The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Events

About the lecture
With an estimated 550 – 650 million adherents, African Christians represent a substantial and dynamic segment of the global Christian community. Because Christianity in Africa is profoundly heterogeneous, it is more accurate to speak of African Christianities. At the heart of this diversity lies the ritual of baptism – a focal point around which disparate African Christian traditions intertwine theology, cultural symbolism, and communal practice.
Drawing on archival material, ethnographic studies, and fieldwork within African Pentecostal Charismatic communities, this lecture foregrounds the most salient aspects of baptismal rituals across the continent. In essence, baptism in Africa is both a rite and a contested space – shaping identity, belonging, and spatial-temporal reconfigurations. It mirrors the pressing challenges and emerging opportunities that African Christians navigate amid rapid socio-political and religio-economic change.

About the speaker
Asonzeh Ukah is Chair of Religious Studies at the Department for the Study of Religions at Cape Town University and Director of the African Centre for Religions, Ethics and Society (ACRES). In 2024/25 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study Berlin).

Organizers
The llecture is organized by the Frankfurt Research Group »Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities« (POLY) in cooperation with the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität frankfurt (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Goethe University Frankfurt).

Registration
For better planning, we kindly ask you to register in advance at:
anmeldung@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de. You will receive a confirmation of registration.