This chapter is a reflection of Ezra Chitando’s contributions to the study of religion, gender and masculinities in Africa, particularly from a Zimbabwean perspective. It is a chapter that makes a trajectory survey of some of Chitando’s works that have transformed the phenomenology of religion as promulgated by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) into applied religion, where religion has been found to be the centre of human existence, which is at the centre of people’s lived realities. To achieve this, I used some of Chitando’s works where he applied religion to address human existential challenges such as masculinities in the context HIV & AIDS, gender and other pandemics such as COVID-19. I also used casual conversations with him on matters of religion and development, health, climate change and through working with him on a number of book projects just to mention a few. Using grounded theology as the lens for this chapter, I argue that Chitando has demonstrated beyond doubt that religion is not an abstract/utopian phenomenon but a concrete entity that works through, with and for people. The chapter concludes that Chitando has successfully engaged religion to find meaning and relevance in African realities, more particularly Zimbabwean realities.