African Initiated Churches, research, and human dignity

What is it about?

In research on African Christianities the researcher is often a cultural outsider. This problematizes both the research process and the way the results are received in the broader community. Can such research be done in way that promotes rather than detracts from the dignity of the subjects? I suggest that certain theological perspectives might achieve positive results, contrary to those who insist on purely objective religious studies methodologies.

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Why is it important?

It challenges a dominant academic discourse which suggests that theology inevitably clouds the waters of empirical research projects of religious communities. Of course certain theological perspectives can play very unhelpful even destructive roles in terms of cross-cultural or inter-religious research, but on the other hand theological approaches that prioritizes human dignity and equal rights are well adapted to achieve valuable results in spite of their avowedly normative positioning.