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Frenopoulo, Christian. "Healing in the Barquinha Religion." Fieldwork in Religion 2, no. 3 (November 27, 2008): 363–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/firn.v2i3.363.
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The article focuses on the healing service offered by Barquinha churches. The Barquinha religion is an Amazonian form of Christianity, with syncretic elements. The article surveys three recurrent methodological and theoretical approaches found in anthropological works on healing in the Barquinha religion, to which the author contributes with his own ethnographic research and analysis. On the one hand, analytical emphases are often located on the participants’ subjective and symbolic processes, in association with the ayahuasca experience. Ayahuasca—called Santo Daime by adherents—is the central sacrament of the religion, frequently implied in accounts of healing. Another common focus is on ritual settings and changing bodily dispositions. Thirdly, anthropologists have considered aspects of the social relations involved in the therapeutic process. This paper furthers reflections on social interactions during healing encounters. Such encounters typically involve healer-spirits incorporated in Barquinha spirit-mediums. The author suggests that the healing service may echo symbolic motifs associated with the historical experience of migration and rapidly changing living circumstances shared by many participants.
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Kobyliński, Andrzej. "Ethical Aspects of the Prosperity Gospel in the Light of the Arguments Presented by Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa." Religions 12, no. 11 (November 13, 2021): 996. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12110996.
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The main aim of the article is to analyze the Prosperity Gospel as an important element of the contemporary pentecostalization of Christianity. The essence of this global process is the emergence of thousands of new Pentecostal denominations and the transformation of other traditional churches into a single, syncretic variety of charismatic Christianity on a global scale. Pentecostal religiosity is characterized, among other things, by prayer in tongues, miracles, exorcisms, healing services, etc. Another key element of this new syncretic religiosity is the Prosperity Gospel which represents the belief that faith may lead to wealth, health and prosperity, and the lack of it ends in poverty, disease, and misfortune. Critics of this new religiosity point out that God must not be seen merely as a realizer of human dreams of happiness, health and wealth. The first part of the article discusses the specific nature of the global process of the pentecostalization of Christianity. It then goes on to present an interpretation of the most important elements of the Prosperity Gospel. In the next part of the article, various charges against the Prosperity Gospel are analyzed, including arguments presented in the widely commented articles that Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa published on this topic in 2017–2018.
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Timbers, Veronica L., and Jennifer C. Hollenberger. "Christian Mindfulness and Mental Health: Coping through Sacred Traditions and Embodied Awareness." Religions 13, no. 1 (January 10, 2022): 62. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel13010062.
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Mindfulness is increasingly implemented as a tool in mental health practice for coping and self-care. Some Christians worry that these practices might be in conflict with their own tradition, while other Christian contexts are reclaiming the contemplative aspects of the faith. Though clinicians are not trained to teach on religious topics and ethically must avoid pushing religion onto clients, conceptualization and research extend the benefits of mindfulness practices for religious clients. This paper will discuss the evidence for using mindfulness in mental health treatment and connect mindfulness to the Christian tradition. The authors explore how intentional awareness and embodiment of the present moment are supported in Christian theology through the incarnation of Jesus and God’s attention of the physical body in the Christian scriptures. The authors also discuss how sacraments and prayer naturally overlap with mindfulness practices for the dual purposes of emotional healing and spiritual growth. To bolster the benefits of mindfulness in the psychological and religious realms, the purpose of this paper is to empower therapists to address client concerns of whether mindfulness is in conflict with Christianity, support clients in expanding current Christian religious coping, and provide Christian leaders with more information about how mindfulness elements are already present in Christian rituals and beliefs.
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Lawrence, Louise J. "‘Take Up Your Mat and Walk’: [Dis-] Abled Bodies of Communication and Early Christian Wandering." Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture 53, no. 4 (November 2023): 263–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01461079231210849.
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Early Christianity relied heavily on walking, yet New Testament Studies has largely neglected the cultural significance of walking in the ancient world and its connection to Early Christian communication. Walking, often seen as a conscious cultural act, is often overlooked in scholarly discourse, with the focus primarily on its symbolic aspects. Drawing from interdisciplinary research in classics, cultural studies, and social science, this study aims to explore how early Christian bodily movement and communication have been perceived and culturally appropriated in European and North American scholarship. It presents three case studies: the portrayal of disabled bodies’ movements in healings, the interpretation of Jesus and his disciples as itinerant wanderers, and the examination of walking in Pauline literature as a means of profiling missionary success.
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Rhee, Helen. "Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity." Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 75, no. 2 (September 2023): 130–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23rhee.
