Jean-Marc Ela was a Cameroonian sociologist and theologian.
15 Facts About Jean-Marc Ela
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Jean-Marc Ela's works are widely cited as exemplary of sub-Saharan African Christian theology for their focus on contextualisation and their emphasis on community-centered approaches to theology.
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Jean-Marc Ela was buried in his hometown of Ebolowa, Cameroon.
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Jean-Marc Ela was born on 27 September 1936 in Ebolowa, in the African nation of Cameroon.
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The son of a middle-class family in southern Cameroon, Jean-Marc Ela claimed that he first began to think of theology as a discipline that should be concerned with the local needs of believers while he was studying philosophy and theology in France at the University of Strasbourg in the 1960s.
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Jean-Marc Ela studied sociology at the University of Strasbourg as well as at the University of Sorbonne.
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Jean-Marc Ela spent a great deal of his research and of his life beside Baba Simon, beloved minister to the Kirdis of the North Cameroon in Tokombere.
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Jean-Marc Ela was unique in that as a sociologist, he brought a social-science critique to his theology.
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Jean-Marc Ela taught in Cameroon, Belgium, USA, Canada, Benin, France, and Congo, among other places.
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Jean-Marc Ela resided in Montreal, where he served as professor of sociology at the University of Laval from 1995 until his death 26 December 2008, in Vancouver.
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Jean-Marc Ela countered these instances of oppression with opportunities for liberation based on the argument that the Gospel advocates for the restoration of dignity to marginalised people.
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Jean-Marc Ela argued that the Eucharist should be served with local rather than imported products.
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Jean-Marc Ela believed that biblical interpretation should be guided by a "shade-tree theology", in which small groups of believers can gather together to interpret the Gospel in the light of their own particular circumstances.
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Jean-Marc Ela was a science-minded researcher dedicated to opening a conceptual framework to encompass and address the knowledge and the needs of his countrymen.
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Jean-Marc Ela was enthroned Grand Prix de la memoire of the GPLA 2018.