Jesse Mugambi

Early life

Mugambi was born on 6 February 1947 at Kiangoci, Embu District, in the Eastern Province of Kenya. Mugambi's father Timothy Kanyua Mugambi and mother Jemimah Koori were both committed Anglican Christians. His father, whom he describes as a person who was "ahead of his time," was a lay leader, preacher and evangelist.^[1]

Mugambi also spent much of his childhood with his paternal grandfather Mugambi wa Nthigai, an elder statesman who arbitrated over disputes and provided advice and counsel to many people who came to consult him, and his paternal grandmother Rhoda Wambiro. Mugambi's maternal grandfather was Daniel Njerü wa Kanyenje, who had served in the Carrier Corps in the then Tanganyika during the First World War.^[1]

Both sets of his grandparents were strict adherents of their African cultural and religious heritage. While his parents nurtured him to become a strong Christian, his grandparents nurtured him to cherish the African heritage.

Education

Mugambi began his career as a high school teacher and a college tutor. After high school, he enrolled at Machakos Teacher Training College (MTTC), Kenya, in 1966–67. In 1968 he was admitted to Kenyatta College, Nairobi, to pursue further teacher training for a year, specializing in religious education and English at the high school level. He would pursue further studies at Westhill College of Education, Birmingham, UK, and conducted historical research at the CMS Archives in London (1969–70).^[1]

In 1971, Mugambi would attend the University of Nairobi for undergraduate and postgraduate studies.^[1]

In 1978 he embarked on his research for PhD, which he completed in 1983, focusing on Ludwig Wittgenstein entitled "Problems of Meaning in Discourse with Reference to Religion."^[2] His main supervisor was Professor Joseph Donders, with helpful advice from Professor Kwasi Wiredu, who was then in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ghana, Legon.^[3] During this period he was invited to participate in an ecumenical research project to document the practice of ecumenism at the local level in eastern Africa. This research was published in 1982 as Ecumenical Initiatives in Eastern Africa.^[4]

Early career

After graduation from the University of Nairobi, Mugambi would become active in the ecumenical movement. In 1970, when he participated in the formation and launch of the Christian Student Council (the Kenyan SCM) and in the National Association of Religious Education Teachers (NARET).^[5] These involvements brought him into acquaintance with other ecumenists. He would later serve as Africa Theology Secretary for the World Student Christian Federation (1974–76), and remained a resource person in various ecumenical organizations at local, national, regional, continental and global levels. He would also hold various posts in the World Council of Churches from 1975 until today.

Mugambi joined the academic staff of the University of Nairobi in 1976, and rose through the ranks to full professorship in 1993. He has taught philosophy of religion; Religion and Science; Comparative Study of Religions; Contemporary Religious Thought; Modern Trends in Christian Thought. He has also taught African Christian Theology. Later on he began teaching Phenomenology of Religion in the postgraduate syllabus.

Honors

Mugambi has had a number of visiting professorships internationally.

He is a fellow of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences (FKNAS) and was conferred a national honour as an Edler of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) in 2010.

Hermeneutics

Mugambi is Africa Co-Editor of Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, in which he has contributed more than ten articles, mainly on hermeneutics.^[9] His doctoral research on Ludwig Wittgenstein anchored him into hermeneutical thinking. Wittgenstein observed that philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. Hermeneutics deals with principles of interpretation. Within the context of Christian Theology, most doctrinal conflicts are the result of misunderstandings about biblical texts, historical claims and cultural assumptions.