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ILLNESS, PAIN, AND HEALTH CARE IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY by Helen Rhee. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2022. 367 pages. Hardcover; $49.99. ISBN: 9780802876843. *"The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head." --William Osler (1849-1919) *Helen Rhee, professor of the History of Christianity at Westmont College, has encapsulated this famous saying in her recent book, Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity by demonstrating how partially objective medicine as an early science co-evolved with subjective religious thought throughout early Greek, Roman, and Christian history. Indeed, even today, a patient's pursuit of relief from suffering often involves the clinical science of medicine occurring arm-in-arm with spiritual care. Such examples include use of hospital chaplains, visitation and assistance from members of a congregation, and personal prayer. This book is comprehensive in nature and academic in tone, and Rhee has found some fascinating continuing threads of healthcare occurring in these aspects of Western civilization. *The book begins with general ideas of illness in all three cultures. Greek culture considered the importance of the Hippocratic ideas such as humoralism (defined as various body fluids and their effect on human illness) as well as prioritizing an individual's health to be a societal priority. The emphasis placed on one's individual health inherently makes sense when one considers Greek culture's lack of modern medicine, the absence of understanding public health, the high mortality rate of pregnant women and young infants, and the constant presence of death in their society (pp. 1, 2). A Greek athlete was considered the exemplar of health with the expectation that their health attributes, like all humans, would decline over time. *Roman ideas followed, led by Galen, in which each part of the body was defined simply by its usefulness and its ability to work together in concordance with every body part to make up a healthy human. Thus, Galen believed that all human function descended from a divine design; this was in sharp contrast to the ideas of Epicurus who believed nature's design had random underpinnings. This early philosophical debate involving Roman medicine still continues almost 2,000 years later with regard to a potential purpose versus a lack of purpose in biological evolution. Typically, suggestions for changes in diet and exercise were the main Roman recommendations in the setting of illness, in that medicine and public health would not be viable study areas for many centuries. The author brings up the stark reality of terrible sanitation in ancient Rome which exacerbated many of the infectious pandemics. In fact, pandemics often were considered a part of divine punishment possibly for unknown sins. We can consider the parallels of pandemics of our time, such as those associated with HIV/AIDS or COVID-19, which unfortunately have been incorrectly associated with societal sin. *Subsequent early Christian ideas regarding health and illness received significant influences from both Greco-Roman and Hebrew society. Illness was considered more holistic--encompassing both the physical and the spiritual. Specific cultural influences affecting early Christian society's views on health included the importance of caring for others (for example, Deut. 15:10) and the Levitical dietary restrictions which probably had some health benefits (p. 3). A healthy person would benefit from overall shalom; a decline in one's health could be considered demonic. Jesus was seen as the perfect healer through his miracles, and stories of healing in the Gospels were added to the already-present Greco-Roman influences such as the balancing of humors. Mental illness, which is still under-appreciated and considered an individual "weakness" in much of today's society, was evaluated and treated using the entire gamut of early Christian thought: from being a disease of the soul, to being a result of divine judgment, to being a physical problem (perhaps not yet understood during that time period). *The next section of the book contains ideas of physical pain utilized in all these early societies. Greeks used pain as an essential part of determining a physical diagnosis: pain is still an important concept utilized in modern healthcare. Romans expanded such thinking to consider pain as a disruption of the body's natural state; thus, they emphasized the importance of bringing the body back to its natural order. As an example, Galen felt that patients were not able to explain pain well. and this meant that the final opinion of pain resided solely with the medical provider. Such thoughts have had disastrous effects right up to today, when one considers healthcare's role in causing the recent opioid crisis in the United States (p. 4). Written pain narratives in Roman history were extensive and often seem to model the current history and physical examination process taught to modern medical students. Early Christian ideas of pain were somewhat parallel to Stoic belief structures in which human pain could be used as a learning tool. Early Christian writers often considered the imitation of Christ's suffering through the suffering of an individual as a learning, holy experience. Such ideas eventually led to the concept of the "martyr," which the author describes using examples in wonderful detail. *The last section of the book deals with healthcare in the ancient world, and I found this part of the book most fascinating when considering how healthcare is practiced in modern society. Both Greeks and Romans utilized their temples as places of healing, utilizing prayer and purification rituals. Treatments were extremely limited, mainly due to a lack of understanding the scientific method. Dangerous bleeding, purging, and cauterization were common ancient practices. The author points out that the Romans did build hospitals for a time, but the hospitals were used simply for preserving the health of property (slaves) and soldiers. *Early Christians considered medicine as a gift from God, and their building of early hospitals (in reality, often homes to provide rest and nutrition for the sick) during times of recurrent plagues likely marked a significant advancement in early healthcare as such simple but essential therapies do have healing benefits. It is fascinating to see early writers, such as Origen, believe that more spiritual people would be healed by God while not necessarily requiring medical care from a physician. These propositions parallel pseudo-scientific ideas that still percolate in modern society; the rise of the anti-vaccination movement in some religious movements is a good example. Regardless of the writing of early Christian writers, it is understandable that many patients would continue to follow some of the pagan medical therapies of Greco-Roman society, since good treatment options were limited, while the writing of the ancient Greeks and Romans in essence provided a "second opinion" in care. *I have many good things to say about this book. Rhee goes into great detail regarding the writings of healers in ancient Greek, Roman, and Christian societies. Examples of patients and therapies used to heal in these early historical periods are provided in extensive detail. Many of the medical aspects of prevention continue to echo in today's society, including the emphasis on exercise and diet to improve health, using pain to determine a cause of illness, and the building of hospitals to improve care. Unfortunately, there is also the continuation, in some religious systems, of the idea that illness is due to sin in which prayer alone can cure. Such beliefs are unfortunate; a better belief is that God has provided modern medicine as a gift to improve humanity's well-being. I highly recommend this book, not only for people interested in early healthcare in Greco-Roman and early Christian society, but also for people looking at the evolution of healthcare over time as it began to slowly progress into today's scientific, evidence-based, modern medicine. *Reviewed by John F. Pohl, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Children's Hospital, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84113.
