Doctoral supervision and publication in Birmingham
I reached the end of my research supervision at the University of Birmingham in 2022 (I retired officially in December 2019). At that time I had reflected on the international nature of my doctoral research supervision over the past 25 years and its impact on my life. I want to put this (originally a Facebook post) up here. This was really an international work. Of the fifty graduates I supervised to completion, fourteen were from the UK, ten from South Korea, seven from Ghana, six from the USA, two each from India and China, and one each from Indonesia, Nigeria, Zambia, Romania, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and Canada. Besides those from Pentecostal churches, they often came from mainline Protestant and Anglican denominations. The research was almost entirely empirical work on global Pentecostalism and the relationship between religion and culture. As to where the research was situated, sixteen of these topics were on Africa, sixteen on Asia, eleven on Europe, five on North America, and two on Latin America. Most of them have subsequently published their theses and are doing very useful work, mostly in theological education and Christian ministry. When I came to Birmingham in 1995, I had a rather limited knowledge mainly confined to Southern Africa and African independent churches. I had three small books based on my graduate research in South Africa promoted by the late Inus (M.L.) Daneel, and published by the University of South Africa (Unisa Press). A further book, Zion and Pentecost, was published by this press in 2000. As a result of supervising this international research in Birmingham, I have been able to widen my specialism and publish widely: ten monographs, four edited collections, and translations of two of my books into five languages. My best-selling book is An introduction to Pentecostalism (2nd ed. 2014). I consider, however, that the three best books are my last book Spirit-Filled World (2018), which was a return to my earlier research in South Africa; Spreading Fires (2007), based on extensive archival research on early Pentecostal missionary work; and To the Ends of the Earth (2013), an attempt to address the changing nature of world Christianity and the role of Pentecostalism in these global changes. All this was stimulated by the doctoral supervision I was doing while these books were being prepared. Each of my fifty research students (and others that I handed over to other supervisors as a result of the increasing workload) made an important contribution to my life and work.
But now well and truly retired, I find time for other, perhaps more important things, like enjoying grandchildren, doing genealogical research, writing memoirs, reading novels, listening to and playing music, watching TV dramas, exercising, and perhaps most importantly, volunteering. I grow weary of academic work, just as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes observed, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body".
Here is a list of the doctoral graduates at the University of Birmingham that I supervised, their thesis titles, and the year that they graduated. These are followed by the research masters graduates. Except where indicated, I was the sole supervisor.
1. ROBERT SEYMOUR BECKFORD, ‘Towards a Dread Pentecostal Theology: The context of a viable political theology within Black Pentecostal churches in Britain’. PhD, 1999 (previous supervisor: Werner Ustorf).
2. JERISDAN HARTNA JEHU-APPIAH, ‘The African Indigenous Churches in Britain: An investigation into their theology with special reference to the Musama Disco Christo Church and the Church of the Lord (Brotherhood)’. PhD, 2001 (previous supervisor: Werner Ustorf).
3. JAE YONG JEONG, ‘Filipino Pentecostal Spirituality: An Investigation into Filipino Indigenous Spirituality and Pentecostalism in the Philippines’. ThD, 2001.
4. CHONG HEE JEONG, ‘The Formation and Development of Korean Pentecostalism from the Perspective of a Dynamic Contextual Theology’. ThD, 2001.
5. OPOKU ONYINAH, ‘Akan Witchcraft and the Concept of Exorcism in the Church of Pentecost’, PhD, 2002.
6. JOHN ABEDU QUASHIE, ‘Caring for Akan Marriages: A Critique of the Approach to the Pastoral Care of Marriages by Selected Christian Organisations in Ghana’, PhD, 2002 (co-supervisor: Gordon Lynch).
7. CLIFTON ROY CLARKE, ‘Faith in Christ in Post-Missionary Africa: Christology among Akan African Indigenous Churches in Ghana’, PhD, 2003.
8. TIMOTHY JOHN PADWICK, ‘Spirit, Desire and the World: Roho Churches of Western Kenya in the Era of Globalization’, PhD, 2003.
9. JONG FIL KIM, ‘Contemporary Pentecostal/Charismatic Movements in Greater Metro Manila: An analysis in the light of a double-structured religious system’, PhD, 2004.
10. RICHARD JOHN BURGESS, ‘The Civil War Revival and its Pentecostal Progeny: A Religious Movement among the Igbo People of Eastern Nigeria (1967-2002), PhD, 2004.
11. BONG-KEUN PARK, ‘A Pneumatocentric Soteriology: A Study of the Christ Apostolic Church against the background of the Church Missionary Society in Yorubaland, Nigeria’, PhD, 2005.
