Stan Chu Ilo

Stan Chu Ilo is Research Professor of World Christianity and African Studies, Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois (USA). He is also an Honorary Professor of Religion and Theology at Durham University, Durham, England, and Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Nigeria. He is the Coordinating Servant of the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN), and the North American Coordinator of the project, Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries, a project of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development of the Holy See. He is the author or editor of numerous works including Handbook of African Catholicism (Orbis, 2022), Ecological Ethics for Cosmic Flourishing (Cascade, 2022); Under the Palaver Tree: Post-Vatican II African Ecclesiology (2023); A Poor and Merciful Church (2019), Church and Development in Africa (2014), and “Stories my Grannies Newer Told me: Memory and Orality in the Narrative of African Christian History” in African Christian Biography: Stories, Lives, and Challenges (Cluster, 2018).
I was ordained a Catholic priest in my home country of Nigeria, and in addition to my native language, Igbo, I speak French, English and Italian. My educational background includes an MPH in Global Public Health Leadership, MA in theology; an MA in educational leadership; a licentiate in Sacred Theology, and a PhD in theology from the University of St Michael’s College at the University of Toronto (with a concentration in African Christian history’s cross-cultural currents); and a D.ED from the University of South Africa in the sociology of education, specializing in equity and multicultural education in faith-based schooling.

I am the founder of the Canadian Samaritans for Africa, a nonprofit that works directly with African women to help them alleviate poverty; and the founding coordinator of the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network and serving on the editorial boards of Concilium International Catholic Journal, Dictionary of African Christian Biography, and Journal of Global Catholicism. I also am the editor of the African Christian Studies Series for Pickwick Publications, Wipf and Stock Publishers; a commentator on Africa, religion, and politics for Canada Television (CTV), BBC, SABC, and Al-Jazeera; a contributor to CNN African Voices, Catholic Register , La Croix, National Catholic Reporter, and The Hill among other outfits.