2025
Researcher of the Month: Dr. Fidelis Olokunboro
Introducing the AASR Researcher of the Month: Fidelis Olokunboro
Fidelis Olokunboro hails from Nigeria, where he completed his priestly formation and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Ibadan. His academic journey continued with a second Bachelor’s degree in Theology from the Urban Pontifical University in Rome. Pursuing his passion for religious studies further, he moved to the United States for a Master’s degree in Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University, New York. Driven by a quest for deeper understanding, he completed his doctoral studies in theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Currently, Fidelis serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, Pennsylvania. His research interests converge at the intersection of Global Religion and Christianity, focusing notably on African religions, Western Catholicism, and philosophical theology. His scholarly pursuits extend to exploring Christian existentialism within African and Western intellectual traditions, as well as delving into Moral Theology with a particular emphasis on social ethics and political theology in Africa. Below is our interview with Dr. Olokunboro
Tell us a little bit more about your recently published work.
I have published several articles and a book chapter, with another book chapter forthcoming this year. Two of my most recent articles are especially relevant to the African context.
In “Beyond Marxist Framework: Understanding and Recovering the Method, the Theology of Daily Life in Jean-Marc Ela’s African (Black) Theology,” published in the Journal of Religion and Theology, I examine a distinctive African contribution to global Christianity. The article explores the theology and methodology of Jean-Marc Ela, emphasizing the originality of his “shade tree theology.” I assess some of Ela’s more radical positions, distancing his thought from Marxist extremism, and reframe his ideas as a model of African theology that centers the voices, wisdom, and lived realities of marginalized communities.
In “The Crucified People: The Divinized African State and the De-Divinized African People,” published in the International Journal of Public Theology, I argue for the centrality of economic and anthropological categories in African political theology. The article investigates the divinization of the African state as a root cause of systemic poverty, interpreting poverty as a form of de-subjectivation of the African people. I propose a theo-anthropological framework as a model for theo-political public reflection in Africa—one that seeks to de-divinize the state while rehumanizing and re-subjectifying the African person.
In what ways do you think your research addresses pressing societal challenges?
My research is interested in framework thinking. It helps to put into perspective and also lay out the grounds and the ideological/intellectual history of African poverty and socio-political issues. I do this by investigating and highlighting the metaphysical and theological grounds of these issues. My conviction is that socio-political issues are not merely social or material, without theological or metaphysical grounds. As such, it is imperative to discover their theological grounds in order to deconstruct them, which helps to address societal issues diagnostically rather than symptomatically.
How do you see your career/research develop and evolve in the near future?
In addition to my research and planned book publication on African political theology, I intend to, at some point, bring the attention of global Christianity to the wealth and insights of African mysticism found in African arts and poetry. I view mysticism as the ultimate culmination of religious practices, particularly in Christianity. Considering that African religions, in their arts and poetry, have invested a great deal in mystic experiences, I am convinced that there are patterns and methods in those African religious arts and poetry that African Christianity can adapt, domesticate, and Christianize for the spiritual growth of Africans and the world beyond Africa. I have an upcoming book chapter on this issue.
What inspired you to join the AASR, and what do you hope to gain from the association?
I just joined AASR. Nonetheless, I am sure its platform will provide me with a great networking opportunity with other African scholars. I am also confident that it will provide an opportunity to contribute to the development of Africa and the diasporic Africans.
From your wealth of experience, what advice would you give to your younger self?
I would encourage my younger self to start early in networking with scholars, participating and presenting at conferences. Additionally, to establish a publishing schedule and footprints as early as graduate school years.
Tell us the challenge(s) you encountered in your career and how you surmounted them. What lessons did you learn?
As an early-career African scholar, the greatest challenge was not learning the publication process early on. I surmounted it by learning from my mistakes and consulting with experienced scholars.
2025
For our Researcher of the Month feature, we spoke with new AASR member Dr. Jeffrey Haynes about his long academic journey. Below is the conversation.
- Please tell us about your academic journey and the areas you focus on in your research.