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Avalos, Hector. "Women Healing/Healing Women: The Genderization of Healing in Early Christianity." Biblical Interpretation 16, no. 5 (2008): 509–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156851508x329610.
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Delong, William R. "Book Review: Toxic Christianity: Healing the Religious Neurosis." Journal of Pastoral Care 47, no. 4 (December 1993): 433–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002234099304700413.
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Jefferson, Lee M. "The Healing Christ in Pandemics: Then and Now." Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 77, no. 3 (June 12, 2023): 233–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00209643231165048.
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The context of illness, plagues, and healing in early Christianity and late antiquity was a factor in the growth and expansion of early Christianity. The most prominent early images from early Christian art depict Christ healing. This essay will examine the historical context of plagues and the Christian response to show how the healing Christ affected the security of Christian ascendency. From this study, the essay offers insight into our present pandemic context of COVID-19 and evaluates the religious response.
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Rooney, Diane. "Christianity and Daoism: Healing Beliefs, Practices, Philosophies." Journal of Daoist Studies 17, no. 1 (2024): 149–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/dao.2024.a920720.
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Phillips, Thomas E. "Women Healing/Healing Women: The Genderization of Healing in Early Christianity - By Elaine M. Wainwright." Religious Studies Review 35, no. 1 (March 2009): 61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2009.01321_37.x.
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Alexander, Kimberly Ervin. "Religion and Healing in America and Healing in the History of Christianity." Pneuma 30, no. 2 (2008): 315–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157007408x346465.
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McGarry, Francis J. "Balance, wholeness, and healing in christianity." Journal of Religion and Health 35, no. 2 (June 1996): 159–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02354525.
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MacKenna, Christopher. "Book Review: Healing in the History of Christianity." Theology 110, no. 854 (March 2007): 149–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0040571x0711000225.
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Pilch, John. "Understanding Healing in the Social World of Early Christianity." Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture 22, no. 1 (February 1992): 26–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014610799202200105.
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Elijah, Baloyi Magezi. "A Critical Evaluation of the Impact of Religious Belief (Christianity) within Post-Colonial African Burial Rites: A South African Perspective." Religions 15, no. 2 (February 19, 2024): 248. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel15020248.
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The mystery of death, dying and funerals has been a universal phenomenon in the lives of almost all human beings, from humanity’s fall from grace to today. Death visits every culture, clan and family, and yet it continues to be a terrifying, unexpected stranger and the most feared enemy of human beings. People from different cultures use different coping mechanisms to fight off the pain of death, but for some people in the Collins Chabane Municipality, a particular Christian religious belief has been shown to be the most reliable asset during the battle. It is questionable whether alternative traditions besides Christianity can compete with Christianity in bringing healing from the pain of death. Various methods of healing, like African grief therapy and psychological healing, are offered to bereaved family members after death and even after burial, but are they enough for Africans to return to their normal lives? This article discusses why (Christian) religious belief is essential during and after the burial of a loved one. This is carried out within the context of colonialism having eroded all African traditions, creating a space for Christianity alone to be a remedy in death and burying.
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Jefferies, Diana. "Healing in the History of Christianity - by Amanda Porterfield." Journal of Religious History 32, no. 1 (March 2008): 138–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9809.2008.00622_18.x.
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Mary Philip, Daphne. "Christianity and Spirituality in Healthcare." Journal of Quality in Health Care & Economics 5, no. 3 (2022): 1–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.23880/jqhe-16000274.
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According to the American Medical Association, ‘Health care is a fundamental human good because it affects our opportunity to pursue life goals, reduces our pain and suffering, helps prevent premature loss of life, and provides information needed to plan for our lives.’ Christianity is the world’s largest religion and most widely diffused of all faiths stemming from the life teachings of Jesus Christ. Religion, medicine, and healthcare have always been intertwined from history. Dating back throughout the Middle Ages and up to the French Revolution, physicians were often clergy. The first hospital in the West was started by a religious organization and staffed by religious orders. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have concluded that, “Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide. Several studies have shown that addressing the spiritual needs of the patient may enhance recovery from illness.” Jesus Christ in his teachings instructed his followers to heal the sick and since then the early church and Christians practiced practical charity that gave a basis to nursing homes and hospitals. Jews and Christians believed that human worth was predicated on the fact that each person was created in the image and likeness of God, which—for Christians—was directly stated in Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” In recent times, when people are faced with many health issues that medical professionals do not seem to have an answer for, looking outside of the traditional health setting and up to a divine power for healing has been on the rise. A 2018 survey of American physicians and patients suggests that about 64% of physicians believe in the existence of God or a higher power, and more than 90% of patients claimed the same. Jesus in his teachings emphasized the need of treating every human with love, which is why Christian hospitals were established with the main aim of practicing the teachings of Jesus and alleviating suffering of the sick. It is also noted that there is an increase in modern western medicine with the importance of patient spirituality in treatment and healing which must be considered by healthcare professionals while providing care. As for physicians who are rooted in the Christian faith, they would provide care to their patients keeping in mind that they are made in the image of God. Since healing is an art which is personal and human, there is only a limited amount of human intervention which can contribute to its success. When modern medicine and Christian faith is intertwined in patient care, the provider and patient feel a sense of spiritual calmness that contribute to the total healing journey
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Heuser, Andreas. "Transnational Construction and Local Imagination of "Crusade Christianity"." Nova Religio 13, no. 1 (August 1, 2009): 68–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2009.13.1.68.
