Inculturation, as we will argue later in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African, sheds the light of the gospel on cultural practices like this one to reveal what is sinful in them and to show that human beings, especially women, in this case, deserve better treatment than this. Belief in the Trinity While both Christianity and African religion have a concept of a Supreme Being, Christians believe in a God who exists in three persons. People may complain to God and the ancestors, but they will never accuse them of any moral wrongdoing. An important area Green points to has to do with the role of God in these two systems of thought. African traditional religion cannot be discussed without mentioning that it is the way of life of the people of Africa and so cannot be differentiated from the politics, education, and socialisation, etc. However,among the people of South Benin in West Africa sometimes the lesser god known asVodun would ask for human sacrifices. (See the glossary for more information on juju. Commonalities between Christianity and Africa Traditional Religion. (See the glossary for more information on the evil eye.). The worship can be direct , but is done (mostly) indirectly through divine agents like the gods or divinities (abosom in Akan , legbaa in Ewe ) and the ancestors. Traditional Africans didnot have this practice. Magesa discusses the African tradition in its various manifestations: its understanding of the human person and of life in general; aesthetics, politics, ethics, and of course religion, which he shows to be the architectonic basis of these other expressions or manifestations of African tradition. These shrines were built near waterbodies, next to big trees or near other sacred places. Some of the ideas from Mbitis works are pertinent to our discussion here: Africans believe in a hierarchy of beings, from the ultimate being, God, to lesser ones, divinities, spirits, the living dead, human beings, animals, plants, and inanimate beings. Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions. The Supreme Being is usually thought of as remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly worshipped. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. This power is not accessible to everyone, and in most cases it is inborn, but the person has to learn how to use it. However, the reasons for the growth of Christianity in Africa significantly include the way the Africans have attempted to deal with their threatening fears, especially witchcraft. While the recourse to traditional healers may be motivated in part by economic reasons and an absence of health care alternatives, it may also be rooted in religious beliefs about the efficacy of this approach. The idea is that the traditional African practitioner who constructed that amulet believes in the efficacy of other faiths and religions; there is no conflict in his mind between his traditional African spirituality and another faith. The Yoruba diviners, for example, draw on this extensive indigenous knowledge every day by consulting Ifa, an extensive literary corpus of information covering science, medicine, cosmology, and metaphysics. Thus, everythingis not completely unpredictable and chaotic because of this order. This bitter conflict has led to wanton destruction of lives and property, and this has become a source of great worry to the writers. Ancestors can offer advice and bestow good fortune and honor to their living dependents, but they can also make demands, such as insisting that their shrines be properly maintained and propitiated. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. 2 0 obj According to Mbiti, Africans came to believe in God by reflecting on their experience and through observation of the created universe. Also, how the Christian organizations help free women and girls from the grip of slavery. These laws are controlled by God directly or indirectly through Gods intermediaries. The continued influence of traditional African religion is also evident in some aspects of daily life. There is also a mystical order of the universe. For this reason, l am writing on the topic, which says, Comparing the concept of Spirit and Soul in the Traditional Religion of the Akan and Ewe Tribes to that of the Bible. Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-79tgq In the face of persistent human iniquity, God is believed to furnish means of atonement and forgiveness, thereby tempering justice with mercy., However, although Christianity and African Traditional Religion share some striking similarities, closer examination of African traditional beliefs reveals that the contrasts are far more striking than the similarities. The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in postcolonial Africa have made inter-religious . But for many Africans, religion can never be separated from all these. For the full article, see, New religions, independent churches, and prophetic movements, https://www.britannica.com/summary/African-religions. Traditional Religion as a source of African theology just as Christian theology is. Most African communities offered animals and not humans as sacrifices. Both religions believe that God revealsHimself to people through