Home Dr. Joseph Bosco Bangura

Dr. Joseph Bosco Bangura

Dr. Joseph Bosco Bangura

Guest Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Missiology and holder of the Chair in Missiology for the church of today and tomorrow

e:

Education, degrees
  • 2013: Ph.D. in Theology and Religious Studies, Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven, Belgium (ETF Leuven) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands (VU Amsterdam)
  • 2007: Master of Theology (M.Th., cum laude), ETF Leuven
  • 2004: Master of Philosophy in Theology (M.Phil.), Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone
  • 2001: Post-Graduate Certificate in Ecumenical Studies, Ecumenical Institute Bossey of the University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 1997: Bachelor of Theology (B.Th.), The Evangelical College of Theology, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Academic positions and teaching experience
  • September 2023 – present: Guest lecturer in Religious Studies and Missiology and holder of the Chair in Missiology for the church of today and tomorrow
  • July 2019–present: Senior Researcher in Religious Studies & Missiology, ETF Leuven
  • July 2019–present: Senior Researcher in Intercultural Theology, Protestant Theological University, Groningen, the Netherlands
  • April 2021–April 2022: Part-Time Lecturer, Institute of Catholic Theology, Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
  • 2018–2019: Scholar in residence, Academic of Mission, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • 2015–2018: Postdoctoral Fellow, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
  • 2016: Adjunct senior lecturer, Development Associates International in collaboration with Uganda Christian University, Kampala, Uganda
  • 2014–2015: Independent Researcher, African Pentecostalism in Flanders, Belgium
  • 2011–2015: Visiting senior lecturer, department of Evangelism and Missiology, The Evangelical College of Theology, Freetown, Sierra Leone
  • 2007–2009: Academic Dean & Senior Lecturer in Missiology, African Church Historiography and African Pentecostalism, The Evangelical College of Theology, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Academic memberships
  • European Academy on Religion and Society, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Pan-African Theological Roundtable, Liverpool, United Kingdom
  • American Society of Missiology (US)
  • Berlin Society for Mission History (Germany)
  • German Society of Mission Studies (Germany)
  • GloPent: European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism
  • Netwerk Theologien Afrika (Germany)
  • Lamin Sanneh Institute, University of Ghana (correspondent status)
Selected Bibliography

Books

  • Pentecostalism in Sierra Leone: Contextual Theologies, Theological Education and Public Engagements. Studien zu interkultureller Theologie an der Missionsakademie 19. Hamburg: Missionshilfe Verlag, 2020.
  • With Benno van den Toren and Richard E. Seed, eds. Is Africa Incurably Religious? Secularization and Discipleship in Africa. Regnum Studies in Mission. Oxford: Regnum, 2020.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