In 1998, Mugambi observed that the time was overdue for African Christian theologians to engage in theological introspection, transcending ecclesiological description and theological anthropology.^[10] He cited Bernard Lonergan as a possible role model in that approach.^[11] Professor Knut Holter of the School of Theology in Stavanger, Norway facilitated in Nairobi a continental Conference of African Old Testament scholars, which Mugambi was invited to address. The topic of his paper was "Africa and the Old Testament", published in 2000.^[12] The Society for New Testament Studies (SNTS) held its Annual Conference for 1999 at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Following that Conference some African Christian theologians were invited to present papers on Hermeneutics at a meeting in Hammanskraal, near Pretoria. Mugambi delivered the Keynote Address titled "Foundations for an African Approach to Biblical Hermeneutics", which was published in 2001.^[13] Among the respondents to his address were Professor Hans-Dieter Betz (University of Chicago);^[14] Professor Peder Borgen (University of Trondheim)^[15] and Professor Vernon Robbins (Emory University).^[16] The Report of this "Unique Conference" was written and presented by Professor Bernard Lategan (Stellenbosch University).^[17]

In 2004 Mugambi co-edited a book on New Testament Hermeneutics, to which he contributed a Chapter.^[18] The following year a conference was held at Makerere University, which Mugambi was invited to address. His paper was "African Hermeneutics in a Global Context", published in 2007 as a Chapter in Interpreting Classical Religious Texts in Contemporary Africa, edited by Knut Holter.^[19] There is much hermeneutical discourse in Mugambis book (co-authored with Michael R. Guy) titled Contextual Theology Across Cultures, published in 2009.

Mugambi is critical of Rudolf Bultmann's project of "demythologisation", on the ground that hermeneutically, myth cannot be abstracted from the Gospel. Any attempt at 'demythologization' results in new myths. Instead of "demythologization", Mugambi urges for "remythologization." He says of Bultmann, "in (his) attempt to satisfy scientific positivism by denouncing myth (he) ends up destroying the reality of religion as a pillar of culture."^[20] For Mugambi, as with Jaspers, "myth is indispensable in cultural constructions of reality."^[20] To Mugambi, therefore, reconstruction in Africa has to be anchored in a) the formulation of new myths to replace the negative stereotypes used for the indoctrination of Africans under imperialism and missionary tutelage, and b) re-interpreting the old myths, for the survival of the African peoples. He suggests that the myth of "a vanishing people must be replaced by the myth of a resurgent, or resilient people," while the myth of a "desperate people must be replaced by the myth of a people (who are) full of hope. The myth of a hungry people must be replaced by the myth of a people capable of feeding themselves, and so on."^[21]

Missiology

In 1989 Mugambi published his book The Biblical Basis for Evangelization.^[22] This was in same year that he facilitated the editing and publication of a collection of essays on this theme – Christian Mission and Social Transformation.^[23] This book was published in the context of the Mission Conference convened by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) in commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the Kikuyu Conference of 1918 which launched ecumenical cooperation in Kenya. In 1996 he published an Article titled "African Churches in Social Transformation" in the Journal International Affairs at Columbia University, New York.^[24] This article was followed by another titled "Vision of African Church in Mission", published in Missionalia, Journal of the Southern African Missiological Society.

In 1998 he published Missiological Research in the Context of Globalization in "Missiological Research in the Context of Globalization", in Swedish Missiological Themes, Uppsala.^[25] He also published "A Fresh Look at Evangelism in Africa" in International Review of Mission, Geneva.^[26] In the same year he published "Christian Mission and Social Transformation After the Cold War" in the Journal of Constructive Theology, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. At the request of Bishop John V. Taylor in 2001, Mugambi wrote a critical Introduction published in the second edition of Taylor's book, The Primal Vision (SCM Press), also published in Nairobi as Christian Presence amid African Religion.^[27]

Eco-theology

During a conference organized by the World Council of Churches Sub-Unit of Church and Society in July 1986 at Potsdam, East Germany, Mugambi presented a position paper titled "God, Humanity and Nature in Ecumenical Discussion" cautioning against too sharp a distinction between these three notions in Christian doctrine.^[28] In 1987 he published his book God, Humanity and Nature in Relation to Justice and Peace.^[29] He intended this book to be a contribution to discussions within the World Council of Churches concerning the relationship between Religion and Culture on the one hand, and God and Nature on the other. This publication was an echo of a public forum which Mugambi had organized as an undergraduate at the University of Nairobi in 1972, with Professor Stephen Neill as Patron, on the theme "Creation or Evolution: God or Darwin". The theme of Ecology became one of his research interests, and in 2001 he facilitated the editing and publication of Christian Theology and Environmental Responsibility.^[30] His contribution in that book was a Chapter highly critical of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Trading, which was being pushed for adoption within the Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).^[31]