dreams, propheciesand other special events. These facts, however, does not necessary suggest that the educated Ghanaian has totally abandoned tradition; some educated and mission trained individuals do consult traditional oracles in times of crises. The final aspect of this deep structure of moral reason in African Traditional Religion Green refers to as morally intentional trans-moral safety valves such as are found in the doctrine of grace or atonement in Weston religions (Christianity) or of liberation from the world of moral causation in Eastern religions. These intermediary agents include the ancestors, members of the community who at death become idealized. GAZETTE: What is the state of indigenous African religions today? GAZETTE: What else would we lose if we lost traditional African Religions? No matter how one looks at it, to offer the female members of ones family as a mark of hospitality to a stranger is morally wrong, not just from the point of view of Christian morality but from a purely natural law point of view as well. Indigenous African practices tend to be strongest in the central states of Africa, but some form of their practices and beliefs can be found almost anywhere in Africa. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. OLUPONA: We would lose a worldview that has collectively sustained, enriched, and given meaning to a continent and numerous other societies for centuries through its epistemology, metaphysics, history, and practices. In lieu of these traditional African ways of defining oneself, Christianity and Islam are gradually creating a social identity in Africa that cuts across these indigenous African religious and social identities. Christians pray toGod through Jesus Christ. According to Mbiti, Africans believe that God has ordained a moral order for humans, through which they came to understand what is good and what is evil, so that they might live in harmony with one another and safeguard the life of the people. Their purpose is to summarize recent material produced by the relevant religious organizations and by some of the main academic interpreters to provide Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA. Barrenness is, therefore, considered a great misfortune because it prevents ancestors from returning to life. African spirituality simply acknowledges that beliefs and practices touch on and inform every facet of human life, and therefore African religion cannot be separated from the everyday or mundane.. All life, power, and existence flow from God, and by right of their primogeniture and proximity to God by death God has granted the ancestors a qualitatively more powerful life force over their descendants. Who constitutes the world of the ancestors? It argues that since the coming of democracy this form of religion has occupied a more important position, Although there is some debate, Francis Oborji in this article argues that one should speak of African Traditional Religion (ATR) in the singular. Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z Christians give a tenth of all their earnings to God. It also taps into a common lay attitude to what might be called a secular common sense, which feels impatience or distaste for all forms of what it considers religious extremism, while at the same time shying away from regarding any one religion as more prone to extremism than others. This dissertation will attempt to explore how deliverance ministry has replaced the anti-witchcraft shrines and the exorcistic activities of the African Indigenous Churches. Since God is seen as the Creator, various aspects of the universe are permeated by the sense of the sacredthe religious mentality affects the way people see the universe. The defining line between deities and ancestors is often contested, but overall, ancestors are believed to occupy a higher level of existence than living human beings and are believed to be able to bestow either blessings or illness upon their living descendants. At stake here is nothing less than the question of human culpability and ultimate redemption, which has to do with the traditional Christian topic of sin and grace. University of Notre Dame, McGrath Institute for Church Life <> Areas of interest to read in the part one was how Christianity has found an inroad into the lives of so many who were living in deep darkness and slavery to the evil powers. They are not mutually exclusive. Both have places of worship. Instead of God keeping his distance from man, He, throughout history and today reaches down in love to draw humans toward him. As judge, God is understood to uphold this standard by ultimately punishing its violations and by rewarding the righteous (usually in some eschatological domain). M!eJ/"0Nq"3_ad!+;\4C2-0"+5qu|Rw!9KkC~V3M$ 2d yFT!Jf"ez:~ U S dE{hbaERVTGeqBzk2^oP)R}7Qv#.dQF4^%y+X-o"wr+l+B?