Dr Jeffrey Haynes is emeritus professor of politics at London Metropolitan University, UK. His areas of expertise are religion and international relations, religion and politics, democracy and democratisation. He is co-editor-in-chief of Democratization, a Q1 comparative politics journal published eight times a year by Taylor & Francis and series editor of a book series for Routledge, Routledge Studies in Religion and Politics, which has published 54 books since the series began in 2011.Jeffrey Haynes is the author or editor of 65 books, most recently: The Routledge Handbook of Religion & Nationalism (ed.), Routledge, 2025; Christian Nationalism and Democracy in Ghana, Routledge, 2025; Religion & Politics: The Basics, Routledge, 2025; Ghana: 50 Years of Political Change, Digibooks, 2025; The Routledge Handbook of Politics and Religion in Contemporary America (ed.), Routledge, 2025; The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics (3rd ed.), Routledge, 2023; and Revolution and Democracy in Ghana: The Politics of Jerry John Rawlings, Routledge, 2023
- Tell us a little bit more about your recently published work.
After many years focusing on other topics, in 2022 I began researching into the issue of Christian nationalism and democracy in Ghana, a country about which I wrote my PhD many years ago, in 1988, with the title: [Jerry] Rawlings and the Politics of Development Policy in Ghana, 1979-86. My just-published research monograph, Christian Nationalism and Democracy in Ghana (Routledge, 2025) investigates the impact of Christian nationalism on democracy in Ghana, arguing that proponents of a specific Christian worldview seek to remake the country according to their values and beliefs.
Christian nationalism is a significant religious and political ideology in several African countries, not only Ghana, but also, among others, Zambia and Nigeria. In Ghana, prominent Christian nationalists, encouraged by sections of the American Christian Right, cultivate political influence with powerful political elites and by developing a high media profile to promote their views and increase their numbers of followers. The book examines specific examples of Christian nationalism’s impact on Ghana’s democracy: the national cathedral as a symbol of national unity and social cohesion, anti-Muslim pronouncements threatening inter-faith harmony, and attacks on Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community. Overall, the book argues that Christian nationalism is a specific threat to Ghana’s three decade-long liberal democracy, with the aim of undermining the constitutional equality and human rights of some Ghanaians in favour of a specific Christian worldview.
The main argument of the book is that in Ghana Christian nationalism has significant political influence, impacting on the country’s liberal democracy, human rights, and inter-faith relations. The objective of the book is to identify and examine Christian nationalism’s political and religious significance and assess its impact in one of Africa’s few consistent liberal democracies, a status Ghana has enjoyed for more than three decades, following the return to democracy in 1992 after a decade of undemocratic military-based rule.
- In what ways do you think your research addresses pressing societal challenges?
My current research addresses a pressing societal challenge, not only in Ghana, but more generally in sub-Saharan Africa, that is, how to co-exist in a religiously plural country buffeted by the ups and downs of globalisation.
Ghana is a religiously plural country, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s few liberal democracies. Ghana has been a liberal democracy since the early 1990s, following a decade of military-based rule. The current (1992) constitution, proclaims religious freedom in Ghana, with no religion officially favoured. There is considerable overlap between religious and other spheres of life in Ghana, and many religious actors are politically active.
Ghana is a Christian-majority country. The most recent census, in 2021, reported that 71.3% of Ghanaians are Christian. Muslims comprise 19.9% of the population, and followers of African Traditional Religions (ATRs) amount to just under 5%. Both Christianity and Islam have seen significant demographic growth in recent decades.
Many African countries have seen a strong advance of Pentecostal-Charismatic churches in recent decades. Although there is huge variety among these churches, what they have in common is the desire to be publicly influential. They seek to change the norms and values of their societies to fit more clearly into their religious framework. The key societal challenge they pose is: how can a diversity of views be accommodated in religiously plural countries in sub-Saharan Africa?
- How do you see your career/research develop and evolve in the near future?
I am emeritus professor, having retired slightly early in 2017. This freed me up to pursue research, to write and to publish. I am currently researching/writing a research monograph with the working title, Pentecostalisation, Politics and Development in Ghana, which will be completed a year from now, in June 2026. I am about to sign a contract for the book with a UK-based publisher in a suitable book series.
- From your wealth of experience, what advice would you give to your younger self?
Don’t give up. Set goals and stick to them. Don’t be put off by short term failure or obstacles. Regarding research, follow your heart not your head. That is, pursue research which interests you – not that which might win you hefty research grants but is not fulfilling.
- What role has the AASR played in your career growth?
I am a newcomer to AASR, turning to the study of religion and politics in sub-Saharan Africa after many years writing about politics and political development in Ghana, as well as religion and international relations, and democracy and development in the global south, including sub-Saharan Africa.