In 1997 he published his reflections on "Some Lessons from a Century of Ecumenism in Africa."^[32] In 2004 he co-authored with Gaim Kebreab a reference book titled Fresh Water to Eradicate Poverty, released in Oslo by Norwegian Church Aid.^[33] The World Council of Churches has Observer status in the United Nations. The Twelfth UNFCCC Conference of Parties was convened at Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2006. Mugambi served as honorary Moderator of the Ecumenical Team as a member of the WCC Delegation. The ecumenical viewpoint was widely publicized in the print and electronic media. Mugambi read the WCC Statement at COP 12 in Nairobi.^[34]

In 2008 Mugambi was invited to participate in an ecumenical Consultation to discuss the theme "Peace on Earth and Peace with the Earth". He presented a paper titled "The Environmental Crisis from an African Perspective."^[35] He also published an Article titled "The Environmental Crisis from a Christian Perspective."^[36] During the Fifteenth UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP 15) at Copenhagen in December 2009 Mugambi as a member of the WCC Delegation participated in a Seminar arranged by Dan Church Aid and hosted by the Faculty of Theology at Copenhagen University. The Title of his presentation was "Adaptation to Climate Change in Tropical Africa".^[37]

Applied ecology

Mugambi emphasizes that our survival as human beings across generations will depend on how we manage our ecology – the flora and fauna in all the habitats where human beings have their abode. The availability of fresh water determines the habitability of an environment. Most of the land on the continent of Africa has arable soils, but freshwater is very unevenly distributed. Fresh water can be obtained from rivers, fresh-water lakes and underground aquifers. The most cost-effective source of fresh water is rainwater harvesting. In his book Fresh Water to Eradicate Poverty he observes that Africa has the largest quantity of stable rainwater runoff, which may be harvested season after season, accumulating huge quantities to be used for agricultural, domestic and industrial applications. Rainwater harvesting can also help to recharge the rivers, lakes and underground aquifers. As a practicing ecologist, Professor Mugambi is a trustee of the Kenya Rainwater Association^[38] and the Utooni Development organization.^[39] He is also a member of the Ecumenical Water Network^[40] and the World Council of Churches Working Group on Climate Change.^[41] As a result of Global Warming there are unpredictable extremes every season in all regions, making survival difficult for communities that depend on seasonal rains for agriculture and staple food. The droughts are longer and more severe. The rains when they come are heavier and for shorter periods, making it difficult for crops to grow to maturity. The regularity of the seasons can no longer be taken for granted. Rehabilitation of local environments is a necessity rather than a luxury for all regions. Jesse Mugambi has worked with communities in various African countries to promote awareness about the global ecological crisis.^[42]

Inter-religious dialogue

Mugambi suggests that inter-religious dialogue has broader implications than arguments about beliefs and practices within and between religions. Believers of particular religions, denominations and sects are at the same time citizens of particular nations. Thus religious identity and secular identity are practical necessity, irrespective of idealistic and utopian expectations. During and after the European Reformation the rulers of specific nations interpreted religious non-conformism as subversion, while conformism facilitated the establishment of national churches that remain a legacy of European nationalism till the twenty-first century. In his view, inter-religious dialogue can be one of the means to promote mutual understanding within and between religions, cultures and nations, provided that such dialogue presupposes mutual respect and mutual reciprocity.^[43]