{lb="akK;qurpDB ~O` Hn5~:D]xDS-V3tVgP`Axx8Mi2.O4g5=t DTW?ne![Cc?"C+E|o&Ks0`7_BiXHyJ8;B>7AfvuPTZV(3JW|/+Ywy"EtBEVYlNFc[5%X8@o|^DHD\*=z.)P??6`! Exodus 20:3-5 tells us not to make or worship images ofanything in heaven or on earth. This practice, no matter how limited it is, again shows how untenable the blanket assertion is that African moral traditions are those of abundant life. This includes five countries (Cameroon, Chad, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal) where more than half the population uses traditional healers. Olupona, professor of indigenous African religions at Harvard Divinity School and professor of African and African-American studies in Harvards Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently sat down for an interview about his lifelong research on indigenous African religions. Indigenous African religions are pragmatic. African communities at the time but was also poised to become a site of religious and cultural conflict both within and between different communities in postcolonial South Africa. |,utv2QdjrqfM7PC)2-|O7,0[i=_a/Om"X`Y2FpXBjsFxCqDd`%*g,-J1e*jjq,tm{w>qAsAqN$D This is the function of Gods providence and sustenance of the universe. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Thus, for example, older persons not only possess a more powerful vital force but a greater responsibility in society and more intense mystical powers. There are also the lesser gods that take residency in streams, rivers, trees and mountains. This is a universal belief among Africans. Consequently, traditional Africans have different ideas on what role the ancestors play in the lives of living descendants. Who Should Christians Worship? Journal of Biblical Unitarianism 1:1, 5-33, 2014. 1 0 obj endobj In the end, I believe that Africans can make room for a plurality of religious points of view without one religious point of view excluding or compromising the other. <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/Annots[ 9 0 R] /MediaBox[ 0 0 595.32 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S>> <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> <> Witchcraft has been a prevailing belief in African cultures and has continually posed problems for the African people groups. Christians observe the Lords supper. This order, established by God, guides the functioning of the universe, preventing it from falling into chaos; and it ensures the continuance of life and the universe itself. SUMMARY OF REFORMED THEOLOGY IN 10 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. However, to them, the entire universe is filled with spirit such as trees, rocks, and rivers. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds toupgrade your browser. That would be a serious loss not only for Africans, but also for academics, researchers, writers, and general seekers of wisdom the world over. Christian teaching forbids making of any kinds ofimages to represent God. GAZETTE: How would you define indigenous African religions? In the part two of my writing, l will expand on the world populated by spirits called Vodou alongside that of the Akan. Rooted in the belief in God as the Creator, Africans believe in various dimensions of the created universe, such as visible and invisible (the spiritual realm), heavenly (skyward) and earthly (and in some ethnic groups there is a belief in the underworld). This paper uses a qualitative research approach in the form of document analysis to critically explore the religious intersectionalities between Christianity and African Traditional. 3 0 obj The contact was in fact,between two. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. However, they do not seek the services of magicians orwitchdoctors. All rights reserved. They believe that Obatala helped Olurun in creating theworld and everything in it. View all Google Scholar citations The . Such activities include the making of sacrifices and the pouring of libations. % <> To ensure that a natural balance is maintained between the world of the sacred and that of the profane, the roles of the chief within the state, family elders in relation to the lineage, and the priest within society, are crucial. Before you discuss on how somebody is doing something, it is also good to look at the reason why the person is doing that thing, so that you can be in a better position to educate the person properly. One is also sometimes givena new name after baptism. "useRatesEcommerce": false Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor, C.S.Sp., is Professor of moral theology, the theology of the world church, and Africana studies at the University of Notre Dame. To understand African tradition, one needs to understand the position of African Traditional Religion on God, the human person, and creation. The traditional theologians also emphasized that as in all religious traditions, the belief and worship of the Supreme Being in ATR does not just mean the strict performance of certain rituals. Therefore, the universe has dimensions of order and power as follows: first of all, there is order in the laws of nature. During the early churchs initial expansion phase where congregations were established in Syria, Asia Minor, Achaia, Italy and Africa there were strong leadership structures in Alexandria, Carthage, Neo religious movements is a term often used to describe a wide range of movements that developed in the tail end of the 19 century (the 1960s and 1970s). Mbiti emphasizes that Africans view the universe religiously. Omissions? $70.00/$25.00. In other words, he shows that the sense of the divine was not something introduced to Africa by missionaries or by anyone else; that the knowledge of God in African religion was not much different from the idea of God that Christian missionaries preached in Africa; and, more specifically to our purpose here, that belief in God engendered a moral response that for centuries before Christian arrival in Africa directed moral life and interaction on the continent and among its peoples. Religion is part and parcel of daily life. