Celucien L. Joseph is an interdisciplinary scholar, researcher, and educator with a liberative intent. He is an associate professor of English at Indian River State College. He holds a PhD in Literary Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas and a PhD in Theology and Ethics from the University of Pretoria (Pretoria, South Africa). His writings engage various fields of learning such as history, literature, anthropology, religion, race relations, and history of ideas. In particular, he is an intellectual historian, a literary scholar, and Christian theologian whose research and teaching specialties include Haitian Intellectual History and Literature, Postcolonial Theory and Literature, Religion and Race, Religion and Culture, Liberation Theology, Theological Ethics and Anthropology, Comparative History, Literature, and Culture of the African Diaspora, African American Intellectual History and Literature. He is the author of numerous popular and academic books; his books have been published in English, Kreyol, and French. Some of his publications include Approaches to Teaching the Works of Edwidge Danticat (2019), Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa (2018), Vodou in the Haitian Experience: A Black Atlantic Perspective (2018), Vodou in Haitian Memory: The Idea and Representation of Vodou in Haitian Imagination (2018), Thinking in Public: Faith, Secular Humanism, and Development in Jacques Roumain (2017), etc. His books From Toussaint to Price-Mars: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion in Haitian Thought (2013), and Haitian Modernity and Liberative Interruptions: Discourse on Race, Religion, and Freedom (2013) received Honorable Mention at The Pan African International 2014 Book Awards. Dr. Joseph is a board member of Haitian Studies Association, a member of the editorial board of Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, and a frequent reviewer of manuscripts for various publishers and academic journals.
Dr. Joseph is a frequent conference speaker, both nationally and internationally, and has given over 50 invited/guest lectures in the past eight years. He is the founder of Hope for Today Outreach (HTO), a non-profit and faith-based organization that takes a holistic approach to sustainable development and human flourishing so we can empower the poor, the marginalized, and the economically-disadvantaged individuals and families in Haiti. HTO provides leadership training to inspire and empower both men and women and serves the Haitian population in the areas of literacy and education, health, water and sanitation, agriculture and food, spiritual and theological formation, etc. In September 2019, he founded Hope Academy de Bois d’eau (HABD), a primary school that targets impoverished families in Port-Margot, Haiti. The motto of HABD is: “Educating the next generation to become committed citizens, great leaders, and a catalyst of hope.” Dr. Joseph and his family live in Fort Pierce, Florida.
“It is possible to be a good and critical scholar, a committed follower of Christ, and a transformational and engaged citizen.”– Dr. Celucien L. Joseph
I just finished reviewing the final proofs for a forthcoming book 📖 entitled “Revolutionary Change and Democratic Religion: Christianity, Vodou, and Secularism” (Pickwick Publications, 2020). pp. 238
I also emailed the typesetter and the copy editor for final approval. Book cover is not ready yet, but will share when it’s approved.
I’ve been taking frequent trips to Haiti since 1995; usually, I visit Haiti two to three times a year. It hit me very hard this year when I recently went to Haiti early in January. The good team from Hope for Today Outreach and I visited about 130 homes distributing hygienic items to Haitian peasant families in a remote area (i.e. mountain) in Grande Rivière. The human condition is inhumane and quite depressing in that rural area. The level of suffering has grown over the years and touched every aspect of (peasant) life. The level of poverty that I witnessed in that area is disheartening and problematic.
I met a lady who is the mother of five children. Her husband was not home at that time. The family lives in extreme poverty. She and I share the same last name. About five years ago, she lost her home to a tragic rainfall. Her house was totally destroyed by the rain.
As a result, she and her husband relocated to the new area where I met her. She is renting her current home for $ 1500 Haitian dollars annually, which is equivalent to $ 80 U.S. dollars, annually. She is is unable to pay her rent and several months behind.The current home she is renting is made of mud, wood, and palm trees. It’s a tiny 2 bedrooms. The wall in one bedroom is severely damaged and collapsed. She has no beds inside the house; all the five children sleep on the hard floor in the tiny living room. There’s no toilet or kitchen. Some of her children were wearing very torn clothes, and the little girls had no underwear on. Folks, this is extreme poverty!
If American christians are going to be an impartial pro-life Christian community, supported both by moral conviction and scriptural mandate, their pro-life ethico-theology must transcend the geo-political boundary of the United States.
To put this differently, when American christians promote unwarranted American military interventions in the developing world and support American wars with developing nations for the sake of American interest, thousands of unborn babies die in their mothers’ womb, newly-born infants and toddlers are also victims of American military aggression and bombing tactics, and the health of thousands of unborn babies and mothers are substantially affected by missiles and bombs. Those dangerous weapons not only cause birth defects; they are the results of thousands of deaths in the womb.
Let’s take another example that destroys life. American sanctioned-embargo in the developing world in food, medical supplies, and life necessities may result in higher starvation and poverty in those countries, affecting thousands of unborn babies and mothers (because of the lack of food and medical assistance)–leading to thousands of deaths in the womb.
It is only those who pursue peace and activate peacemaking projects who are called children of God. Non-American unborn babies and pregnant mothers in Non-American territories are also created in the image of God. Jesus loves all little children, born and unborn, American and non-American, etc. This is the way of Jesus, the christocentric ethic!
drcelucienjoseph, "Thinking and Meditating" 