Lamin Sanneh

Lamin Sanneh
Sanneh in 2014
Born	(1942-05-24)May 24, 1942 Abuko,Gambia Colony and Protectorate
Died	January 6, 2019(2019-01-06)(aged 76) United States
Occupation(s)	Scholar ofmissionsandreligious studies
Known for	History of African Christianity and a pioneer in the academic field ofworld Christianity
Spouse	Sandra Sanneh
Academic work
Discipline	Missiology,religious studies
Institutions	University of Ghana,University of Aberdeen,Harvard,Yale University,Yale Divinity School

Lamin Sanneh(May 24, 1942 – January 6, 2019) was theD. Willis JamesProfessor ofMissionsandWorld ChristianityatYale Divinity Schooland Professor of History atYale University.

Biography

Sanneh was born and raised inGambiaas part of an ancient African royal family, and was a naturalized United States citizen.After studying at theUniversity of Birminghamand theNear East School of Theology, Beirut,he earned his doctorate inIslamic Historyat theUniversity of London.Sanneh taught and worked at theUniversity of Ghana,theUniversity of Aberdeen,Harvard,and, from 1989–2019, atYale.He was an editor-at-large ofThe Christian Century,and served on the board of several other journals. Sanneh had honorary doctorates fromUniversity of EdinburghandLiverpool Hope University.

He was aCommandeur de l'Ordre National du Lion,Senegal's highest national honor. He was a member of the Pontifical Commission of the Historical Sciences and of the Pontifical Commission on Religious Relations with Muslims.In 2018, a new institute was created in his name, the Sanneh Institute at the University of Ghana.The Overseas Ministry Study Center (OMSC) atPrinceton Theological Seminarycreated a research grant named in honor of Sanneh.

Sanneh suffered a stroke and died on January 6, 2019.He was survived by his wife,Sandra Sanneh,a professor ofisiZuluat Yale University, and their children Sia Sanneh, a senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative, andKelefa Sanneh,staff writer forThe New Yorker.

Christianity and Islam

Sanneh converted to Christianity fromIslamand was a practicingRoman Catholic.Much of his scholarship related to the relationship betweenChristianity and Islam,especially in Africa and what he understood as "African Islam."

World Christianity

Another major area of Sanneh's academic work was in the study ofWorld Christianity.In hisTranslating the Message(1989), Sanneh wrote about the significance of the translation of the Christian message into mother-tongue languages in places like Africa and Asia. Instead of the dominant view that Christian mission primarily propagated "cosmopolitan values of an ascendant West," he argues, "The translation role of missionaries cast them as unwitting allies of mother-tongue speakers and as reluctant opponents of colonial domination."He continued to develop these reflections in hisDisciples of All Nations(2008).

Selected books

• West African Christianity: The Religious Impact.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 1983.ISBN9780883447031.
• Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 1989.ISBN9780883443613.
• The Jakhanke Muslim Clerics: A Religious and Historical Study of Islam in Senegambia.Lanham, MD: University Press of America. 1989.ISBN9780819174819.
• Encountering the West: Christianity and the Global Cultural Process: The African Dimension.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 1993.ISBN9780883449295.
• Religion and the Variety of Culture: A Study in Origin and Practice.Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International. 1996.ISBN9781563381669.
• Het Evangelie is Niet Los Verkrijgbaar: Het Christendom als Inculturatie-Beweging.Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok. 1996.ISBN9789024279746.
• Piety and Power: Muslims and Christians in West Africa.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 1996.ISBN9781570750908.
• The Crown and the Turban: Muslims and West African Pluralism.Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 1997.ISBN9780813330594.
• Faith and Power: Christianity and Islam in "Secular" Britain.London: SPCK. 1998.ISBN9780281051533.(with Lesslie Newbigin and Jenny Taylor)
• Abolitionists Abroad: American Blacks and the Making of Modern West Africa.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2009.ISBN978-0674043077.
• Whose Religion is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West.Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. 2004.ISBN0802821642.(Winner: Theologos Award for "Best General Interest Book 2004" )
• The Changing Face of Christianity: Africa, the West, and the World.New York: Oxford University Press. 2005.ISBN0195177274.(co-edited with Joel A. Carpenter)
• Disciples of all Nations: Pillars of World Christianity.New York: Oxford University Press. 2008.ISBN9780195189605.
• Summoned from the Margin: Homecoming of an African.Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. 2012.ISBN9780802867421.
• Beyond Jihad: The Pacifist Tradition in West African Islam.New York: Oxford University Press. 2016.ISBN9780199351619.
• The Wiley Blackwell Companion to World Christianity.Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 2016.ISBN9781118556047.(co-edited with Michael McClymond

External links

External videos
A Conversation with Lamin Sanneh (2016)

• Yale Divinity School
• History Faculty Page at Yale
• 2011 Article By Ray Waddle