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. The position I critique in this paper is really a complex of closely overlapping positions, some more theoretically sophisticated or better grounded empirically than others. :t\.1biti's approach assumes that "Christianity comes to enhance African traditional religions." This implies that there is no tension between the major elements of African Traditional Religions and the major claims of Christianity." 19 This is called a tithe. Copyright 2023 Philosophers, sociologists, theologians, The conversion of indigenous converts to Christianity is often perceived as a linear process, which marks individuals rebirth and assumption of a new identity as they are assimilated into the, In the early 19th century, missionaries flocked to Central and Southern Africa to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From this view point, Ill begin to say that African Traditional Religion (ATR) involves the belief and worship of the Supreme Being known and revered all over Africa as Onyame in Akan, Mao in Ewe, Chineke in Igbo and Oludumare in Yoruba etc. of the people which are all together. Everywhere he went in southwestern Nigeria, he never opposed or spoke out against African culture including initiation rites, festivals, and traditional Yoruba dress as long as it didnt directly conflict with Christianity. In addition, roughly a quarter or more of the population in 11 countries say they believe in the protective power of juju (charms or amulets), shrines and other sacred objects. 1630-1633), HEBREWS' CHRISTOLOGY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY APPREHENSION IN AFRICA 1, New Mind, New Heart, New Strength (A Paradigm on the New Man), Dissertation ETD Libermann and EA in Dialogue Dec 2013, Pentecostalism and Shamanism in Asia and Beyond: An Inter-disciplinary Analysis. For starters, the word religion is problematic for many Africans, because it suggests that religion is separate from the other aspects of ones culture, society, or environment. Both have initiation rites into full membership. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. While some African cosmologies have a clear idea of a supreme being, other cosmologies do not. God, the ancestors, and the spirits are all moral powers whose actions affect human life in various ways and to various degrees. Therefore we speak of African Traditional Religion thinking of those common things. Mystical power is found in all of them, in diminishing degrees. Hence, it cannot be avoided in the interaction between Christianity and African Traditional Religion. Such a project, however, is only significant if it is not only executed by religious leaders, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. The spirit medium is required to possess moral probity and integrity. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. For instance, in the southern Volta Region of Ghana, and in Togo and Benin, thousands of young girls of the Ewe (say Ay-vay) tribe are held as slaves in unspeakable conditions under a traditional religion belief called the trokosi system or wives of the ancestral gods. INTRODUCTION Man considers life worth living because he finds certain things intrinsically valuable; hence value in its simple connotation means a thing of worth. This leads him into the whole area of theology of religions, in which the relationship between Christianity and other religions is currently the focus of lively debate. It is also present in relationships between persons, based on age and function. Even though their differences outnumber their. OLUPONA: One of the basic reasons is that indigenous African spiritual beliefs are not bound by a written text, like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional life in which brotherhood and the extended family play a central role. Nevertheless, they also display enough family resemblances for us to be able to delineate their main features and to a very reasonable extent fall on them to represent the whole. The Church is the Christian family, in which all are accompanied to one another through belief and baptism in Jesus Christ. In this paper, Ill bring the understanding of African traditional adherents into the light of the Holy Scriptures; to explain what the Bible teaches about soul and spirit in relation to God and man. For Christians itsa church. Moreover, the religions developed in the Americas impact Africa in that devotees of the African diaspora have significant influence on practices in Africa. . similarities between the traditional beliefs of Africans in Africa. These act as Gods associates, assistants, and mediators, and they are directly involved in human affairs. They have also fostered a greater feeling of individual self-worth by acknowledging important milestones in ones life, including becoming an adult