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This article focuses on a transnational urban crusade by a British representative of Pentecostal-type Christianity in 2006 in Kumasi, Ghana. Such mass-evangelism events have helped shape a new religious topography in most African countries since the mid-1980s. An integral part of the religious landscape, they accompany a "Pentecostalization" of African Christianity. This case study analyzes the interplay between international theological discourses and local appropriations of crusade Christianity. It presents crusades as performances and it researches crusade strategies to establish hegemony in public urban space. The central analysis of the theology of healing most popular in Pentecostal-type Christianity refers to the African religious discourse on well-being and disease causation in general. It concludes that local African discourses, more than crusade heroes, show a capacity to control transnational impact in crusade performances and theology.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. "Signs, Tokens, and Points of Contact: Religious Symbolism and Sacramentality in Non-Western Christianity." Studia Liturgica 48, no. 1-2 (September 2018): 127–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00393207180481-210.
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The development of Christianity as a non-Western religion since the middle of the 20th century has generated changes that distinguish it from the expressions of faith inherited from the West. Christian religious innovation and new ways of expressing the faith have become the hallmarks of African Christianity. One way in which these religious changes are discernible is the use of “signs and tokens”, that is, physical substances that in the hands of religious functionaries acquire a sacramental value and that for example serves as support to the sorts of interventionist ministries associated with Pentecostal/charismatic ministries. A classic example of the new sacramental substances is the widespread use of the anointing oil. The anointing oil has become an important “point of contact” in African Christian rituals of healing and supernatural interventions. The use of oil for anointing is not necessarily new in the historic Christian traditions. However, in contemporary African Christianity, it has been reinvented and instituted in healing and deliverance and exorcism rituals that go beyond what was familiar in the older religious traditions. In this essay, we reflect on new sacraments also re-designated as signs and tokens such as the reinvention of the anointing oil as a therapeutic substance in contemporary forms of African Christianity. The new ritual order and the perception of sacraments as therapeutic substances helps us to understand what non-Western Christians, through popular religious innovations, consider important in a faith whose liturgical standards were originally set by Western missionaries.
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Olsson, Hans. "Narratives of Change: Healing and Pentecostal Belonging in Zanzibar." Mission Studies 35, no. 2 (May 31, 2018): 225–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341568.
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AbstractIn the predominantly Muslim context of Zanzibar, Pentecostal Christianity is slowly on the rise as a result of an influx of labor migrants from mainland Tanzania. A paramount feature in these churches is the provision of divine healing and deliverance from spiritual affliction. This article analyses how narratives of healing in one of Zanzibar’s major Pentecostal churches, the City Christian Center, influence how religious belonging is negotiated and manifested. Focusing on Zanzibar-born Pentecostals with Roman Catholic backgrounds, the analysis suggests that healing and practices conducted to deliver individuals from pain and suffering are connected to a wider revaluation of moral and social actions characterizing Zanzibar society. It stresses that Pentecostal belonging builds on Zanzibar-born members’ previous experiences of Zanzibar in a process of both affirmation and rejection, in which adherence to Christianity is intensified by an increased knowledge of God’s power to heal, and opposition to the Muslim majority is strengthened by connecting it to sickness.
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Stanley, Brian. "Edinburgh and World Christianity." Studies in World Christianity 17, no. 1 (April 2011): 72–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2011.0006.
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In his inaugural lecture as Professor of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, Professor Stanley discusses three individuals connected to Edinburgh who have major symbolic or actual significance for the development of world Christianity over the last 150 years. Tiyo Soga (1829–71) studied in Edinburgh for the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church, and became the first black South African to be ordained into the Christian ministry. His Edinburgh theological training helped to form his keen sense of the dignity and divine destiny of the African race. Yun Chi'ho (1865–1945) was the sole Korean delegate at the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. His political career illustrates the ambiguities of the connection that developed between Christianity and Korean nationalism under Japanese colonial rule. John Alexander Dowie (1847–1907) was a native of Edinburgh and a student of the University of Edinburgh who went on to found a utopian Christian community near Chicago – ‘Zion City’. This community and Dowie's teachings on the healing power of Christ were formative in the origins of Pentecostal varieties of Christianity in both southern and West Africa.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. "'On the "Mountain" of the Lord' Healing Pilgrimages in Ghanaian Christianity." Exchange 36, no. 1 (2007): 65–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157254307x159425.