12. MICHAIAH AKINYELE OLANIYI, ‘The meaning of religious conversion in the Christ Apostolic Church of Nigeria: Towards the incarnation of Christianity in Yorubaland’, PhD, 2007.
13. WILHELMINA WELLS DAVIES, ‘The Embattled but Empowered Community: Comparing understandings of Spiritual Power in Argentine Popular and Pentecostal Cosmologies’, PhD, 2007.
14. JAMES OSMAR HARRIES, ‘Pragmatic Theory applied to Christian Mission in Africa: with special reference to Luo responses to ‘bad’ in Gem, Kenya’, PhD, 2007.
15. PHILIP CLIFFORD OWEN, 'The Ecumenical Nature of Charismatic Renewal: A Study of Anglican and Roman Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England’, PhD, 2007.
16. WESSLY LUKOSE, ‘Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, India: Towards a Contextual Missiology of the Spirit’, PhD, 2009.
17. GERALD WAYNE KING, ‘Disfellowshipped: Pentecostal Responses to Fundamentalism in the USA, 1906-1942’, PhD, 2009.
18. TIMOTHY BERNARD WELCH, ‘“God found his Moses”: A Biographical and Theological Analysis of the Life of Joseph Smale (1867-1926)’, PhD, 2009.
19. KYU-HYUNG CHO, ‘The Move to Independence from Anglican Leadership: An Examination of the Relationship between Alexander Alfred Boddy and the Early Leaders of the British Pentecostal denominations (1907-1930)’, PhD, 2009 (co-supervisor: Hugh McLeod).
20. CHUONGKWON CHO, ‘The Resolution of Han and Church Growth: A Study on the Pentecostal Experience of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea’, PhD, 2010.
21. DANIEL OKYERE WALKER, ‘The Concept of Holiness in the Ghanaian Church of Pentecost’, PhD, 2010.
22. JENNIFER ANN MISKOV, ‘Life on Wings: Carrie Judd Montgomery’, PhD, 2011.
23. TALMADGE LEON FRENCH ‘Garfield Thomas Haywood and the Rise of Oneness Pentecostalism in Indianapolis, 1906-31’, PhD, 2011.
24. RICHARD ANDERSON BUSTRAAN, ‘Upon Your Sons and Daughters: An Analysis of the Pentecostalism within the Jesus People Movement and its Aftermath, PhD, 2011.
25. DOREEN MORRISON, ‘Reaching for the Promised Land: The Role of Culture, Issues of Leadership and Social Stratification within British Caribbean Christianity’, PhD, 2012.
26. TOMMY HENRIK DAVIDSSON, ‘Lewi Pethrus’ Ecclesiological Thought 1911-1974: A Transdenominational Pentecostal Ecclesiology’, PhD, 2012.
27. SANG HYUN LEE, ‘Contextual Hope in Korean Pentecostalism’s Threefold Blessing’, PhD, 2013.
28. KUNJAE YU, ‘An Analysis of the Theological and Historical Identity of the Korean Baptist Convention: An Indigenous Charismatic Movement’, PhD, 2014.
29. NAAR GREY MFUNDISI, ‘Pentecostal and Charismatic Spiritualities and Civic Engagement in Zambia (1964-2012)’, PhD, 2014.
30. VASILE MARCHIS, ‘A Theology of Mission for Romanian Pentecostals in a Post-Dictatorial Context: Towards an Integrative Approach’, PhD, 2014.
31. BERNARD OTOPAH APPIAH, ‘Negotiating the Transnational Statuses of Ghanaian-Led Pentecostal Churches in Britain’, PhD, 2015.
32. JOHN MARTIN USHER, '"For China and Tibet, and for world-wide revival" : Cecil Henry Polhill (1860-1938) and his Significance for early Pentecostalism'. PhD, 2015.
33. JOHNNY LOYES KING, ‘Spirit and Schism: A History of Oneness Pentecostalism in the Philippines’, PhD, 2017.
34. SELENA YANZONG SU, ‘The Formation of Chinese Conceptions Regarding Christianity: A Reinterpretation based on the Anti-Opium Movement of the Nineteenth Century’, PhD, 2017.
35. DAVID NEIL EMMETT, ‘W.F.P. Burton (1886-1971) and Congolese Agency: A Biographical Study of a Pentecostal Mission’, PhD, 2017.
36. NIKOLAJ CHRISTENSEN, ‘Flickering Flames: The Early Pentecostal Movement in Denmark, 1907-1924’, PhD, 2018.
37. CHARLES HANNON BYRD II, ‘Pentecostal Aspects of Early Sixteenth Century Anabaptism’, PhD, 2018 (co-supervisor: Elaine Fulton).
