Associate professor of theology and peace studies at Notre Dame Fr. Emmanuel Katongle has been selected as a 2017-2018 Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology along with five other members of the Association of Theological Schools in the U.S. and Canada, the University announced in a press release Tuesday.
According to the press release, Katongle will spend a year studying “ethnic, religious and ecological violence” in sub-Saharan Africa beginning in January 2018.
“What is particularly exciting about this project is I’m studying ... three types of violence together, and I’m making the argument that they are all connected,” Katongle said in the press release. “We are not talking about three forms of violence. We’re talking three manifestations of the same type of violence that is part of the crisis of belonging in modern Africa.”
Katongle will use the research he conducts during his fellowship to write a book — “Who Are My People?” — that will explore the role Christianity plays in the violence he is researching. The press release said Katongle is hoping to find “excess of love” that counteracts this violence.
“If I can trace this excess of love in these communities, what I would like to do is display it and show it as an invitation into which everyone is called,” he said in the press release. “ … God is peace. But what does that mean in the context of so much violence, suffering and the refugee crisis? I felt I could make a distinctive contribution to that conversation by adding a theological voice.”