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AbstractIn Ghana, as with other African religious and cultural contexts, religion is a survival strategy. It is a dynamic phenomenon, which at every level of appropriation has been experiencing certain innovations informed by existential and supra-mundane needs. Some of these innovative appropriations of religion in contemporary Ghana include pilgrimages to religious sites in search of God's intervention for healing. Roman Catholicism, mainline Protestantism and Pentecostalism, the three main streams of Christian expression in Ghana have all had their members develop penchants for such pilgrimages although patronage is never denomination specific. In this article we examine some of the innovative ways in which healing pilgrimages have developed in the various Christian traditions and what implications these have for understanding religion in a contemporary African religio-cultural context.
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Phan, Peter. "A New Christianity, But What Kind?" Mission Studies 22, no. 1 (2005): 59–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338305774783658.
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AbstractThe article examines Philip Jenkins's popular thesis that "Southern Christianity" represents a conservative return to a pre-Tridentine Christendom. While acknowledging the importance of Jenkins's emphasis on the demographic shift of the Christian population from the "North" to the "South" and its vast implications for the church's mission, the article argues that the form of Christianity that is taking place in the so-called Third World, at least in Asian Roman Catholicism, is anything but a return to the pre-Tridentine Christianity. The various phenomena that Jenkins notes such as healing, prophecy, popular piety, and a literalist reading of the Bible, should be viewed within the new context of the church's commitment to renewal and mission in terms of liberation, interculturation, and interreligious dialogue.
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Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava. "Some Neglected Aspects of Medieval Muslim Polemics against Christianity." Harvard Theological Review 89, no. 1 (January 1996): 61–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0017816000031813.
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Muslim medieval authors were fascinated with religious issues, as the corpus of Arabic literature clearly shows. They were extremely curious about other religions and made intense efforts to describe and understand them. A special brand of Arabic literature—theMilal wa-Niḥal(“Religions and Sects”) heresiographies—dealt extensively with different sects and theological groups within Islam as well as with other religions and denominations: pagan, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and others. Of course, most of the heresiographies were written in a polemical tone (sometimes a harsh one, like that of the eleventh-century Spaniard Ibn Ḥazm's:Al-Faṣl fi-l-Milal wa-l-Ahwā wa-l-Niḥal[“Discerning between Religions, Ideologies, and Sects”]), but some come close to being objective, scholarly descriptions of other religions (for example, Al-Shahrastānī'sMilal wa-Niḥalbook from the twelfth century).
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Benyah, Francis. "Book Review: Healing and Power in Ghana: Early Indigenous Expressions of Christianity." International Bulletin of Mission Research 46, no. 3 (May 30, 2022): 451–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23969393221075389.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, Kwabena. "Pentecostalism in Africa and the Changing Face of Christian Mission." Mission Studies 19, no. 1 (2002): 14–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338302x00161.
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AbstractThird World Christianity has been experiencing exponential growth since the turn of the twentieth century. Nowhere is this renewal in Christianity more visible than Africa, where religious innovations led by indigenous Christians have mostly been Pentecostal in character. The Pentecostal movements leading the current renewal of Christianity in African countries like Ghana are autonomous, independent of both the established historic mission denominations and the older classical Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God. Ghanaian Pentecostalism in its various streams has adapted the global Pentecostal culture to suit the needs of the local context in ways that have changed the nature and direction of Christian mission. The traditional themes of healing, deliverance, prosperity and empowerment associated with the global Pentecostal movement have been synthesized with traditional worldviews, giving Pentecostal Christianity an added relevance in African context. This has yielded massive responses. In Pentecostal movements under discussion, therefore, one finds the ingenious ability of indigenous Christians to appropriate a phenomenon of global significance for local consumption.
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Morgan, Robert. "Historical and Canonical Aspects of a New Testament Theology." Biblical Interpretation 11, no. 3 (2003): 629–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156851503790507954.
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AbstractIn nineteenth-century discussions of the scope and methods of New Testament theology more attention was paid to the new historical methods than to the reasons for this discipline. Its independence from dogmatics was new, but it was the role of Scripture in the life of the Church which made it important in educating clergy. Theological interpretation of any passage of Scripture might serve as a source of Christian faith and theology, but for Scripture to be a norm, a survey of the whole New Testament is needed. New Testament theologies using historical exegesis and attending to all the canonical writings can offer (or imply) proposals about the identity of Christianity, and in the conversation between such proposals a measure of consensus can be expected where there is agreement to respect textual intention. Most Christian reading of Scripture to nourish and communicate faith is done through translations and without asking about authorial intention, but theologians making proposals about the identity of Christianity which accord with the witness of Scripture are subject to more constraints for the sake of consensus. They need to survey the whole New Testament using critical historical exegesis and background knowledge of the ancient world to inform a perspective derived from their contemporary understandings of Christianity. Such theologically interested surveys are properly called New Testament theologies.
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Gbule, Ndidi Justice, and Chigozie Samuel Nwaka. "The Persistence of Igbo Worldview in the Sabbath Church Healing Liturgy and Praxis." Mission Studies 38, no. 2 (September 28, 2021): 236–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341792.