AASR is a focus of my research interests and I hope soon to publish in the AASR flagship journal,Utambuzi: Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and its Diaspora.
- Tell us the challenge(s) you encountered in your career and how you surmounted them. What lessons did you learn?
As I rose through the ranks at London Metropolitan University, from senior lecturer (associate professor) to reader (associate research professor) to full professor, I learned that managers may say they value research but at the same time they expect senior members of staff also to be managers, administrators, attend lots of committee meetings, teach – and write ‘ground-breaking’ research articles and monographs. I ended up as Dean for Research in a large faculty of around 200 people. I spent most of my time ‘managing’ colleagues – an interesting but fraught job – with many asking for more research time and less teaching! The biggest challenge for me was to maintain a ‘healthy’ research schedule and output while spending 80%+ plus of my time in management, attending committee meetings, administration and teaching.
Regarding lesson learned, I’ll repeat what I wrote for question 5: Don’t give up. Set goals and stick to them. Don’t be put off by short term failure or obstacles. Regarding research, follow your heart not your head. That is, pursue research which interests you – not that which might win you hefty research grants but is not fulfilling.
Recent photograph: attached.
2025
AASR Scholar of the Month
“Since joining AASR, my network and visibility have increased. The community is a platform for mentoring and collaboration.”
Those are the words of Dr Josiah Taru, AASR Scholar of the Month. In this edition, Taru who is from the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, Rice University, takes us through the trajectory of his career as a researcher in African religious studies.
Interviewer: Tell us about yourself, your academic background and research interests.
Josiah Taru: I consider myself an academic nomad, wandering in search of knowledge and the meaning of life. In my personal and academic life, religion is central. My educational journey has not been straightforward. It meanders through different disciplines and subjects. Early in life, I took an interest in literature and history. I found that the two complement one another. On one hand, History, with its focus on political processes and prominent figures, explained the trajectory that nations and states had taken. Literature, on the other hand, focuses on the everyday life of ordinary people, the decisions they make in difficult situations, sacrifices, and small victories. History compresses time and space, covering events over many years across the globe.
I enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe in 2005 to study for a Bachelor of Arts, focusing on classical studies, economic history, and sociology. My love for history continued. My curiosity shifted from political to economic history. I developed an interest in economic thought modules that traced the development of economic ideas over time. I started to appreciate religion’s role in economic life; ideas by Thomas Aquinas and many other philosophers were shaped by their religious beliefs and doctrines. Of all my first-year courses, anthropology stood out, so I shifted from a Bachelor of Arts to a Bachelor of Science in Sociology in my second year. At the time, no undergraduate degrees were offered in social anthropology; one had to pursue a degree in sociology, which came with several anthropology courses. So, I decided to pursue sociology to document my people’s culture and push back against the paternalistic stance of European scholars. Becoming an anthropologist was a vehicle through which I could study my people, privileging their realities and ways of being and knowing from my perspective as a person in and of Africa.
When I enrolled at the University of Pretoria as a doctoral candidate, I registered for a Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities. I saw this as an opportunity to consolidate all the lessons I had gained from sociology, anthropology, literature, history, and classical studies. I see myself as an un-disciplined and footloose academic.
Interviewer: Can you give us some insight into your current research project(s)?
Josiah Taru: My research focuses on ways in which religion provides resources for navigating the postcolonial challenges in Zimbabwe. I specifically research how Pentecostal Christianity anchors people’s lives in an uncertain context where the government has failed to deliver on its promises. My entry point is lived religion rather than what is said from the pulpit. I am currently working on a book project that discusses these dynamics.
Studying Pentecostal Christianity has led me to develop an interest in Indigenous African Religion, youth studies, and migration. Pentecostal Christians are mainly youthful and mobile. My next project is on migration and religion. I am interested in how local spirits are articulated in new contexts or after migration.
Interviewer: In what ways do you think your research addresses pressing societal challenges?
Josiah Taru: Religion is a perceptual filter through which people evaluate, understand, and experience the world. Religion shapes voting trends, legal frameworks, policy, vaccine acceptance, attitudes toward technology, and daily choices and decisions. It provides spiritual and material resources for building resilience in times of uncertainty. By researching religious communities and understanding their approach to life, we are better positioned to incorporate their worldview in policymaking and development initiatives. Religion intersects with many facets of life and
Interviewer: How do you see your career and research develop and evolve in the near future?
