About
Born in the village of Malube, Uganda and educated in the country, Emmanuel Katongole was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest by the Kampala Archdiocese in 1987. Since his ordination he has served parishes in Africa, Belgium, and the United States.
Emmanuel joined the faculty of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in January 2013. His research interests focus on politics and violence in Africa, the theology of reconciliation, and Catholicism in the global South. In addition to his research and teaching at Notre Dame, Emmanuel contributes to Contending Modernities, the Kroc Institute’s cross-cultural research and education initiative examining Catholic, Muslim, and secular forces in the modern world.
Prior to coming to Notre Dame, Emmanuel was associate research professor of theology and world Christianity at Duke Divinity School. While at Duke, he co-founded and co-directed the Divinity School’s Center for Reconciliation. Rooted in a Christian vision of God’s mission, the Center continues to inspire, form, and support leaders, communities, and congregations to live as ambassadors of reconciliation.
Emmanuel is the author of books on the Christian social imagination, the crisis of faith following the genocide in Rwanda, and Christian approaches to justice, peace, and reconciliation. His most recent book is The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa (Eerdmans, 2010). His other books include Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda, (Zondervan, 2009), A Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Christian Social Imagination (University of Scranton Press, 2005), African Theology Today (University of Scranton Press, 2002), and Beyond Universal Reason: The Relation Between Religion and Ethics in the Work of Stanley Hauerwas (Notre Dame Press, 2000).
Emmanuel earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain and a diploma in theology and religious studies from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He lives in South Bend, Indiana. His family lives in Uganda, where his brother Joseph is also a priest in the Catholic Church.