Academic literature on the topic 'Christianity and other religions – Zimbabwe'

This research aimed to find out the actual situation on the ground regarding what mainline Christianity is actually doing in confronting or conforming to biblical and cultural norms regarding the role and position of women in their denominations. It is based on six mainline churches. This field research reveals that it may not be enough to concentrate on gender in missionary religions such as Christianity, without paying attention to the base culture: African traditional religio-culture which informs most people who are now Christians. It also illuminates how the churches are actually acting to break free of the oppressive biblical traditions and bringing about changes regarding the status of women in their churches. In some cases women are now being given more active roles in the churches, but on the other hand are still bound at home by an oppressive traditional Shona patriarchal culture and customs. Through a hybrid qualitative research design combining phenomenology and case study, what we are referring to as phenomenological case study, we argue that Christianity is a stimulus to change, an impetus to revolution, and a grounding for dignity and justice that supports and fosters gender equity efforts.

The status of women remains contested. While women constitute the majority of members in literally all religions, the top positions tend to be monopolised by men. An array of historical, cultural, theological and socio-economic reasons has been proffered to account for this anomaly. New religious movements have often promised women liberation and emancipation. In Africa, Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal movements have accorded women leadership roles as they interrogate missionary Christianity. This study examines women’s notable rise to influential leadership within the Pentecostal movement in Zimbabwe. While the older Pentecostal churches of the 1970s and 1980s were male dominated, the 1990s ushered in the phenomenon of women leaders within the Pentecostal movement in Zimbabwe. Notable examples include Apostle Eunor Guti, Apostle Petunia Chiriseri, Dr Faith Wutawunashe and others. However, these women Pentecostal leaders tend to be married to charismatic founders of Pentecostal ministries. This study interrogates their status within the Pentecostal movement. On the hand, it contends that these women must be accepted as leaders in their own right. It argues that they have appropriated the religious significance of women in indigenous culture and have applied it to the Pentecostal movement. They are leaders of specific ministries and are not mere appendages of their husbands. However, on the other hand, the study argues that their position as wives of Pentecostal leaders needs to be approached critically. It has tended to generate a moderate position on feminist issues within the Pentecostal movement. The study concludes that women Pentecostal leaders in contemporary Zimbabwe tend to bargain with patriarchy. They are unwilling to challenge patriarchy and promote a biblical hermeneutics that is subservient. It suggests that gender within the Pentecostal movement in contemporary Zimbabwe requires a liberating biblical hermeneutics.

The birth and rapid growth of new religious movements in Zimbabwe is a marked phenomenon in the history of Christianity in Africa. Ever since the Reformation that split the Western Church in the 16th century, a number of efforts have since been made by various new religious movements to try and foster ecumenism amongst the deeply divided ecclesiastical communities. Whilst great strides have since been made in critical areas such as common witnessing, inter-religious dialogue, common prayers, mixed marriages, ecumenism in faculties of theology, among other areas, one key element of ecumenism, namely, the common celebration of the Eucharist has always remained very remote and a no go area. To a greater extent, the Roman Catholic authorities in particular have been accused of dragging their feet or taking a ‘distant and detached’ approach to the same practice.1 This current article specifically examines the Light of Life Christian Group’s (llcg) vision of ecumenism, particularly its practice of Eucharistic intercommunion that dates back to the early 1970s. The main argument developed in this article is that, whilst llcg may stand in sharp opposition to the traditional Christian (particularly Catholic) view with regard to sharing the Eucharist with non-Catholics and norms governing the formation of public associations, it has made a breakthrough in the realization of the highest goal of ecumenism. To a greater extent, it has also succeeded in uniting the various denominations that for centuries had been separated by doctrine, history and practice. The article also argues that whilst llcg’s breakthrough is of pinnacle importance in the history of Christianity in Zimbabwe in particular, it is also unique in the sense that, instead of starting from above, from popes and bishops as is always expected and canonically constituted, the breakthrough has started from below.

AbstractAfrican theologies are most often classified as either theologies of inculturation, or of liberation. Canaan Banana was one of few African theologians who combine authentic indigenization and liberation in their thought. The author, who knew Rev. Banana personally, based his analysis on Banana's writings and on interpretations by other scholars. Banana's theology was influenced by his ecumenical leadership as a Methodist minister, studies in the United States, involvement in the liberation struggle, and national leadership as the first President of Zimbabwe. Banana's liberation perspective, in contrast to those of most South African black theologians, dealt with issues of class rather than of color. His political theology, articulated when he was president of Zimbabwe, focused on the relation of socialism and Christianity. For him liberation involved struggle and even armed struggle. In his last decade former President Banana began to articulate a prophetic "Combat Theology." Banana stimulated a heated discussion on biblical hermeneutics in southern Africa by proposing deletion from the Bible of passages used to justify oppression. Believing that God is revealed also through creation and African culture, he found creative myths and images of Jesus in the cultures of his own Shona and Ndebele peoples. His contribution is a theology that can help Christianity to be both indigenous and socially relevant in 21st century Africa.

Philippe Descola suggested a scheme to enumerate dispositions to nature in such a way as to take into account non-Western practices that tend to be overshadowed by the dominance of naturalism. He also deployed this scheme to account for other religious types in the world, which in the same manner tend to be obscured by Western Christianity. This article examines Descola’s ontological scheme in the light of the case of the Mwali cult in the Matobo Hills World Heritage Site in Zimbabwe. Data gathered through a protracted period of participant observation and interviews in Matobo Hills shows that instead of the fourfold scheme Descola proposes, his reference to incarnation and figuration is a more promising avenue in an attempt to account for religious forms and the various ways humans relate to their environments.

The claim of the early church is one that the creative and saving power of God, embodied in the Lord Jesus, calls into being a community which is always trying to live out the implications of the divine refusal to accept cultural, ethnic, political, or other boundaries.

Ever  since the  publication  of  Shako's  (2006)  pioneering  study  on  Super Roma,  the movement has become a subject of serious sustained research at the University of Zimbabwe. This present article explores and examines the impact of Super Roma theology on traditional Christian theology and practice. It specifically investigates the extent to which Super Roma theology contradicts, corrects or clarifies traditional Christian theology and practice. The main argument developed in this article is that, whilst it may be true that Super Roma theology may have something new to offer theologians, it presents a number of areas of potential clash with traditional mainstream Christianity- particularly in its interpretation of concepts such as creation, original sin, reincarnation and exorcism, among others. The article also argues that as a movement that is backed by some Roman Catholic priests and nuns, the factors favouring the expansion of Super Roma are more significant than the factors that threaten its existence.

This paper is a first attempt to systematically present a history of Pentecostal Christianity in Zimbabwe. The paper first discusses the introduction of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Zimbabwe before moving on to discuss some of the Pentecostal churches born out of the AFM. This is followed by a discussion of the 1980s and 1990s explosion of American type Pentecostal churches and the current Pentecostal charismatic churches that seem to be sweeping the Christian landscape in the country. The paper acknowledges the difficulty of writing a history of Pentecostalism in the country due to a lack of sources. It identifies AFM as the mother church of Pentecostal movements in Zimbabwe, but also acknowledges the existence and influence of other earlier movements. It has shown that the current picture of Zimbabwean Christianity is heavily influenced by Pentecostalism in mainline churches, African Initiated Churches (AICs) and the various Pentecostal movements.