Josiah Taru: As I mentioned, religion interacts and intersects with many facets of life. Migration is one aspect. In the future, I will focus on how African Christianity reconfigures itself in new localities outside the continent. It is time we take African Christianity as a global religion driving Christian revivals in Europe and the U.S. Currently, I am at the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, Rice University, and this is a conducive space to launch the new research project on religion and migration to understand how migrant religions add to the diversity and the forms of religious pluralism that emerge.
I am passionate about training young scholars interested in studying religion from an African perspective. This might include taking spiritual entities seriously and increasing research on Indigenous African religions.
Interviewer: From your experience, what advice would you give to younger scholars?
Josiah Taru: My advice to young scholars is that we should break disciplinary silos and write across disciplines and fields. I also advise young scholars to take public scholarship seriously. We should work to translate our research for public audiences. There are a lot of interesting studies out there that need to be made accessible to the public. We should stop writing for fellow academics.
Interviewer: What role has the AASR played in your career trajectory?
Josiah Taru: Since joining AASR, my network and visibility have increased. The community is a platform for mentoring and collaboration. For example, I co-authored a paper with Benson Igboin – a member of the AASR – providing an overview of how Indigenous African Religions have been studied. As a member of AASR, I pushed to take interdisciplinarity seriously and learn from fellow scholars.
Interviewer: Tell us some of the challenges you encountered in your career and how you surmounted them. What lessons did you learn?
Josiah Taru: One of the challenges we face as scholars is our academic baggage. Our training, in most cases, is Western and our academic tools may not resonate with African realities. We navigate many hurdles, balancing concerns from the epistemic community, research participants, and publishers. One way to deal with this challenge is to be intentional when choosing journals and citations. Go for outlets that do not push you to romanticize and exoticize research participants. Tell the African story as it is.
2025
Scholar of the Month
“AASR conferences were a welcome opportunity to connect with other researchers and keep in touch with the latest developments in scholarship.”
2024
Scholar of the Month
This edition of AASR Scholar of the Month features Diana K. Lunkwitz (PhD), of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, who shared with us her research background, current projects, motivation, and the contributions of the Association to her career growth.
Interviewer: Tell us about yourself; your academic background and your research interests.
I was born in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), in a context that many people would describe as secularised. In my family, the engineering profession was predominant, and religion was mainly practiced as a community-building tradition. Since childhood, I have been interested in the ways of sense and world-making.
Later, at the Halle-Wittenberg University, I completed my doctoral studies in religions and intercultural theology. Before then, I had studied Protestant Theology with a focus on the study of religions in Germany (Leipzig, Rostock, Mainz, and Berlin) and Italy (Rome). In Halle and at the University of Hamburg, I taught for six years, including topics such as interreligious relations, esotericism, religions in Africa, Africa-related new religious movements, and religion and ecology. Additionally, my research interests include the study of Orientalism and intersectionality, Islam in the ecosystem, the history of Christian missions in African contexts from the nineteenth century to the present, and discourse theories.
I am the founder and first editor of the book series Studies in Religion and Intercultural Theology (https://cuvillier.de/en/shop/series/109-studien-in-religionswissenschaft-und-interkultureller-theologie-studies-in-religion-and-intercultural-theology) and the co-founder of the early career researchers Network of Intercultural Theology (https://dgmw.org/network-intercultural-theology/).
My first book is entitled Unity, Theosophy, and Interreligiosity: From Chicago 1893 to Chicago 1933 (2024); it deals with the conceptualisation of religion and unity and the role of theosophical societies at interreligious congresses, in particular the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago 1893. On these progress-orientated stages, worldviews were exhibited, produced, and negotiated which imagined and sought to appropriate Africa in terms of ethnicity, but not religion. I am interested in the constellations of power and processes of marginalisation in the history of missionary work and religion, as well as contemporary questions about constructions of globality, worldmaking and religion. Motivated by the devastating effects of environmental degradation and climate change that most people are directly affected by, my research addresses the connectivity of worldmaking and ecosystems in an entangled history and offers an intersectional reconceptualisation of religion with a decolonising impetus.
Interviewer: Could you give us insight into your current research project(s)?
