Jacob Olupona
· Professor of African Religious Traditions, Harvard Divinity School and Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and SciencesHarvard University · African and African American Studies
Active 1982–2025
About
Jacob Olupona is the Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African American Studies and Professor of African Religious Traditions at Harvard University. He is also the Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies. Olupona studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and earned his PhD in Comparative Religion from Boston University in 1983. His scholarly work focuses on African religious traditions, with a particular interest in the growth of evangelicalism across all branches of Christianity within Nigerian society. He is working on a groundbreaking study that expands the discourse beyond Pentecostalism to explore its impact and role in Nigerian Christianity and society. Olupona has authored and edited numerous books, including works on Yoruba festivals, the urban mixing of ritual and social structures in Ile-Ife, and the tradition of Ifa divination, analyzing its theology, art, philosophy, and cultural significance. His research explores how religious beliefs and practices permeate daily life and societal structures. He has received prestigious grants from organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Olupona has served on editorial boards of influential journals and was the president of the African Association for the Study of Religion. He has been honored with an honorary doctorate in divinity from the University of Edinburgh, and honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Abuja. In 2008, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Nigerian government, and was inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Letters in 2015. He was also awarded the Reimar Lust Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in 2015.
Research topics
- Sociology
- Anthropology
- Philosophy
- Gender studies
- Aesthetics
- Epistemology
- History
- Religious studies
- Archaeology
- Art
Selected publications
Some Thoughts on Evangelical Christianity in Africa and the Diaspora
Georgetown University Press eBooks · 2025-01-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingThe State and Future of African Religious Studies
Religious Studies Review · 2024-06-01
article1st authorCorresponding1. Communities of Believers: Exploring African Immigrant Religion in the United States
New York University Press eBooks · 2022-06-24 · 3 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingNew York University Press eBooks · 2022-06-24
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2022-02-14 · 12 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAt the core of Yorùbá religious thought and practice is the idea and practice of secrecy, called awo. Babalawo, custodians of the Ifa divination practice, are regarded as the masters of the sacred esoteric tradition. The understanding and acquisition of deep knowledge and practices of all forms of Yorùbá tradition entail significant secrecy. The practice of secrecy enables traditions to distinguish between devotees and outsiders and to create the needed aura of sacredness for a very few custodians of the tradition. Secrecy is also often invoked as a weapon of control over traditions and may serve as a demarcation between outsiders and insiders. My essay also focuses on how secrecy defines who belongs and who does not; how secrecy is configured and practiced as expressed in the oral traditions; and on the genres of various forms of Yorùbá religion such as sacred kingship, divination, and their attendant rites. Among other questions the essay asks the following: How is awo conceived and maintained in this tradition? What are the rituals and taboos that surround it? How does secrecy functions to maintain the strength, continuity and decline of traditions? What is its significance for the understanding of religion in Africa?
Owner of the Day and Regulator of the Universe:
University of Arizona Press eBooks · 2022-08-23 · 6 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingNew York University Press eBooks · 2022-06-24
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingNew York University Press eBooks · 2022-06-24
book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding2021-08-09
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2021-08-19
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
Frequent coauthors
- 48 shared
Marian Burchardt
Leipzig University
- 27 shared
Dianne M. Stewart
Emory University
- 26 shared
Terrence L. Johnson
- 16 shared
Astrid Dilger
Harvard University Press
- 16 shared
Marian Bochow
Harvard University Press
- 16 shared
Matthew Wilhelm‐Solomon
- 16 shared
Matthew Burchardt
Harvard University Press
- 16 shared
Hansjörg Dilger
Education
- 2000
Ph.D., African Religious Traditions
Harvard University
- 1994
M.A., Religious Studies
University of Ibadan
- 1990
B.A., Religious Studies
University of Ibadan
Awards & honors
- Nigerian National Order of Merit (2008)
- Inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Letters (2015)
- Reimar Lust Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation,…
- Honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Edinburgh
- Honorary Doctor of Letters from Obafemi Awolowo University
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