Abstract: This talk assesses Pentecostal worship in Africa as a powerful expression of religious imagination that is profoundly different from historic mission Christianity. Here faith healing, glossolalia, and other transcendent experiences generate what adherents perceive to be a tangible connection between spiritual and social realities. The creative and pragmatic engagement with existential issues in worship provides insights into how African Pentecostals make meaning and inspire hope in rapidly modernizing urban environments. This analysis offers a fresh perspective on decolonial impulses within the indigenization and vitality of Christianity in Africa.
Biography: Kyama Mugambi joins the YDS faculty as an Assistant Professor of World Christianity, focusing on Africa. Prof. Mugambi comes to us from Africa International University, where he has been serving as a senior researcher and faculty member at the university’s Centre for World Christianity. He specializes in ecclesial, social, cultural, theological, and epistemological themes within African urban Christianity. His 2020 book, A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya, which traces the history of Pentecostalism in Kenya, has been hailed as a singular contribution to the fields of mission studies, world Christianity, and intercultural theology.