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Lectures and Media

“A Time to Kill”: Elections, State Legitimacy and the Role of Religion in Uganda

October 6, 2022

Bishop Dr. D. Zac Niringiye, theologian and pastor, is a civic-political activist in Uganda, involved in several civil society-led social justice and peace campaigns.

Sanneh-Gitari Lecture 2022, “A Time to Kill”: Elections, State Legitimacy and the Role of Religion in Uganda by D. Zac Niringiye. Lecture delivered on Thursday, October 6, 2022 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm, at Henry R. Luce, Room 203, located at 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT. Sponsored by the Project on Religious Freedom & Society in Africa, the Council on African Studies,

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu PhD, “Jerusalem My Happy Home”

November 30, 2017

One way to understand the relationship between religious faith and democracy in Africa is to interrogate how adherents, agents and devotees of religion contest for or seek recognition and support within modern democracies. Dr. Asamoah-Gyadu looks at the development of religious pilgrimage as the frontier at which Christianity and Islam scramble for state and public support within modern democracies. This presentation looks at the developing discourse on the importance of pilgrimages to Jerusalem in contemporary African Christianity. It reveals much about the relationship between Christianity and Islam on the one hand and their relationship with the new political order on the other.

Religion and Democratic Pluralism: The Indonesian Model

May 18, 2017

Indonesia has over 250 million people. Its territory comprises of more than 13.400 islands which are inhabited by more than 1100 tribes which speak more than 730 active languages and dialects. The major world religions are practiced Indonesia. Islam comprises 88% of the population making Indonesia the largest Muslim country in the world. Yet, in their recent transition to democratic governance the Indonesian people rejected the establishment of Indonesia as an Islamic state, and embraced, guided by the foundational philosophy Pancasila (Five principles), pluralism and moderation.

Lamin Sanneh: “Beyond Jihad”

October 12, 2016

Lamin Sanneh is the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School, a professor of history, and director of the Project on Religious Freedom and Society in Africa at the MacMillan Center. He is the author of more than 200 articles on religious and historical subjects, and of several books, including “Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity.”

Message from the Founding Director

January 11, 2016

Lamin Sanneh (1942-2019)  was the D. Willis James Professor of Missions & World Christianity, Professor of History, Professor of International and Area Studies at Yale Divinity School.

Message from the Founding Director

Lamin Sanneh (1942-2019)  was the D. Willis James Professor of Missions & World Christianity, Professor of History, Professor of International and Area Studies at Yale Divinity School.