Liberation theology

According to Rosberg and Nottingham about 75,000 Kenyans served in the British military during the Second World War.^[44] Some went to Asia (mainly Ceylon, India and Burma), including Mugambi's father. The struggle for national sovereignty in India was towards its end as the Kenyan veterans were returning home. Their conscription into the war had been justified with the argument that Britain was fighting against tyranny in order to preserve democracy and freedom, which these veterans and the people they left at home did not enjoy. Upon their return, much more exposed and more self-confident than the peers who had not gone to war, these veterans led the campaign for national independence. The campaign was peaceful at the beginning, but the British administrators and settlers were adamant that Kenya would remain British for ever. The veterans found no justification for colonial domination with its attendant alienation of ancestral lands by British settlers, economic exploitation, forced labour, taxation without representation, restriction of movement in their own country, racial segregation, denial of access to basic social services including schooling and medical care.

The British missionaries, settlers, administrators and entrepreneurs enjoyed full imperial citizenship, while Kenyans remained imperial subjects in their motherland. Mugambi started schooling as an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) in a concentration camp. Collective punishment was the fate of all the people of Central Kenya, young and old, men and women, disabled and able-bodied, healthy and sick, guilty and innocent. They were all locked up in concentration camps under strict curfew orders the cost of breach of which was death. The experience was traumatic, as described by Caroline Elkins, David Anderson and others.^[45] Despite all odds, Mugambi managed to proceed with school work and to pass all his examinations without having to repeat any year. His articulation of Liberation Theology in later years was anchored in his personal experience of imperial domination and colonial oppression. In 1989 he published a book containing his theological reflections under the title African Christian Theology: An Introduction.^[46] Nelson Mandela in 1953 had aptly expressed the plight of Kenyans and the responsibility of Britain for their suffering, which he related with the situation in South Africa at the time:

The massacre of the Kenyan people by Britain has aroused worldwide indignation and protest. Children are being burnt alive; women are raped, tortured, whipped and boiling water poured on their breasts to force confessions from them that Jomo Kenyatta had administered the Mau Mau oath to them. Men are being castrated and shot dead. In the Kikuyu country, the population has been completely wiped out in some villages ... We are prisoners in our own country because we dared to raise our voices against those horrible atrocities and because we expressed our solidarity with the cause of the Kenyan people. You can see that there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintops of our desires.^[47]

In his 1974 essay on liberation and salvation, Mugambi had clarified that within the African context of the 1960s and 1970s liberation (from oppression, exploitation and racial prejudice) was the main preoccupation for al responsible leaders.

That the fundamental concern of African Christian theology has been liberation-salvation has been manifested in the activities of many African Christians and the growth of more than six thousand "Independent" churches in the continent of Africa. Most African Christians have not felt it necessary to theorize about Christian Theology, because to them religious faith is practical living, expressed most effectively through experience, not through words. The time has come when it is necessary to analyze the premises of African Christian experience and study it in relation to that of peoples in other parts of the world. This systematic analysis and study, however, will be realistic and relevant as African Christian theology if Africans themselves will be the analysts and students of their own experience ... What is important to point out in this context is that while liberation both as a concept and as a historical struggle in Africa today takes on different emphasis in different parts of Africa, it must be the overarching goal – the historical project— out of which and for which an African Christian theology must emerge.^[48]

Reconstruction theology

In Mugambi's scholarly work liberation precedes reconstruction in African Christian Theological reflection.^[49]

Throughout his studies and in his research and writing, Mugambi has interacted with a wide range of scholars from the North Atlantic, Asia and Latin America.^[50] Mugambi resonates with Karl Jaspers' positive appraisal of myth in the conceptualization of world-views. A myth tells a story and expresses intuitive insights, rather than universal concepts.^[51] Thus Mugambi proposes that, "a society which is incapable of making its own myths and re-interpreting its old ones, becomes extinct."^[20] In view of this insight, Mugambi defines the vision of the theology of reconstruction, in Africa, as a project of "... re-mythologization, in which the theologian thus engaged, discerns new symbols and new metaphors in which to recast the central Message of the Gospel."^[52]

