Velma E. Love, author of Divining the Self: a Study in Yoruba Myth and Human Consciousness (Penn State University Press, 2012), is currently the Project Director for “Equipping the Saints: Effective Practices in Black Congregational Life,” a Lilly Endowment funded project at Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. Formerly an Associate Professor of Religion at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL, she received the M. Div. from Union Theological Seminary and the Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University.

Love’s primary research interest is in the contemporary application of Ifa spiritual technology, a wisdom tradition of West African origin. She focuses on subtle energies and energy medicine as expressed through divination, ritual and ceremony, song, story, dance, prayer, chant and incantation, and gathering in community.

Additional research interests include Africana spiritual narratives, spirituality and holistic health, sacred sites, and the spiritual memoirs of women of African descent. Love says it is a fascination with story, the stories we tell and the stories we live by, that defines and shapes her work. Her preferred research methods are qualitative, including ethnography, oral history, and narrative inquiry.

Her research has been supported by the Fund for Theological Education, the United Methodist Women of Color Scholars Program, the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, Dumbarton Oaks Library, the Womanist Scholars Program of the Interdenominational Theological Center, and the Baylor University Oral History Center. Love is also a cultural worker with extensive experience in non-profit management, youth development, and community arts.