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Abstract Healing and wholeness are common motifs in religion; even as there exist different conceptions of personhood, as well as ways and means of restoring a person to wholeness and wellbeing. This paper focuses on the influence of Igbo traditional worldviews and healing liturgies in the Sabbath Church in Nigeria. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, oral interviews, and participant observation, the paper examines the extent to which Igbo healing praxis has been incorporated into the healing liturgy and practices of the Sabbath Church. Using Our Lord’s Sabbath Mission, an AIC in Nigeria, as a case study, how has the Sabbath Church valorized Igbo traditional symbols and religious categories in mediating healing? The insight resulting from this study is of great importance, particularly now that the demography of Christianity has shifted to the Global South.
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Frenschkowski, Marco. "Seuchengötter, Heilungsgötter." Evangelische Theologie 81, no. 5 (October 1, 2021): 350–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.14315/evth-2021-810506.
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Abstract The article discusses the impact of different ideas on epidemic, endemic, and pandemic diseases in antiquity, concentrating on the times of the New Testament and the early church. Different explanations of diseases coexist and to some degree compete: Diseases are sent by God for punishment and admonition, caused by demons or magic, and in ancient medicine caused by strictly natural factors. Contrary to a common cliché, divine punishing is only a minor idea in reflections on disease, and natural causes are generally taken for granted. A demonological interpretation understands disease as something that is fought by Jesus and also by other charismatic healers in ancient Christianity. In this respect, early Christianity can be called a healing movement.
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Yang, Lucinda. "Aspects of Pentecostal Christianity in Zimbabwe, by Lovemore Togarasei (ed.)." Pneuma 41, no. 2 (August 30, 2019): 363–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700747-04102030.
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Masondo, Sibusiso. "The Crisis Model for Managing Change in African Christianity: The Story of St John’s Apostolic Church." Exchange 42, no. 2 (2013): 157–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1572543x-12341262.
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Abstract St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission, founded by Christinah Nku (also known as Mme Christinah) and all its splinter groups can be theorized as presenting a crisis model for managing change. These churches provide their members with a well worked out path of inclusion through baptism and related rituals, as well as, alleviation of crisis through an assortment of healing, cleansing and deliverance rituals. There is also a strong element of maintaining a person’s healing through an assortment of rituals of celebration and ideological reinforcement. They do this through a process of resource mobilization from both Christianity and African Religion to set up a religion that adequately responds to both the existential and spiritual needs of their members.
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Kaunda, Chammah J., and Mutale Mulenga Kaunda. "Gender and Sexual Desire Justice in African Christianity." Feminist Theology 30, no. 1 (September 2021): 21–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09667350211030874.
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This article explores the nexus of themes of sexual desire, gender and prayer in the Bemba mythology of creation. Approached from Sarah Coakley’s theology of participation in the divine desire, the article utilizes email technique to collect data from African scholars both women and men with an intention to find out their perspectives on the nexus of the entangled themes above as embodied within the widespread Bemba mythology. The second objective was to understand the ways in which these three themes are intersected in the mythology and demonstrate how the contemporary African Christian search for gender and sexual desire justice might be linked to a gendered prayer. The findings show that gendered prayer could be a place of sexual desire and gender healing and justice for women.
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Kim, Kirsteen. "Christianity’s Role in the Modernization and Revitalization of Korean Society in the Twentieth-Century." International Journal of Public Theology 4, no. 2 (2010): 212–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156973210x491903.
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AbstractThe development of South Korea and its growth to become the world’s eleventh largest economy has been accompanied by the introduction of Christianity and its increase to become the major religious group, to which nearly thirty per cent of the population are affiliated. This article probes the connection between these two spectacular examples of development; economic and religious. By highlighting moments or episodes of Christian contribution to aspects of development in Korean history and linking these to relevant aspects of Korean Christian theology, there is shown to be a constructive, although not always intentional, link between Korean Christianity and national development. The nature of the Christian contribution is seen not primarily in terms of the work ethic it engenders (as argued by Max Weber in the case of European capitalism) but mainly in the realm of aspirations (visions, hope) of a new society and motivation (inspiration, empowerment) to put them into effect. In other words, it was the public theology of Christianity that played a highly significant role in the modernization and revitalization of Korean society in the twentieth century.
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Ramsey, Ryan. "Christ in Yaqui Garb: Teresa Urrea’s Christian Theology and Ethic." Religions 12, no. 2 (February 17, 2021): 126. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12020126.
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A healer, Mexican folk saint, and revolutionary figurehead, Teresa Urrea exhibited a deeply inculturated Christianity. Yet in academic secondary literature and historical fiction that has arisen around Urrea, she is rarely examined as a Christian exemplar. Seen variously as an exemplary feminist, chicana, Yaqui, curandera, and even religious seeker, Urrea’s self-identification with Christ is seldom foregrounded. Yet in a 1900 interview, Urrea makes that relation to Christ explicit. Indeed, in her healing work, she envisioned herself emulating Christ. She understood her abilities to be given by God. She even followed an ethic which she understood to be an emulation of Christ. Closely examining that interview, this essay argues that Urrea’s explicit theology and ethic is, indeed, a deeply indigenized Christianity. It is a Christianity that has attended closely to the religion’s central figure and sought to emulate him. Yet it is also a theology and ethic that emerged from her own social and geographic location and, in particular, the Yaqui social imaginary. Urrea’s theology and ethics—centered on the person of Christ—destabilized the colonial order and forced those who saw her to see Christ in Yaqui, female garb.
