in Ghana, was a stalwart in the field of African Christianity and Theology. He was called home to glory in June 2008 at the age of 63 years. Converted from atheism whilst studying for a doctorate degree in French and African literature at the University of Bordeaux in France, Bediako embraced a conservative evangelical faith. He w…
Interpreting Contemporary Christianity: Global Processes and Local Identities
Religious Education and Religious Pluralism in the New Africa
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu is professor of African Christianity & Pentecostal Theology and Dean of Graduate Studies at Trinity Theological Seminary in Accra. Ghana. E-mail: [email protected]
The Evil You Have Done Can Ruin the Whole Clan’: African Cosmology, Community, and Christianity in Achebe's Things Fall Apart
To the Ends of the Earth”: Mission, Migration and the Impact of African-led Pentecostal Churches in the European Diaspora
The rise of immigrant churches and African-led churches in the Diaspora is one of the most important developments to occur in world mission at the end of the 20th century. Most of these churches are made up of Africans who felt left out in the historic churches of the West. A number of these are of Pentecostal/charismatic persuasion and have developed into some of the most dynamic religious communities in the countries where they exist. Additiona…
‘God Bless our Homeland Ghana’: Religion and Politics in a Post-Colonial African State
Therapeutic Strategies in African Religions: Health, Herbal Medicines and Indigenous Christian Spirituality
The use of herbs has been the main means of curing diseases in traditional Africa and this continued through the colonial period to present times. Widely held traditional views that interpreted certain diseases as caused by supernatural agents meant that, although some ailments could be naturally caused, in most cases, shrine priests and diviners were needed to dispense herbal preparations for clients. Christian missionaries mostly – though by no…
Pentecostalism and the Transformation of the African Christian Landscape
This chapter uses the umbrella expression to refer to Christian communities that privilege the experience of the Holy Spirit in Christian life and worship. It brings into the discussion groups such as the African independent churches (AICS) of the early 20th century, various classical Pentecostal denominations and other new or contemporary Pentecostal churches that have burgeoned in urban Africa in the last three decades. The chapter takes a reli…
Witchcraft Accusations and Christianity in Africa
January 2015 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, a contributing editor, is the Baeta-Grau Professor of Contemporary African Christianity and Pentecostal/Charismatic Studies, Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra, Ghana. He has served as visiting scholar at Harvard University (2004), Luther Seminary in St. Paul (2007), and the Overseas Ministries Study Center (2012). —[email protected] I the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Deliver us from evil.” …
Sighs and Signs of the Spirit: Ghanaian Perspectives on Pentecostalism and Renewal in Africa
Sighs and Signs of the Spirit: Ghanaian Perspectives on Pentecostalism and Renewal in Africa
Christianity and Sports: Religious Functionaries and Charismatic Prophets in Ghana Soccer
This paper examines the way in which, within an African religious and spiritual context, athletes – and in particular footballers of Ghana – employ religious functionaries and religious means from a variety of traditions in an attempt to achieve sporting success. Specific examples and case studies illustrate and contextualise this search. The connections of this mode of searching for success with traditional African views of causality and with a …
Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa
This comprehensive reference volume covers every country in Sub-Saharan Africa, offering reliable demographic information and original interpretative essays by indigenous scholars and practitioners. It maps patterns of growth and decline, assesses major traditions and movements, analyses key themes and examines current trends. Key Features: Profiles of Christianity in every country in Sub-Saharan Africa including clearly presented statistical and…
Communications, New Technologies, and Innovation
This chapter outlines the discussion over the influence of new media and communications technologies on the spread of (particularly charismaticized) Protestantism in Africa. It links the contemporary debate to the debate about the origins of Protestantism in the sixteenth-century communications revolution sparked by the invention of the printing press. Building on the work of scholars such as Lamin Sanneh, the chapter addresses issues of translat…
Pentecostal-Charismatic Prophecy: Empirical Theological Analysis, written by Samuel W. Muindi
God is Big in Africa: Pentecostal Mega Churches and a Changing Religious Landscape
This Outlook paper reflects on the adjective “mega,” in contemporary African Pentecostal discourses. This is a version of Pentecostalism that holds that not only is God a big God but that everythin
Philosophy (29 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (26 works) · Religious studies (24 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Christianity (23 works) · History (20 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · Theology (16 works) · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies (15 works)