Engaging African Realities

Why is This Important?

African theologians have a good idea about the social issues and theological questions arising out of this context. However, for the most part their theological training precluded immersion in social-scientific competencies. That means their ability to adequately respond and to construct appropriate theologies engaging their world is somewhat constrained. Hence, the development of creative African theology could use some targeted nurturing through exposure and immersion in social-scientific approaches.

Project Process

The Nagel Institute, with generous support from the Templeton Religion Trust, invites project proposals for “Engaging African Realities: Integrating Social Science within African Theology.” Our aim is to support African theologians to engage in fresh social-scientific integrated approaches with the goal of producing creative and original projects in grounded theology. We understand grounded theology as an attempt at realizing the potential of theological creativity from the bottom-up, as opposed to a top-down approach. The project seeks to emphasize how grounded theology is compatible with grounded theory in social sciences as a method for seeking hidden patterns and meanings through ethnography, a way to unearth stories and enable answers to questions from African realities.

Project Goals

1. To equip early-career African theologians to exemplify the use of social-science research methods and grounded theology scholarship, to integrate ethnographic discoveries and insights into their theological reflection on African realities in their pursuit of research, publication, and curricular development.
2. To engage grantees in three intensive project workshops: Starting Out – Origins and Basics, and introduction to research, Writing and Reading Ethnography, and Teaching in Theological Contexts,
3. To focus on ethnography and the various theoretical approaches to it, and to support grantees to gain fresh theological insights, and thus make progress in theology.
4. To underscore in the workshops how grounded theology could be based on a set of techniques, which emphasize the creation of theoretical statements from the qualitative data gathered, ethnographically.
5. To facilitate mentorship and networking in interdisciplinary settings.
6. To enable grantees to produce books, book chapters, journal articles for academic publications; disseminate research findings at local and major international conferences, including the summative conference, meeting concurrently with the African Association for the Study of Religion; conduct local and regional conferences, workshops and briefings; and, produce media offerings focused on their findings.
7. To incorporate discoveries and new theologizing into curricular development, thus strengthening social sciences and grounded theology’s integration into African theological education.
8. To help African theological institutions and programs employ and develop their capacities as conveners of research and scholarship and to embed the fresh insights they gain from research within their programs of teaching and community service.