Revd Dr Jonathan Gichaara

I am an ordained Methodist minister currently serving in the Loughborough Circuit, Northampton District. Alongside church ministry, I am a Recognised University Supervisor of the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Research Fellow of Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.

I have wide university teaching and student supervision experience up to doctoral level.

In Kenya, I was a full-time lecturer of St Paul’s University 1996-1997 and at Kenyatta University from 1997-2002 where I rose to the position of senior lecturer and Protestant University Chaplain. I also taught at the Catholic, Daystar and Nazarene universities on a part-time basis.

In the United Kingdom I was World Church Tutor at the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield before moving to Queen’s Foundation

Qualifications

Post-graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP)	2005	Leeds University, Leeds, UK
Ph. D.  in Theology and Culture                                          Topic: “Ritualization of Time, History and Hope in Kenya’s Social Memory as a Paradigm for an Emerging African Theology”	1996	Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Master of Theology (Th. M.)                                               Thesis: “Concept of Sin and its Removal in the African Cosmology.”	1990	Chandler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) (Honours)	1985	St. Paul’s Theological College, Kenya

Roles and responsibilities

I have taught  various  courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level including African Traditional (Indigenous) Religion(s), Belief Systems in Africa, Comparative World Religions, History of African Religion(s), Critical Study of OT Texts, African Cultural Studies, African Reading of NT Texts,  Phenomenology of Religion , African Theology and Liberation Theology.

At the Urban Theology Unit (UTU) in Sheffield, I was a Church World Tutor with remit as Associate Programme Leader for M.Phil./Ph.D. in Contextual, Urban and Liberation Theologies.

In the past I’ve served both as a congregational and circuit superintendent minister in the Methodist Church. Currently, I am a minister in the Loughborough Circuit and one of the street pastors.

• In Northampton, I am the District representative to Connexional One Mission Forum (World Church)
• I serve in the Connexional Faith and Order Committee
• I am a trustee of the Methodist for World Mission (MWM)
• I am a  registered Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research interests and supervision areas

My research interests  revolve around socio-theological critiques of society past and present, African Indigenous & Liberation Theology, socio-Religious Rituals, Black Theology and  Issues of the disabled persons vis-à-vis the Church.

My current supervision includes student thesis entitled  ‘Towards an African Communitarian Humanism’ and ‘Pastoral Care in African-led churches in South East London and implications for Inter-cultural Pastoral Care in mainstream churches’ both at Ph.D. level.

I have supervised a number of students whose Ph.D. thesis have been awarded both at Kenyatta University and University of Birmingham.

I have been an Internal and an External Examiner up to Ph.D. level, with the latest  being an IE in January 2016  for the University of Birmingham. 

Publications

I have contributed chapters and book length articles as follows:

• “ Shifting Paradigms of Time , History and  Eschatological Hope in Africa: The Case of the Church in Kenya” in Black Theology: An International Journal, Vol 12,isuue 3( Nov 2014), PP 251-26
• “A comparative Study of Christian Baptism vis-à-vis the Meru ( African) Rite of Boys Circumcision”  in Black Theology: An International Journal, Vol 11, Issue 2 ( January 2013) , PP 240-268
• “Women, Religio-cultural Factors and HIV/AIDS in Africa” in  Black Theology: An International Journal, Vol6 No 2 , 2008
• “Wesleyan Perspective on Social Issues” in Wesley Historical Society: Umbria Branch. No 57, Spring 2006
• “A Look at the British Church and Society from a ‘Third-Eye” in Re-Thinking Mission. www.rethinkingmission.org.uk/a...
• “African Theology and African Liberation Theology” in  Back Theology: An International Journal   vol. 3 No 2 Jan 2005
• “What is in a Name?  The African Verses Old Testament (OT) Nomenclature”, in Interpreting the Old Testament in African, edited by Mary Getui et al. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2001
• “The Crisis of Women Circumcision as a Conflict Model for Social Religious Change”, Eastern Africa Journal of Historical and Social Research Vol.2 No.1, Jan 2001.
• “A Singing and Dancing Church: Methodist Worship in Kenya and Zimbabwe” with Paul W. Chilcote and P. Matsikenyiri in the Sunday Service of the Methodist.  Edited by K. Westerfield Tucker.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996
• “Christological Image of Christ as an African Medicine-Man (Mganga)”, in Church Divinity 1989 / 1990.  Graduate Theological Foundation of Indiana.  Edited by John H. Morgan.  Wyndham Hall Press, 1990.

Book reviews

• Title: The Narrative of the life of James Watkins: Formerly a "Chattel in Maryland , USA. Containing an Account of his escape from slavery; Together with an appeal on behalf of three million of "such pieces of property" still held under the standard of the eagle". Published by Kenyon & Abbatt Printers, Market Street: Bolton, 1852
• Title: Another World is Possible: Spiritualities and Religions of Global Darker Peoples. Authors: Dwight N. Hopkins and Marjorie Lewis. Publisher: Equinox. Reviewed in the Black Theology Journal. Vol. 8 Issue 3
• Title: A Time to Speak: How Black Pastors Can Respond to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. Authors: Marvin A. McMickle. Publisher: Pilgrim Press. Reviewed in the Black Theology Journal. Vol.8 Issue 1
• Title: The Pilgrimage of the African Church: Towards the Twenty-first Century.  Author: Zablon Nthamburi. Publisher: Uzima Press.  Reviewed in the Methodist Digest. Vol.4  Issue 2