'Imperial Kenosis As A Political Medicine: An Afro-Wesleyan Public Theology of the Cross’, PhD thesis (University of Manchester/Nazarene Theological College), 2019.

What was the primary argument of your doctoral thesis?

I argue in my thesis that the spirituality, social activism, and public leadership of evangelicals in my country, the Republic of Benin, could be more fruit bearing if critiqued and informed by the political dimension of the self-emptying display of Christ on the cross. I arrived at this argument based on evangelicals’ self-assessment of their political performance and their hoped-for alternative. As a result, I have issued an Africa-centred Wesleyan proposal.

What led you to study this subject?

I could think of many. One is that the first time I ever cast a vote during a presidential election, I did so for a former Marxist leader turned an evangelical candidate. From that time onward—and for two decades—successive governments have been formed around an evangelical-centred leadership. But this prowess has not produced the liberatory outcomes that a post-colonial nation like ours craved for. While there are flamboyant statistics from international organisations pointing to how great Benin is doing from economic and church growth statistic standpoints, the reality on the ground in schools, families, churches, neighbourhoods, courts of justice, etc. is far from what the reports are saying. I thought something was wrong in a country with peaceful transition to western democracy, a country that has not known wars or any major catastrophe like elsewhere, and yet with such a meagre post-colonial, post-Marxism, outcome. That was what led me to think about searching for another way to understand our post-colonial context and hence to go after an alternative model with theological dimension.

How did your thesis contribute to the field?

With the background presented above, I found myself in uncharted territories for someone doing theological research. Overall, I hope to have presented a work that could serve as a model of cross-fertilisation in theological reflection. In effect, I used an ethnographic field research, on a theological topic with historical insights for clarity purposes. As a result, I have drawn spiritual and geopolitical implications, all in response to the scandal of entrenched poverty in an Africa that our God who is loving toward all has endowed with sufficient, if not vast, riches.

If seeking to publish your thesis, what has the process of searching for a publisher looked like?

I have been a bit slow on this, but partly because I became involved in other publications and did not focus immediately on the publication of my thesis. When I later did, I had the challenge of making changes to bring the work to the public level. I am currently working with the Transforming Political Theologies series of Routledge. Hopefully, it will come out soon.

What does your life look like post-graduation? What is your current vocation and how does your doctoral work inform it? 

Early on after completion of my thesis I started teaching as an affiliate professor of Wesleyan Missiology in the school of theology and religious sciences of the Université Protestante de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (UPAO). I later joined the School of Theology and Seminary of Seattle Pacific University as an Assistant Professor of Theological Studies. I have not forsaken my commitment to serving for church renewal, so I continue to volunteer in church-based services and renewal through Wesleyan discipling structures. I became recognized as an ordained elder in the Free Methodist Church-USA.

What does it mean to you to be a scholar in the Wesleyan tradition?

I would suggest that in anticipation of the full freedom the world is craving for, scholars in the Wesleyan tradition primarily contribute toward the renewal of God’s creation, in all spheres of life. For this reason, they use cross-fertilisation across the disciplines to think and serve for the increasing vibrancy of the church on earth. It follows that to be a scholar in the Wesleyan tradition is to redirect intellectual activities toward creative solutions to the perennial issues of poverty and injustices around us. With that framework, both theological content and the related purpose of human flourishing of the content matter together in Wesleyan scholarship. Wesleyan scholars function as public intellectuals and, when warranted, as healthy agitators, i.e., they critique influential public thoughts and practices that affect human lives negatively. They then offer theologically informed constructive paths out of those thoughts and practices that are unsuitable to God’s design for this world. 

How do you see your scholarly work as part of your ministry?

My research has given me greater insights into the world systems and into overall life of the Church in response to the latter. I found a window into the Church’s strengths and weaknesses, and her still untapped potentials that could lastingly influence the society in the most positive ways. As a result, I have gained a stronger basis for emphasising the wholistic dimension of Christian life and ministry, from personal to societal levels.

What made NTC and Manchester ideal places to undertake your doctoral studies?

During my studies, I came to realize that both at academic as well as ecclesial levels, many people consider one single meaning of the cross of Christ as ‘untouchable.’ I was initially accepted into a different PhD program. But I had to withdraw due to the lack of a supervisor that could take on my proposed research project. Alternatively, I found a collegium at NTC that was supportive as well as challenging to the kind of orientation I was taking. NTC was a very healthy environment to help me freely think about issues that matter for the church’s witness in the public square. 

What are some projects in progress? Where can we find your work these days?

Besides reviews and forthcoming dictionary entries in Religious Studies Review and Historical Dictionary of Methodism, I also contributed “Did Colonialism Distort African Development?” in a debate on contradictory interpretive lenses on African issues in Debating African Issues (Routledge, 2002). Recently I co-authored (with Kelly Yates) “Conversion as an Act of Reclamation: John and Charles Wesley’s Interaction with Two West African Enslaved Men,” an article suggesting the need for reinterpreting the legacy of Wesleyan influence on the Robin Johns in Wesley and Methodist Studies 15.1 (January 2023). I also have a forthcoming article in Wesleyan Theological Journal on the legacy of Thomas Birch Freeman during the 19th century proto-colonial period in West Africa. Shortly after completion of my PhD I found myself involved in the Dialogue on Race and Faith research team, which has neared completion with a collective book, Awakening to Justice, to be released later in spring 2024. I authored one chapter in that book. I hope my thesis book will soon be published by Routledge.

What advice do you have for recent doctoral graduates who are searching for jobs, whether in academia, the church, or elsewhere?

I would advise patience and prayerful discernment with a community of caring persons who genuinely value their calling and are supportive enough to make connections to various possibilities. Above all, it is wise to pray and act, to seek guidance from seniors in the field, to ask them to review cover letters, CV, sample papers, ask for mock interviews, and even check the tidiness of slide presentations. All this is to say that it is healthy to actively count on God’s faithfulness to show forth with the cooperation of our efforts. In doing so, God can place the vocation of the searching persons where they will be most fruitful for the furtherance of his Kingdom of holy love on earth.