Jesse Mugambi

He is a fellow of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences (FKNAS) and was conferred a national honor as an Edler of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) on 12th December 2010, by the late President Emilio Mwai Kibaki, at a ceremony at State House Nairobi, attended by local and international dignitaries, after the promulgation of a new Kenyan Constitution on August 27th, 2010.

In 2008 Mugambi participated 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." He also published an article titled "The Environmental Crisis from a Christian Perspective."

In 2004, Mugambi co-edited a book on New Testament Hermeneutics, to which he contributed a chapter. The following year he addressed a conference at Makerere University, on "African Hermeneutics in a Global Context", published in 2007 as a chapter in Interpreting Classical Religious Texts in Contemporary Africa, edited by Knut Holter. There is much hermeneutical discourse in Mugambi's book (co-authored with Michael R. Guy) titled Contextual Theology Across Cultures, published in 2009.

In 1998, Mugambi observed that the time was overdue for African Christian theologians to engage in theological introspection, transcending ecclesiological description and theological anthropology. He cited Bernard Lonergan as a possible role model in that approach at a meeting in Hammanskraal, near Pretoria. Mugambi delivered the keynote address "Foundations for an African Approach to Biblical Hermeneutics", which was published in 2001.

In 1998 he published "Missiological Research in the Context of Globalization", in Swedish Missiological Themes, Uppsala; "A Fresh Look at Evangelism in Africa" in International Review of Mission, Geneva; and "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.

In 1997 he published his reflections on "Some Lessons from a Century of Ecumenism in Africa." In 2004 he co-authored with Gaim Kebreab a reference book titled Fresh Water to Eradicate Poverty, released in Oslo by Norwegian Church Aid. The Twelfth UNFCCC Conference of Parties was convened in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2006. Mugambi served as honorary Moderator of the Ecumenical Team as a member of the WCC Delegation, where he read the WCC Statement at COP 12 in Nairobi.

Early in 1990, he became widely acclaimed in Christian theological circles after he addressed the General Committee of the All Africa Conference of Churches on March 30 in Nairobi, reflecting on "The Future of the Church and the Church of the Future in Africa." This event was a few weeks after Nelson Mandela had been released on 11 February 1990 and Namibia had attained national independence on 21 March of the same year. In his address, Mugambi suggested that African Christianity must shift theological gear from the paradigm of liberation, which emphasized the Exodus motif, to that of reconstruction, which emphasizes the post-Exilic motif. He later elaborated this insight in his book From Liberation to Reconstruction: African Christian Theology after the Cold War.

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 neighboring African countries. Other events include the release of Nelson Rolihlahla 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.

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 preoccupy itself with the agenda of the reconstruction as the new priority for Africa. The text of Ezra-Nehemiah, unlike that of the Exodus, would be the main text in 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 effort in reconciliation and confidence-building. It will also require re-orientation and retraining.

In 1989, Mugambi published his book The Biblical Basis for Evangelization. This was in the same year that he facilitated the editing and publication of a collection of essays on this theme – Christian Mission and Social Transformation. In 1996 he published an article "African Churches in Social Transformation" in the Journal of International Affairs at Columbia University, New York. This article was followed by "Vision of African Church in Mission", published in Missionalia, Journal of the Southern African Missiological Society.

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. The experience was traumatic, as described by Caroline Elkins, David Anderson, and others. Despite all odds, Mugambi managed to proceed with schoolwork and pass all his examinations. 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 African Christian Theology: An Introduction.

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. In 1987 he published his book God, Humanity and Nature in Relation to Justice and Peace, intended as 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 that 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. Mugambi's 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).

In 1978, he embarked on his research for his PhD, which he completed in 1983, focusing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's entitled "Problems of Meaning in Discourse with Reference to Religion." His main supervisor was Joseph Donders, with helpful advice from Kwasi Wiredu, who was then in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ghana, Legon. He participated in an ecumenical research project to document the practice of ecumenism at the local level in eastern Africa. The research was published in 1982 as Ecumenical Initiatives in Eastern Africa.

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.

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

In 1971, Mugambi attended the University of Nairobi for undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

After graduation from the University of Nairobi, Mugambi became active in the ecumenical movement. In 1970, 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). He later served as Africa Theology Secretary for the World Student Christian Federation (1974–76). He has also held various posts in the World Council of Churches from 1975 until today.

After high school, Mugambi 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 pursued further studies at Westhill College of Education, Birmingham, UK, and conducted historical research at the CMS Archives in London (1969–70).

Jesse Ndwiga Kanyua Mugambi (born 6 February 1947) is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Nairobi with professional training in education and philosophy of religion.

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

In his books, Mugambi avoids 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.