or an elder. Everything is said to center on them. These are the pristine men and women, the originators of the lineage or clan or ethnic group. Thus, to assert as Mbiti does that there are no secret sins or that something or someone is bad or good only according to outward conduct is too careless a statement to make. Christ was tempted in all the ways A Background to Religion and Magic in Western Thought Our modern usage of the term 'magic' derives from the Greek magike, (I myself have consulted with several diviners for my research on specific academic topics regarding African culture and history; consequently, if we were to lose Africas diviners, we would also lose one of Africas best keepers and sources of African history and culture. But after braving that first blizzard in a land far from his native Nigeria, Olupona stuck it out and earned his Ph.D. L_}mB)b7h; uZ4 QI,^ID-*Rj" xx>@9lCQr [GE1Hz:Aj3>^5T-FPD5|. The reasons for this shift are varied and complex. This supreme . Janson, Marloes Belief in the power of such objects is highest in Senegal (75%) and lowest in Rwanda (5%). African Traditional Religion and Concepts of Development: A Background Paper 1 . These gods are generally perceived as intermediaries between the Supreme Being and society. Traditional Africans communicated to God through ancestors. Additionally, I will not discourage, disparage, or try and convert those who practice their form of African indigenous religions. I wont pray to an orisa, but I will affirm the importance of my connection with members of my age group. Differences between Christianity and traditional African beliefs and customs (Exodus 20:3-5,Hebrews 10:8-10) 1. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. Has data issue: true <>>> Feature Flags: { Secondly, there is moral and religious order. Jacob Olupona, professor of indigenous African religions at Harvard Divinity School and professor of African and African-American studies in Harvards Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently sat down for an interview about his lifelong research on indigenous African religions. The religious activities of chiefs and lineage heads are generally limited to the more routine biweekly and annual festivities, but traditional priests given their association with specific shrines are regarded as specialized practitioners through whom the spirits of the gods may grant directions. 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Encyclopedia of religious and spiritual development, Adopting Primary Taoism as a Protoevangelion for Contextualization of the Gospel into Asian Culture, Toward a Liturgical Approach to Re-Routing Mission, TOWARDS A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING IN THE MIDST OF PROSPERITY THEOLOGY WITHIN THE PENTECOSTAL AND EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, PARTICULARLY YANGORU, Mission in the Spirit: Towards a Pentecostal/Charismatic Missiology (with Julie C. Ma, Oxford: Regnum, 2010), The strategic level spiritual warfare theology of C. Peter Wagner and its implications for Christian mission in Malawi, Evangelism Handbook of New Testament Christianity, The Role of Caprivian Virtues in the Search for Common Moral Discourse A Conversation with Peter J Paris, Sexuality and Judaism, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion (pg. These included interviews he conducted with pastors, exorcists, traditional priests, so-called witches and delivered witches. Indigenous African spirituality today is increasingly falling out of favor. However, in African religious thought God is distanced from the task of moral affairs because the task of moral retribution and maintenance of effective moral norms is usually performed by spiritual agents of much lower standingthat is, by spirits of various sorts, by ghosts and even by human practitioners of spiritual arts. Other characteristics that show the contrast between (Western) Christian thought and African Traditional Religion,according to Green, are the nonexistence of concepts of heaven and hell in African Traditional Religion, the lack of messianic expectations and hope, and the absence of eschatological thought with God stepping in to right all wrongs or to punish wickedness. And although African Traditional Religion affirms the continuation of life after death, where the person is believed to join the spirit world of the ancestors to continue life in some ways similar to the life before death, this belief does not constitute a hope for improved existence or for ultimate reward and punishment since a persons moral depravity or moral rectitude [does] not count in the beyond and whatever penalties or rewards those may bring have no bearing on life after death.. Of Development: a Background paper 1 submitted and determine whether to revise the article life is. Of Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of document analysis to critically explore the religious intersectionalities between and... Part two of my connection with members of my age group and.. In diminishing degrees and mediators, and the exorcistic activities of the universe tradition one... The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR postcolonial. 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