About the Author

The Author: Emmanuel K. Twesigye is a distinguished senior Professor of Religion and Ethics. He holds the endowed chairs of Aden S. and Mollie Wollam Benedicts Professor of Christian Studies and Sharp-Davis-Trimble Professor of Religion at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, where he is also the former Chair of the Department of Religion. He has served as an NEH fellow at Princeton University and was a fellow at Harvard University. Originally from Uganda, Twesigye was the Chairman of Religious Studies at Kyambogo University, where he also served as the Anglican University Chaplain, and a part-time lecturer of African history at Makerere University Kampala. Twesigye received an M.A. in cultural anthropology from Wheaton College, an S.T.M. from University of the South, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy and religion from Vanderbilt University. He has also published many major scholarly books and articles, which include Religion and Ethics for a New Age (2001); Mission Theology and Partnerships: A Handbook (1999); and African Religion, Philosophy, Christianity in Logos-Christ: Common Grounds Revisited (Lang, 1996). Twesigye has also been the editor of The Ohio Academy Religion Papers and Zumari Journal.

Reviews

"Emmanuel Twesigye returns home to Uganda to examine the rise of seemingly perplexing Christian communities, such as the Lord's Resistance Army, in which nearly a thousand adherents met with fiery deaths. In contrast to the superficial media reports that reinforce colonial mindsets of the exotic, irrational African, Twesigye's thorough ethnographic field research tells another story. Like people everywhere, the Ugandans drawn to messianic leadership were responding to years of uncertainty brought about by civil war and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 'Religion, Politics and Cults in East Africa' is a courageous, compassionate, and illuminating study of humans responding to chaos." (Mary Howard, Ohio Wesleyan University)