Theologizing Place in Displacement : Reconciling, Remaking, and Reimagining Place in the Republic of Georgia

Displacement of peoples around the world continues to impact governmental policies and contest national identities. At the micro level, displacement's impact on the religious lives of those affected by displacement is a growing field of study and worthy of consideration as a form of self-theologizing and religious renewal. Theologizing Place in Displacement looks at the process of theologizing about place among displaced Orthodox Christian believers in the Republic of Georgia and outlines three key areas where a local theology takes shape around key Orthodox theological themes.

Curtis W. Elliott is a part-time instructor of cross-cultural leadership at Toccoa Falls College and a social and theological researcher in partnership with the Salvation Army and Trevecca Nazarene University.

Gregg A. Okesson is Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism. He received a BA from Wheaton College (Psychology and Bible), a MA from Wheaton Graduate School (Biblical Studies), a MA from Wheaton Graduate School (Intercultural Studies), and a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from University of Leeds, UK (African Christianity). Before coming to Asbury in July 2011, Dr. Okesson was a faculty member at Scott Theological College/Scott Christian University, Kenya, East Africa for ten years where he served as Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Prior to this, he was a pastor in upstate New York, worked in Student Development at Wheaton College, and was a church-planter among a Muslim people-group in north-central Tanzania. He and his family lived in East Africa for thirteen years. Dr. Okesson has authored numerous articles and serves on the editorial committee for the Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology. He is the author of Re-Imaging Modernity (Wipf & Stock, 2012) and is currently working on projects that deal with ecclesiastical theologies emergent within African Christianity, doxology and development, along with a co-authored book on the subject of evangelical advocacy. More broadly, Dr. Okesson is interested in attending to linkages between theology and global realities, particularly those dealing with poverty, development, power, and multiple modernities.