A History of Theological Education in the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2021 in the subject Theology - Historic Theology, Ecclesiastical History, , language: English, abstract: This doctoral dissertation concerns itself with a history of theological education in the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania (FPCT). It covers a substantive period, which begins with the period from the Swedish Free Mission (SFM) to the formation of the FPCT in and around 2000. The FPCT springs out from the Swedish Free Mission (SFM), which was incepted in Tanzania in 1932. The main purpose of this study is to better know what the motivation for the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania was to start Bible schools, and how the FPCT church can improve the Christian/theological educational system for spiritual formation and church growth. It aims at understanding what sort of training was offered to ministers, the impact of that training in church growth and spiritual formation of believers, and the contribution of Bible schools in the process of ministerial formation and leadership training. This study can bring important insights into how the Pentecostal movement can do this more effectively. The study was conducted through personal interviews, semi-structured questionnaires, focus-group discussions/interviews, and “attentive readings” to answer the research question.