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Handaric, Mihai. "Aspects related to the influence of Christianity on the Society." Randwick International of Social Science Journal 2, no. 2 (April 30, 2021): 58–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.47175/rissj.v2i2.215.
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In this paper the author analyzes the influence of Christianity on society. There will be demonstrated that through its structure, man was created to live in the community. He discovers himself by relating to the world surrounding him, as it is argued by Martin Heidegger, and Martin Buber. Here we also include the relationship with the transcendent. The philosophical and sociological arguments help us understand the influence Christianity had on European society. The religion of the European nations had a strong influence on the civilization of the continent and the world. Researchers have come to the conclusion that man was created with an innate religious feeling. Rudolf Otto sought to demonstrate that man's religious experience can only be explained by the aprioric existence of the sacred. So did Mircea Eliade, who introduced a new term "hierophany" to define the act of experiencing the sacred. There were also researchers who reinterpreted the relationship with the sacred. Emile Durkheim argued that ultimately, religion in its present form will be replaced by a so-called "civic religion," which will replace religious services in churches. Accepting the perspective of Scripture, the author tries to show the idea of the presence of Divinity in the believer's life (John 14:15-26). Jurgen Moltman asserts that if society were to enter the process of Christ's discipleship, she would discover the divine alternatives that bring the long-awaited results. Max Weber argued that Christian religion, and especially the sects of Protestantism, had a decisive role in influencing the culture and civilization of modern Europe, and the world at large. From his point of view, the decision of man in capitalist society to make a great effort in his work, has a religious motivation, namely, the doctrine of predestination. Considering that the moral and theological dimension of Christianity lies at the root of human significance, Christians struggle to defend the revealed message. A good example is given by Francis Schaeffer, who in his book Trilogy pleads to preserve the traditional moral values of the Bible. Schaeffer attempts to link the idea of revelation, as it is presented in the Christian Bible, with the discovering of man's significance.
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Hurlbut, D. Dmitri. "Review: Aspects of Pentecostal Christianity in Zimbabwe, edited by Lovemore Togarasei." Nova Religio 23, no. 4 (April 15, 2020): 141–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2020.23.4.141.
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FREND, W. H. C. "Some North African Turning Points in Christian Apologetics." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 57, no. 1 (January 2006): 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022046905006172.
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Apologetics take their place beside miracles of healing and courage in the face of persecution as an important means of furthering the early Christian mission. In the first two centuries AD, when the popular perception was that Christianity was closely allied to Judaism, the argument from Old Testament prophecy was important. In the third century, however, as the Church gained ground among the educated classes in east and west, the emphasis changed to an attempt to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over its pagan rivals as a philosophy with a more convincing understanding of the role of providence. Apologists in the north African tradition, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Arnobius and Lactantius, all played their part in this process. The prophecies of the Old Testament had to be confirmed by other prophecies, notably the Sibylline oracles and the sayings of Hermes Trismegistus. Finally, in the fourth century, many north Africans who, like Augustine for ten years, adhered to Manichaean Christianity relied wholly on these authorities, rejecting the Old Testament altogether.
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Băncilă, Ionuț Daniel. "Esotericism in Romanian Religious History." Aries 23, no. 1 (January 30, 2023): 39–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700593-02301003.
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Abstract As an expression of the complex global religious entanglements, esoteric knowledge did appeal also to Eastern Europe, in Romania being particularly imprinted by the local religious discourses and practices characteristic to Orthodox Christianity. This paper attempts to briefly sketch the indigenization of esoteric “currents” such as alchemy, spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Traditionalism etc. in Romania. Apart from these historical formations, various aspects of the contemporary occulture in Romania are also considered, especially the Orthodox occulture.
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Panjaitan, Michael Yoel, I. Nyoman Suarsana, and I. Ketut Kaler. "Tradisi Rabo-Rabo: Sebuah Cerminan Ekspresi Identitas Komunitas Mardijkers di Kampung Tugu, Kelurahan Semper Barat, Jakarta Utara." Sunari Penjor : Journal of Anthropology 8, no. 1 (March 1, 2024): 28. http://dx.doi.org/10.24843/sp.2024.v8.i01.p04.
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Tugu community settlement are located in Semper Barat District, Jakarta Utara. Tugu community preserve the cultural expressions, specifically cultural activity that connects to Portuguese authentic tradition such as Rabo-Rabo. The uniqueness of the tradition are its existence lies beyond the plurality and modernity of Jakarta. Rabo-Rabo tradition are held occasionally when Christmas and new year celebration, the nuance of this tradition are corresponded with the Christianity and firmly grasp by Mardijkers strong kinship (social aspects), kerontjong music (art aspect), Christianity practices (religious aspects), and Mardijkers expressions (identity aspects). This research use Expressions of Religious Experience theory from Joachim Wach, and Functional Theory from Robert Merton. The Rabo-Rabo tradition is carried out for almost two weeks, starting from the Christmas prayer together until the key event of the year - bathing. The Rabo-Rabo tradition has the function of maintaining traditional culture, religious manifestations, and functions as social education for children.
