Black Pentecostal theology with Dr. Rev. Clifton Clarke

The Polin Institute is organizing a half day seminar with Dr. Reverend Clifton Clarke (Lee University) on 11 April, 2024. The seminar takes place in Auditorium Theologicum, Biskopsgatan 16, and via Zoom https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/63938286974 (Meeting ID: 639 3828 6974).

Black Pentecostal theology

Pentecostal theology has grown in leaps and bounds over the past fifty years. While often considered incongruous with academic discourse, Pentecostal theology in general and black Pentecostal theology in particular provide essential insights and inroads to global theology. This Polin seminar explores how black Pentecostal theology as a modifier of Pentecostalism might contribute to our understanding of Pentecostal theology and global theologies.

Program:

13:15 Prof. Mika Vähäkangas, the Polin Institute, Word of Welcome

13:30-14:30 Prof. Clifton Clarke, Lee University, Framing Black Pentecostal Theology

14:30-15:30 Dr Martina Björkander, the Polin Institute, Åbo Akademi, What does the Bible sing? Pentecostal worship and the re-oralization of Scripture

Coffee break

16.00-17:00 Response by Prof. Sanna Pauliina Urvas, Theological School of Finland, followed by open discussion

Bio

Dr. Clifton Clarke was born and raised in the United Kingdom and gained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Nottingham (UK), his Master’s Degree in Religious Studies from the University of Derby (UK), and his Ph.D. in theology from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2003. He taught theology at the University of Nottingham for five years before moving to Ghana as a Professor of theology teaching in various theological institutions. Dr. Clarke has also been a part of the founding team that established the Pan African Christian University College in Accra, Ghana, and served as a Professor and Dean from 2002 – 2007.

In 2008 he was appointed Professor of Intercultural Studies at Regent University, Virginia, US. He served in that position until April 2017, when he accepted the role as the Assistant Provost and professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is currently the Research Fellow at Queens Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Studies and a Professor at Lee University, where he teaches on an adjunct basis. He is the author of eight books, the most recent being The Love remedy: The Cure for a Racially Divided World (2021).