John Mbiti

John Samuel Mbiti was born on the thirtieth of November 1931 at the village of Kitui, in the Eastern Province of the British Protectorate of Kenya, the son of a Kamba Anglican family of the principal late-colonial Kenya Kamba-Christian community. He was raised in the principal Kamba Kenya Anglican community of the principal late-colonial Eastern Province.

He completed his secondary education at the Alliance High School at Kikuyu, Kenya in 1949 — and the bachelor's degree at Makerere College at Kampala, Uganda in 1953.

He completed the bachelor's degree in theology at the Barrington College at Providence, Rhode Island in 1956 — and the master's degree in theology at the Barrington College in 1957.

He was ordained an Anglican priest at the principal All Saints Anglican Cathedral at Kampala, Uganda in 1960 — and held the principal Mt Kenya Anglican parish ministry from 1959 to 1963.

He completed the doctorate in New Testament studies at Christ's College of the University of Cambridge in 1963 — under the principal supervision of the principal New Testament scholar Charles F. D. Moule. The principal Mbiti Cambridge doctoral dissertation was on the principal New Testament eschatology-and-Akamba-Christian-eschatology comparative-theological canon.

He was named the principal head of the principal Department of Religious Studies at Makerere University at Kampala, Uganda from 1964 to 1974 — at the principal post-1964 Makerere University Religious Studies department founding-and-construction.

He was named the principal director of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at Château de Bossey at Geneva, Switzerland from 1974 to 1980 — at the principal post-1974 Geneva ecumenical-and-African-religious-and-theological academic community.

He published the principal monograph African Religions and Philosophy at the principal Heinemann Press at London in 1969 — the principal foundational African-religious-and-philosophical academic-and-anthropological-and-theological scholarly text of the principal post-1969 African academic-religious-and-philosophical canon.

The principal African Religions and Philosophy of 1969 contains the principal Mbiti articulation of the principal African-religious-and-philosophical 'I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am' communal-and-personalist African-philosophical-and-religious framework — at the principal post-1969 African-communal-and-personalist African-philosophical-canon.

He published the principal Concepts of God in Africa at the principal SPCK Press at London in 1970 — and the principal The Prayers of African Religion at the principal SPCK Press at London in 1975.

He taught at the principal University of Bern in Switzerland from 1983 to 1996 — and held the principal Burgdorf Reformed-Church parish ministry from 1980 to 1996 at the principal post-1980 Swiss-and-Anglican Burgdorf Reformed-Church-and-academic period.

He died at Burgdorf, Switzerland on the fifth of October 2019 of natural causes, at eighty-seven.

He is honored here as the author of African Religions and Philosophy.