Kenneth Ngwa

Dr. Kenneth N. Ngwa is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Director of the Religion and Global Health Forum at Drew University. He holds a ThM (2000) and a PhD (2005) from Princeton Theological Seminary, and BA and MDiv (1995) degrees from the Yaoundé Faculty of Protestant Theology in Cameroon. Dr. Ngwa’s teaching and scholarship combine biblical exegesis, postcolonial and cultural approaches to the Hebrew Bible, with particular interest in identity construction, memory, reception theory, and narrative ethics. He teaches introductory and advanced courses on the Hebrew Bible, as well as on “Africana Studies and Religion.” Dr. Ngwa is an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon; the Director of the Religion and Global Health Forum (RGHF) at Drew Theological School; a co-chair of the African Biblical Hermeneutics session of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL); and a board member of the African Renaissance Ambassador Corp, a non-profit organization providing medical, financial (micro loans), and educational support to rural communities, women, and young people in Cameroon. His several essays and articles include “Did Job Suffer for Nothing? The Ethics of Piety, Presumption and the Reception of Disaster in the Prologue of Job” (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2009) and “The Making of Gershom’s Story: A Cameroonian Postwar Hermeneutics Reading of Exodus 2” (Journal of Biblical Literature, 2015). He is the author of The Hermeneutics of the ‘Happy’ Ending in Job 42:7–17 (De Gruyter, 2005) and has co-edited: Navigating African Biblical Hermeneutics: Trends and Themes from Our Pots and Our Calabashes (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018); World Christianity, Urbanization and Identity (Fortress Press, 2021); Africana Studies and Religion: Critical Explorations (Fordham Press, 2021); and Preparing for Parts Unknown: Global Health, International Travel and Missions (Global Health Catalyst, 2021). Dr. Ngwa is currently working on a book-long project on Exodus, titled Let My People Live: Towards an Africana Reading of Exodus (Westminster John Knox Press).