
African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity
The Resilience of a Demonized Religion
- 238 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity
The Resilience of a Demonized Religion
About this book
Right from the beginning of humankind, God has never deprived a people of his grace and revelation. In fact, God uses people's environment and culture to communicate his will. There is no single religion that can claim to have the exclusive possession of God's revelation, for God is too immense to be confined within one faith. Hence, it was erroneous, blasphemous, and misleading for some of the early Christian missionaries to Africa to claim that they had brought God to Africa, a mentality that implied the non-existence of God in Africa before their arrival. Of course, God was already in Africa, but the missionaries either failed to discern his presence or just disregarded the traces of his existence. This book explores the religious beliefs, practices, and values of the indigenous people of Africa at the time of the early missionaries' arrival, with particular reference to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It also evaluates the extent of the missionarie's successes and challenges in converting Africans to Christianity. It finally surveys how African Christians have remained attached to the indigenous religious beliefs that used to provide answers to their existential questions.
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Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Christianity Comes to Zimbabwe
- Chapter 2: Rites of Passage
- Chapter 3: The Shona Concept of God
- Chapter 4: The Centrality of Ancestors
- Chapter 5: Avenging Spirits
- Chapter 6: Witchcraft
- Chapter 7: Alien Spirits
- Chapter 8: Traditional Medical Practitioners
- Chapter 9: African Independent Churches
- Chapter 10: Women in African Traditional Religion
- Chapter 11: Shona Ethics
- Bibliography