Charles H. Kraft

Charles Howard Kraft (born July 15, 1932, in Connecticut) is an American anthropologist, linguist, evangelical Christian speaker, and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Intercultural Communication in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, 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. He joined Fuller's faculty in 1969. In the 1950s he served as a Brethren missionary in northern Nigeria. He has served as a professor of African languages at Michigan State University and UCLA, and taught anthropology part-time at Biola University. 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, and helped popularize the "Third Wave of the Holy Spirit", which Wimber's Vineyard Movement represented. He was also an influential figure in the development of spiritual mapping, which drew on the Church Growth 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, spiritual warfare, inner healing, generational curses, and Anti-Masonry. In addition to his work at Fuller, Kraft is the president and founder of Deep Healing Ministries, a deliverance ministry, and conducts seminars and exorcisms around the world. He lives in California 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" 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