38. ALLAN SMITH McKINNON, ‘On being Charismatic Brethren: Roots and Shoots of Pentecostal Evangelicalism in Tanzania, East Africa’, PhD, 2018.
39. BENJAMIN DANIEL CRACE, ‘Pneumatic Piety: A Sociotheological Study of the Coptic Orthodox Diaspora in Kuwait’, PhD, 2018.
40. RONY CHANDRA KRISTANTO, ‘Evangelism as Public Theology: The Public Engagement of the Gospel of the Kingdom Church in Semarang, Indonesia’, PhD, 2018.
41. JOY THANNIMOOTTIL SAMUEL, ‘The Pneumatological Practices of Neocharismatics in Kerala, India’, PhD, 2018.
42. CALEB OPOKU NYANNI, ‘The Spirits and Transition: The Second Generation and the Church of Pentecost-UK’, PhD, 2018.
43. DENISE HILDA ROSS, ‘The Development of the Local Theology of the Chin Assemblies of God in Myanmar: A Case Study in Contextualisation’, PhD, 2019. (co-supervisor: Edmond Tang)
44. DIETER QUICK, ‘Power-Relations in the Christian Ministry: Theology, Order, Politics and the Holy Spirit’, PhD, 2019.
45. ADHURIM (RIMI) XHEMAJLI, ‘The Significance of the Supernatural in the American Methodist Circuit-Rider Ministry (c.1770s-1830s)’, PhD, 2019.
46. SONG KON LEE, ‘Diakonia as Christian Mission: With Particular Reference to Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements in Korea’, PhD, 2020.
47. JANET RIDLEY HOCKING, ‘The Roles of Women in Ministry within Three British Pentecostal Denominations (1915-1940)’, PhD, 2021.
48. MALI ZHENG, ‘Emerging Urban Churches in Shanghai: The Development of non-official Protestant Christianity in China since 1978’, PhD, 2022.
49. BERNARD SALLAH, ‘Nicholas Duncan-Williams and Charismatic Ministries in Ghana: A biographical and theological analysis’, PhD, 2022.
50. EUNHEE WANG, ‘The Socio-Prophetic, Charismatic-Pious, and Holistic Mission of the Holy Spirit Movements in Korea’, PhD, 2022. (final lead supervisor: Andrew Davies)
TOPICS: 16 Asia, 16 Africa, 10 Europe, 7 North America, 2 Latin America
ORIGINS: 14 UK, 11 S. Korea, 7 Ghana, 6 USA, 2 India, 2 China, 1 Indonesia, 1 Nigeria, 1 Zambia, 1 Romania, 1 Sweden, 1 Denmark, 1 Ireland, 1 Germany, 1 Canada.
Research Masters Graduates
1. WILBERFORCE W. KAMUKAMA, ‘The socio-religious identity crisis among Anglicans in south western Uganda’. MPhil, 1997.
2. KAVULA JOSEPHINE JOHN, ‘Towards an Understanding of the Concept of “Mwikalo Mutheu” (Spirituality) in the Context of the Growth of Christianity in Ukambani, Kenya’. MPhil, 2003.
3. PIERRE P.R. BOULA DE MAREUIL, ‘A Historical Analysis of the Birth and Spread of Christianity among the Toba People in Argentine Chaco’, MPhil, 2003.
4. JAMES KISSI-AYITTEY, ‘Global Processes and local realities: The Neo-Pentecostal Movement in Ghana and Media Appropriation’, MPhil, 2005.
5. BELISANA AUGUSTUS MILES, ‘”When the Church of God Arises”: An Analysis of the Development of the Church of God of Prophecy in the English Midlands’, MPhil, 2005.
6. ANNA LOUISE LLOYD, ‘Manifestations of the Spirit and their ethical/religious significance: An application to the believing community in Acts and contemporary church communities’, MPhil, 2006.
7. ROBERT JOHN BAKER, ‘The Reclamation of Vodún Song Genres for Christian Worship in the Benin Republic’, MPhil, 2011 (co-supervisor: Karin Barber).
8. BRADLEY RAMSEY, ‘The Issue of Separation: On Race and the Racial Ecclesiology of the Church of God’, MPhil, 2012.
9. SANDRA ANNE CARP, ‘The Pentecostal “Legend”: A Reinterpretation of the Life and Legacy of Smith Wigglesworth’, MPhil, 2016.
10. TADO LISHI, ‘Conversion to Charismatic Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh, India: An Empirical Study”, MRes, 2017.
11. BABATUNDE EMMANUEL AJAYI, 'Aladura Christian Faith and Yoruba Traditional Religion', MA (Res), 2020.
12. FAVOUR BOAKYE-GYABAAH, 'The Girls Brigade in the Church of Pentecost, UK', MA (Res), 2022.
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