New York City - The Rt Revd James Tengatenga, the Bishop of Southern Malawi, will be a Visiting Professor during Michaelmas Term at The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, teaching a course entitled the Church and Society in Africa.
Consecrated bishop in 1998, Bishop Tengatenga holds both an MDiv degree and a Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) from The Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. He earned his PhD from the University of Malawi where his doctoral dissertation focused on the relationship between church, state, and society through an analysis of Anglican ecclesiology in Malawi. The Bishop also holds a postgraduate diploma in Community Work from the University of Birmingham. He has lectured widely, at Clare College, Cambridge, and at both the University of Malawi and at Zomba Theological College. The Bishop has been a member of the Pan-African Civic Educators' Network Central Committee and a Commissioner of the National AIDS Commission. He has also been a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council since 2002.
In April of this year, General Seminary students cooperated with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Diocese of New York, and with several parishes in New York and Florida to procure and ship 10,000 books to a newly established library at Leonard Kamungu Seminary in Bishop Tengatenga's diocese.
The Bishop's course will focus on the African religious experience, including the arrival of both Islam and Christianity, as a means to prepare and equip students and professionals for ministry in the age of globalization. While using Malawi as a case study, the course's lectures and readings will encompass material from various denominations and experiences in other African countries.
"It is a great honor for us to have James Tengatenga as a member of our community for the fall semester," said General Seminary Sub-Dean for Academic Affairs, Robert Bruce Mullin. "He is a scholar bishop with a strong understanding of the relationship between theology and culture."
The course, which will meet on Tuesday afternoons, begins on September 14, and is open to all. For registration information, call the Admissions Office at 212-243-5150.