A convert from Gambia, the late Yale scholar became a legend in the field for his curiosity, joy, and deep insights.
Lamin Sanneh, the Gambian scholar who shaped contemporary discourse around world Christianity and missions in Africa, died Sunday at age 76.
As Sanneh wrote in his autobiography, he was “summoned from the margins,” a convert from Islam to Christianity raised in the tiny West African nation.
Over his 30-year career at Yale Divinity School as well as stints at the University of London and two Pontifical Commissions, he brought world Christianity to the forefront, drawing a global network of scholars and friends around his scholarship in the fields of African history, abolitionism, and Christian-Muslim relations.
CT heard from some of these colleagues as they grieved Sanneh’s sudden passing. Their tributes appear below.
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, president of Trinity Theological Seminary in Legon, Ghana:
Many of us are still in shock at the sudden home call of Professor Lamin Sanneh. I sure speak for many others when I say I am mourning the eternal loss of a dear personal senior friend, mentor, and colleague in the Christian academy. Lamin Sanneh was a man of solid worth. When I have cited his work publicly, I always took pride in letting others know that I knew him in person.
The study of World Christianity as an academic discipline in the 20th century and its shape for the future can never be fully chronicled without the contribution of Lamin Sanneh. He has been a great blessing to the theological academy, the ecumenical fraternity, and for those of us who knew him personally, he was such a stalwart with deep prophetic insights in our common disciplines.
I will forever cherish Professor Sanneh’s scholarship and friendship. I hold in the highest esteem his contribution to the study of religion in Africa and ...
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