Philippe DENIS is a member of the Southern African province of the Dominican Order. He holds a PhD degree in History from the University of Liège. He is Senior Professor of History of Christianity at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He has been a visiting professor in several institutions including the École pratique des hautes études in Paris, the Free University of Brussels and the Catholic University of Louvain. His main areas of research include the history of the Protestant and Catholic Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries, the history of Christianity in southern Africa, the history of the Christian response to HIV/AIDS in Africa and issues of memory in post-genocide Rwanda.