  • “Female Pastoral Leadership, Ambivalent Femininities, and African Pentecostalism in Belgium.” In The Pentecostal World, edited by Michael Wilkinson and Jörg Haustein, 299–315. London: Routledge, 2023.
  • With Benno van den Toren. “Verlossing van heel de mens. Een interculturele dialoog.” In Zoeken naar de dingen die boven zijn. Heil in een seculiere tijd, edited by Sake Stoppels, Jan Marten Praamsma, and Jan Martijn Abrahamse, 55–73. Utrecht: KokBoekencentrum, 2023.
  • “African Theology Conceptualized by Non-African Voices: An African Intercultural Theology Engagement with Parratt, Stinton and Hock.” Interkulturelle Theologie. Zeitschrift für Missionswissenchaft 48, no. 2 (2022): 141–60.
  • “African Christian Churches in Flanders, Belgium: People, Practices and Problems.” In Globale Christentümer: Theologische und Religionswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, edited by Bernhard Grümme, Claudia Jahnel, Martin Radermacher, Claudia Rammelt, and Jens Schlamelcher, 89–104. Global Religion – Religion Global 2. Leiden: Brill; Paderborn: Schöningh, 2022.
  • “Transnational Ubuntu? Interrogating the Hospitality Practices of African Pentecostals in (Flanders) Belgium.” In The Vitality of Evangelical Theology: Celebrating ETF Leuven at 40, edited by Andreas J. Beck, Jos de Kock, and Steven C. van den Heuvel, 223–34.  Leuven: Peeters, 2022.
  • “Temne Dream Culture and Charismatic Churches in Sierra Leone: Probing the Limits of Contextualization.” Evangelical Review of Theology 46, no. 2 (2022): 111–22.
  • With Benno van den Toren. “Local Theologies on the World Wide Web: Various Uses of the Internet for the Study of Theology in Africa.” Impact: Journal of Transformation 4, no. 1 (2021): 1–8.
  • With Ignatius Wilhelm Ferreira. “African Charismatic Movements and Urban Missiology.” In Africa Bears Witness: Mission Theology and Praxis in the 21st Century, edited by Harvey Kwyani, 99–111. Nairobi / Accra: ATN Press, 2021.
  • “Reverse Mission? Missio Dei and the Spread of African Pentecostalism in the West.” Ecclesiology 16, no. 3 (2020): 379–99.
  • “Sierra Leone’s Native Pastorate, the First World War and the Realignment of Missions in West Africa.” In Mission und dekoloniale Perspektive: Der Erste Weltkrieg als Auslöser eines Globalen Prozesses, edited by Ulrich van der Heyden and Helge Wendt, 169–79. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2020.
  • “Secularization Influences on Second Generation and Mixed-Race African Pentecostal Migrants in Flanders (Belgium).” In Is Africa Incurably Religious? Secularization and Discipleship in Africa, edited by Benno van den Toren, Joseph Bosco Bangura, and Richard E. Seed, 139–54. Regnum Studies in Mission. Oxford: Regnum, 2020.
  • “African Neo-Charismatic Discipleship in a Context of Secularization.” In Is Africa Incurably Religious? Secularization and Discipleship in Africa, edited by Benno van den Toren, Joseph Bosco Bangura, and Richard E. Seed, 191–208. Regnum Studies in Mission. Oxford: Regnum, 2020.
  • “Sierra Leone.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism Online, edited by Michael Wilkinson, Conny Au, Jörg Haustein, Todd M. Johnson. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2589-3807_EGPO_COM_033796 First published online: 2019; First print edition: 2019.11.15.
  • “Till Death Do Us Part: Divorce and African Pentecostalism in Belgium.” Interkulturelle Theologie. Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft 45, no. 1 (2019): 49–66.
  • “Holding my anchor in turbulent waters: God, Pentecostalism and the African Diaspora in Belgium.” Pneuma: The Journal of the Society of Pentecostal Studies 40, no. 4 (2018): 498–516.
  • “African Pentecostalism and Mediatised Self-branding in Catholic (Flanders) Belgium.” Stichproben: Vienna Journal of African Studies 18, no. 35 (2018): 1–23.
  • “African Charismatic Movements, the Bible and Bible Schools.” In Cultural Impact of the Reformation, Band II, edited by Mathias Sonnleithner, Katrin Stöck, Klaus Fitschen, Marianne Schröter, and Christopher Spehr, 299–310. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2018.
  • “Pentecostalism, Poverty and Economic Development: Towards an Economics of Hope for Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Driven by Hope: Economics and Theology in Dialogue, edited by Steven C. van den Heuvel, 211–23. Christian Perspectives on Leadership and Social Ethics 6. Leuven: Peeters, 2018.
  • “African Pentecostalism, Transnational Marriage and Family Practices in Belgium.” Trajecta: Religion, Culture and Society in the Low Countries 26 (2017): 303–20.
  • “Theological Education for a Religiously Radicalized World: An African Pentecostal Assist.” International Review of Mission 106, no. 1 (2017): 151–66.
  • “Charismatic Movements, State Relations and Public Governance in Sierra Leone.” Studies in World Christianity 23, no. 3 (2017): 237–56.
  • “Pentecostal worship liturgies and African migrant churches in Belgium: Negotiating between noise nuisance and the African cultural desideratum.” Religion – Staat – Gesellschaft: Journal for the Study of Beliefs and Worldviews 17, no. 1-2 (2017): 17–39.
  • “Pentecostal rituals, human wellbeing and the reshaping of African migrants at Word Communication Ministries, Belgium.” In Pentecostals and the Body, volume 8 of Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, edited by Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse, 177–95. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
  • “Charismatic Appropriations of Edward W. Fasholé-Luke’s Theologia Africana.” PentecoStudies: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Research on the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements 15, no. 1 (2016): 42–65.
  • “Hope in the Midst of Death: Charismatic Spirituality, Healing Evangelists and the Ebola Crises in Sierra Leone.” Missionalia: South African Journal of Missiology 44, no. 1 (2016): 2–18.
  • “The Gospel in Context: Hiebert’s Critical Contextualisation and Charismatic Movements in Sierra Leone.” In die Skriflig 50, no. 1, (2016): a2061.
  • “Daughters of Abraham Arise! Charismatic Women’s Leadership in Dialogue with Temne Culture in Sierra Leone.” In Christian Leadership in a Changing World: Perspectives from Africa and Europe, edited by Jack Barentsen, Volker Kessler, and E. Meier, 147–64. Christian Perspectives on Leadership and Social Ethics 3. Leuven: Peeters, 2016.
  • “Tracking the Maze of Theological Education in Sierra Leone: An Evangelical Perspective.” African Journal of Evangelical Theology 34, no. 2 (2015): 1–18.
  • “A New Kind of Ministry for a New Kind of Context: The Rise of New Indigenous Churches in West Africa.” In Global Pentecostal Movements: Migration, Mission and Public Religion, edited by Michael Wilkinson, 154–69. International Studies in Religion and Society 14. Leiden: Brill, 2012.