Politics and religion play very crucial roles in Kenya and Africa at large.
The Christian faith has had a positive influence on the democratic processes of Kenya. On the other hand, religion is often used in the name of oppressing people across gender, economic, and political lines.
The workshop Politics and Religion in the Public Square: Early Career Workshop held on 21st October 2023 reflected on the complexities of politics in religion, and religion in politics. The 11 papers presented by postgraduate students and early career scholars engaged different themes and used different research methods.
The keynote speaker and facilitator, Prof. Kyama Mugambi of Yale Divinity School presented on African Civils Disciples: Towards a Framework for Practical Christian Engagement with Politics. In his address, he observed:
Well-rounded discipleship initiatives inherently facilitate civic education
He led two workshops on Preparing Your Article for Publishing and Beyond the PhD: Insights for Career Development.
The participants were greatly impacted by the workshop:
I learned that the church should dive right into the politics of the day, not taking sides but addressing issues that cut across all people.
The workshops on publishing in a journal and steps in career development were very helpful to me as a postgraduate student.
The workshop was organized by the Department of Practical Theology, School of Theology in partnership with Yale Macmillan Center’s Project on Religious Freedom and Society in Africa.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Kevin Muriithi Ndereba, HOD Department of Practical Theology commented:
In these times of social and political transformations, there is an inherent need to retrieve the resources of the Christian faith and traditions in service of God and humanity.
The university’s senior administration was represented by the Dean of the School of Theology, Dr. Julius Kithinji. The Joshua and Timothy School of Theology provides various programs in their curriculum, public lectures, and workshops, for students to bridge the gap of theological education with public societal issues for a range of vocations.
The research workshop is in line with St. Paul’s University’s mission to develop servant leaders by imparting knowledge, skills, and values through creative methods of education, research, and Christian spiritual formation.