In my current research project, I investigate how worldviews and worldmaking of Protestant mission workers changed in Cameroonian ecosystems around 1900. On life-threatening expeditions, the foreigners experienced themselves overtaxed (e.g., unable to swim or climb trees) and dependent on local experts (such as translators). In addition, Muslim Hausa helped with orientation in ecosystems and with accommodation, which irritated the missionaries’ pejorative concept of Islam. These dynamics in the concepts of religion, deity, gender, and humans are significant for the emerging disciplines of ethnology and anthropology and the study of religions at that time as a historiography of religions including African religions.
The next step is to criticize the sources of the German Baptist, Basel and United Presbyterian missionaries with empirical research (on oral histories, oral traditions) to enable a new entangled historiography of agency and religion in African ecosystemic spaces.
Besides this project, I am also interested in the institutionalised study of religions on the continent, especially since the mid-nineteenth century – from the Christian missionary schools to the chairs established in decolonisation struggles with secular claims and the foundations of Islamic and Christian universities in the last decades.
Interviewer: In what ways do you think your research addresses pressing societal challenges?
My research questions stem from the current challenges posed by climate change, the globalised economy, and the education system. I am interested in the roles that former colonial rulers played or continue to play. Currently, I focus on the history of religion and economic aspects in terms of gaining impulses for sustainability education, with a focus on worldmaking and Africa. In my view, the power factors, which the Africa-related study of religions has further to reflect on, include China, corrupt politics, forms of exploitation, media and digitality, interreligious cohabitation, and questions about secularities.
Interviewer: How do you see your career/research develop and evolve in the near future?
I will continue networking internationally and collaborating with colleagues from different disciplines on theoretical questions regarding the concept of religion, the academic study of religion, and topics relevant to African societies (such as migration).
Recognising a research gap on new religious movements, coming from China (e.g., Chinese Pentecostals) and the USA (e.g., the Church of Scientology, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and working in sub-Saharan African countries, for example through humanitarian aid and narrative references to African living worlds, I would like to address this gap for a study of religion that deals with the complexity and variety of worldmaking in African contexts.
Interviewer: From your wealth of experience, what advice would you give younger scholars?
In the academic research landscape, you can never start building collaborations too early! Only networking with fellow students and colleagues can provide the necessary motivation to learn how to shift perspectives on a highly reflective level and encourage you to strategically seize opportunities in international interdisciplinary research and create them, both horizontally and vertically.
Interviewer: What roles have AASR played in your career growth?
The AASR has played a major role in my academic journey. When many young researchers left academia during the global pandemic and lockdown, I became a member and, got the opportunity to present at an international conference for the first time, that was the AASR 2021 Virtual Conference.
I benefited from the experience of a great academic, Chammah J. Kaunda, thanks to the AASR Mentorship Programme. One result, for example, was my first publication in an international journal (Journal of Religion in Africa). Similarly, based on the contacts I made at the AASR Conference in Nairobi in 2023, I was able to support a doctoral student with my professional expertise and experience. As part of the international planning committee, I also co-organised the 2023 conference and the AASR Virtual Conference the year before and thus learned a lot about the organisational procedures for large international conferences.
Thanks to the invitation to the AASR Book Panel at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver and the AASR Travel Grant, I once again had the opportunity to network with established researchers on religion in Africa in 2022.
These are all highlights in my academic career from which I benefit and through which I feel obliged to continue to gratefully contribute to the academic study of religion. I therefore encourage other early career researchers in the field, especially from African contexts, to network collaboratively. The AASR has given my research international visibility, and I hope to continue to collaborate with my colleagues to contribute my expertise to present and future generations of researchers.
Interviewer: Could you tell us the challenge(s) you encountered in your career and how you surmounted them? What lessons did you learn?
For researchers in the early qualification phase, there are a number of challenges under which you have to produce excellent research. With most fixed-term employment contracts, it is not possible to realistically plan long-term or medium-term projects. Nevertheless, I would like to encourage young academics to work in a visionary way, because their commitment can lead to unexpected opportunities, as I have experienced as a member of the AASR.
Again, networking and collaboration are essential for early career researchers. It is important to get your foot in the academic door and then create your own opportunities. In the future, I would like to further contribute to increasing the international visibility of the field by promoting inter- and transdisciplinarity for the next generations of researchers.
I sincerely thank the AASR, its executive committee members, and all my colleagues for their trust. In order to support other colleagues as well, I will continue to engage passionately in collaborations that focus on the study of Africa-related religions.
You can contact Dr Diana K. Lunkwitz via email: diana.lunkwitz@protonmail.com
Website: https://dianalunkwitz.wordpress.com/
