Cancelled: Seminar 3 December about the religious revitalization in Africa
THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES.
The invited speaker, Dr. Abamfo Ofori Atiemo of the University of Ghana, will however be giving a presentation at Wednesday's (4 December) workshop: Modern State Administration and African Religious Cosmologies. The ASC apologizes for the inconvenience.
Original text of the seminar's announcement:
Hopes for a fundamental socio-economic change to accompany the revolutionary era in Africa ended with widespread disenchantment for most people in the 1990s. In the current era of democratization, the search for the most effective way to transform Africa continues unabated. In this search, scholars and policymakers have shown great interest in religion, especially the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Conclusions have not been uniform: they represent divergent and sometimes completely irreconcilable positions. It is against this background that this seminar examines the prospects of the Pentecostal movement for the political, economic and social transformation of African countries. Yet the current situation is more complex than the era of revolutions. The ever-growing resilient religious factor has introduced its own peculiar challenges to governance. Analyzing historical and current developments in Ghana, Dr Atiemo will evaluate the issues afresh. He concludes that while the religious factor may present formidable challenges to the desired transformation, it represents an immense ‘spiritual capital’ requiring a creative interventionist direction on the part of policymakers to make it succeed. (Photo: Amisah Bakuri)
Abamfo Ofori Atiemo is a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana and a historian of religion who specializes in the history of religion in West Africa. He has a PhD from the VU University in Amsterdam and a Master of Philosophy and a BA in the Study of Religions from the University of Ghana. He has also studied at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague and the Trinity Theological Seminary in Legon, Ghana. His current research interests include Hinduism in Africa, religion and human rights and the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement in Africa. Dr Atiemo is a member of the International Reformed Theological Institute (IRTI) and the African Association for the Study of Religions. He is the author of Religion and the Inculturation of Human Rights in Ghana (London: Bloomsbury, 2013).
Posted on 20 November 2013, last modified on 2 December 2013