Charles H. Kraft (born 1932 in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

) is an American anthropologist, linguist,

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

Christian speaker, and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Intercultural Communication in the School of Intercultural Studies at

Fuller Theological Seminary Fuller Theological Seminary is an Evangelical seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature. Fuller has a student body of approximately 2,300 students from 90 countries and ...

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

, where he taught primarily in the school's spiritual-dynamics concentration. In the domain of religion, his work since the early 1980s has focused on inner healing and

spiritual warfare Spiritual warfare is the Christian concept of fighting against the work of preternatural evil forces. It is based on the belief in evil spirits, or demons, that are said to intervene in human affairs in various ways. Although spiritual warfa ...

. He joined Fuller's faculty in 1969. In the 1950s he served as a Brethren

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

in northern

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. He has served as a professor of African languages at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, and taught anthropology part-time at

Biola University Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor' ...

. He holds a BA from Wheaton College, a BD from Ashland Theological Seminary, and a PhD from the Hartford Seminary Foundation, titled "A Study of Hausa Syntax". In 1982, with fellow Fuller missions professor Peter Wagner, Kraft became an early proponent of the teaching and ministry models of

John Wimber John Richard Wimber (February 25, 1934 – November 17, 1997) was an American pastor, Christian author and musician. Initially ordained as a Quaker minister, he became an early, pioneering pastor of charismatic congregations, and a popular thou ...

, and helped popularize the "

Third Wave of the Holy Spirit Signs and wonders refers to experiences that are perceived to be miraculous as being normative in the modern Christian experience, and is a phrase associated with groups that are a part of modern charismatic movements and Pentecostalism. This ...

", which Wimber's

Vineyard Movement The Association of Vineyard Churches, also known as the Vineyard Movement, is an international neocharismatic evangelical Christian association of churches.Despite the fact that some might see denominational labels as divisive, the founder of the ...

represented. He was also an influential figure in the development of

spiritual mapping Spiritual mapping refers to the belief among some Christians that specific Demons in Christianity, demons, known as Territorial spirit, territorial spirits, are associated with specific locations and can be conquered through strategic spiritual war ...

, which drew on the

Church Growth The Church Growth movement is a movement within evangelical Christianity which aims to grow churches based on research, sociology, analysis, etc. The Church Growth movement sees its origins in the Great Commission, and seeing people come to the k ...

movement.

Main interests

Kraft writes and teaches about biblical Christianity and culture (including contextualization), communicating biblical Christianity, anthropology and Christianity, cross-cultural Christian theology,

worldview A worldview (also world-view) or is said to be the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and Perspective (cognitive), point of view. However, whe ...

, inner healing, generational curses, and

Anti-Masonry Anti-Masonry (alternatively called anti-Freemasonry) is "avowed opposition to Freemasonry",''Oxford English Dictionary'' (1979 ed.), p. 369. which has led to multiple forms of religious discrimination, Religious violence, violent Religious persec ...

. In addition to his work at Fuller, Kraft is the president and founder of Deep Healing Ministries, a

deliverance ministry In Christianity, deliverance ministry refers to groups that perform practices to cleanse people of demons and evil spirits. These groups attribute certain people's physical, psychological, spiritual, and emotional problems to the activities of the ...

, and conducts seminars and exorcisms around the world. He lives in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

with his wife. He serves as the Vice-President of Hearts Set Free Ministries, where he conducts seminars on spiritual warfare, healing, and deliverance. His most influential and controversial work is ''Christianity in Culture'' (1979). He proposed an approach to contextualization using the "

dynamic equivalence Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, in translation and semantics, are the principle approaches to translation, prioritizing respectively the Meaning (linguistics), meaning or the literal translation, literal structure of the source text ...

" method of Bible translation as a model to describe how Christianity itself must be translated into a culture by adopting new forms that communicate biblical meanings. He has taught and ministered in Nigeria, Korea, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Australia, India, Denmark, Norway, England, Holland, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and Germany.

Selected works

Kraft's published books include: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Revised 2005 * * *

Sources

External links

Fuller Theological Seminary bio

Wayback Machine Archive of Fuller Theological Seminary bio

Hearts Set Free Ministries
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kraft, Charles H. 1932 births Missiologists 20th-century Baptists 21st-century Baptists Writers from Connecticut Baptists from Connecticut Spiritual warfare Ashland University alumni Hartford Seminary alumni Michigan State University faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty Biola University faculty Fuller Theological Seminary faculty American exorcists American non-fiction writers Living people American Charismatics Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni American expatriates in Nigeria