Mugambi joins other scholars in African Christian Theology, endeavouring to authentically relate Christianity with the African cultural and religious heritage with appreciation of both the Gospel and the wisdom bequeathed from generation to generation through oral tradition, cherished customs, rituals and symbols. It appears that Mugambi's concern for Pan-African identity has support within diplomatic circles. Even though he does not treat Africa as a single geo-cultural context of theology, he nevertheless creates in his readers an impression that African concerns are broadly the same – which is largely correct.^[53] He is particularly appealing because he strictly and consistently avoids any attempt at parochial, national and regional introversion, opting for an approach that keeps in full view the entire continent of Africa with all its homogeneity and heterogeneity.^[54]

Despite the risk of appearing too general in his books, Mugambi avoids using such particularistic titles as "South African Christianity," "Kenyan Christianity," "Africa North (or South) of Limpopo," "East African Christianity", etc. Rather, he is concerned with the Africans – both in the African continent and in the Diaspora. While Mugambi acknowledges that theological articulation is strictly contextual and situational, all his works take "Africa" as the "Context" rather than the artificial territorial identities that are the result of the Partition of Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85.

Mugambi's book From Liberation to Reconstruction assesses events that affected Africa as a whole. These events include the end of the Cold War (1989), which divided African countries between those who were pro-West versus the pro-East - thereby causing unnecessary tensions among some neighbouring African countries. Other events include the release of Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela on 11 February 1990 after serving in prison for 27 years on Robben Island. For Mugambi, Mandela is not only the longest-serving political prisoner; he is also the most prominent symbol of the Exodus metaphor in African Christian Theology.^[55]

From a theology of liberation to a theology of reconstruction

In his post-Cold-War theological discourses, which can also be regarded as his post- liberation works, Mugambi suggests that the Africa of the 21st century will have to pre-occupy itself with the agenda of reconstruction as the new priority for Africa. The text of Ezra-Nehemiah, unlike that of the Exodus, has to be the main text in the explication of African theological discourses in the 21st century. This text will motivate the people of Africa to rebuild their continent from all sorts of ruins.

Reconstruction is the new priority for African nations in the 1990s (and beyond). The churches and their theologians will need to respond to this new priority in relevant fashion, to facilitate this process of reconstruction. The process will require considerable efforts of reconciliation and confidence-building. It will also require re-orientation and retraining.^[56]

While acknowledging that Mugambi has "correctly observed that an epiphany of a new scenario has emerged, ushered in by the demise of three horrendous systems of oppression; namely institutionalised racism, brutal colonialism and the cold war tutelage," Ukachukwu Chris Manus^[57] considers Mugambi as having failed to recognise the central figure in the New Testament, "Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ himself as the Master Reconstructor of both the spiritual and the social well-being of the bnaiya Israel, the simple folk of his day in first century Palestine."^[58]

Manus goes on to argue that the term "reconstruction" makes a deep impression on him as a "meta-language" that challenges African religiosity to discern and promote new insights that can inspire a new movement that would help to galvanise Africans in the continent like those in the Diaspora to struggle and regain their integrity.^[59] For Manus, therefore, the goal of reconstruction ought to be pursued in order to re-capture Africa's self-esteem, dignity and integrity, "in the context of new Information and Communication Technology."^[60]

Others have offered perspectives on Mugambi's views on liberation and reconstruction. In attempting a definition, the late Hannah Wangeci Kinoti explained that the idea of reconstruction assumes that there is a framework which was previously there. She went on to say that "a cluster of words associated with the verb reconstruct should quicken our vision of asking the Church in African to rise up and do more, purposefully and decisively."^[61] She suggested that the concept of reconstruction implies a process of "review and then move" - to create something more suitable to the prevailing environment.^[62] Other terms can be invoked: rebuild, reassemble, re-establish, recreate, reform, renovate, regenerate, remake, remodel, restore, or re-organise.^[62]