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Yang, Xiaoli. "Contemplative Aspects of Pentecostal Spirituality." Journal of Pentecostal Theology 28, no. 1 (March 20, 2019): 123–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/17455251-02702008.
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How is the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit working through contemplative aspects of Pentecostal spirituality in Asia where Christianity thrives in a hostile environment today? Are there any insights that Pentecostal churches of the Global North can learn and experience deeper transformation through the Holy Spirit in a post-Christian world? This article shares a recent experience of a retreat with a group of Asian Pentecostal pastors. It describes how they, both individually and as a group, encountered God through contemplative practice within the praxis of their spiritual tradition. Drawing from their experiences grounded in Scripture, the article explores the key theological issues of silence, body, and response. Pentecostal churches are therefore encouraged to be eager to learn from the lived experiences of pastors in Asia and receptive to contemplative aspects of Pentecostal spirituality.
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Appiah, Simon Kofi. "Thinking Africa in Postmission Theology: Implications for Global Theological Discourse." Exchange 51, no. 4 (December 22, 2022): 343–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1572543x-bja10007.
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Abstract It is necessary to consider the place of Africa in postmission theology, described here as ‘postmissionality,’ because of the high Christian percentage of the African population. This demography means that Africa is now, more than ever before, of great significance to global Christianity. In the same vein, it reveals that Christianity is an important variable in the development of Africa. The relevance of this dialogical relationship between Africa and Christianity extends beyond Africa into global Christianity, which is today experienced as the innovative realization of the Christian religion in de-imperializing contests. This paper discusses three – political/liberationist, multicultural/pluralism, and Pentecostal – of the many aspects of ‘postmissionality’ and shows how they can influence and advance the development of global theological discourse.
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Engelke, Matthew, and Frans J. Verstraelen. "Zimbabwean Realities and Christian Responses: Contemporary Aspects of Christianity in Zimbabwe." Journal of Religion in Africa 30, no. 4 (November 2000): 512. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1581596.
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Hughes, Rebecca C. "Expanding the Bounds of Christianity and Feminism." Journal of Religion in Africa 52, no. 1-2 (June 3, 2022): 22–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340223.
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Abstract As headmistress of the London Missionary Society’s Girls’ Boarding School from 1915–1940 in Mbereshi, Zambia, Mabel Shaw (1889–1973) created an innovative educational programme that embraced local culture and empowered women. Shaw drew from theological, anthropological, and feminist perspectives to guide her understanding of Bemba culture. Shaw built upon fulfilment theology with its premise that all religions had an element of God’s truth in them. In doing so, Shaw differentiated Western culture from Christian culture, creating space to accommodate practices such as ancestor veneration and polygamy. While scholars have been reluctant to label Shaw as a feminist, this author argues she must be recognized as one. Shaw actively collaborated with Bemba women and raised them as Christian saints. Moreover, Shaw was unique in that she urged her British audiences to listen to African voices and to consider the value of adopting aspects of African worship.
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Avis, Paul. "Stephen Sykes and the Essence of Christianity." Ecclesiology 15, no. 1 (February 6, 2019): 34–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/17455316-01501006.
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Stephen Sykes chastised English (especially Anglican) theology for its neglect of systematic and doctrinal theology and worked for its revival. He viewed the liberal tendency in English theology in the 1960s and 1970s as attributable, at least in part, to lack of doctrinal rigour and to ecclesiastical woolliness. Sykes contributed to methodological reflection on systematic theology, but his occasional forays into systematics were not his major efforts. However, one systematic theological topic to which Sykes made a significant contribution was the question of the essence of Christianity, which he pursued in critical dialogue with a galaxy of modern theologians. His account of the essence in relation to the ‘external’ and ‘internal’ aspects of Christianity is not satisfactory and his conclusion that the essence is an ‘essentially contested concept’ is disappointing. Nevertheless, his discussion sheds light on the problem and remains a stimulus and resource for further work on this topic.
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Cherenkov, Mychailo. "Human rights, "orthodoxy" and "heresy": philosophical and religious framework of interpretations." Religious Freedom 1, no. 19 (August 30, 2016): 60–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.32420/rs.2016.19.1.925.
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Post-secularism activates the role of religions in problematic and redefining seemingly inviolable foundations, axial ideas, key modernist concepts, including "human rights." It is worth noting that religious leaders and theologians evaluate "human rights" not only externally - as a political theory, ideology or even a separate religion, but each time they raise the question of the internal connection between Christianity and "human rights", which can acquire forms as "Orthodoxy", and "heresy". Attention to this connection, its forms and interpretations is exacerbated to the extent that the more expressive are the claims of postsecular versions of religiosity to the actual understanding of human rights and how weaker general, universal, transcendental foundations become. It is interesting to trace how the "heretical" and "orthodox" understanding of human rights changes as an example of Christianity, as the ratio of these understandings changes, and in the end, as the boundaries of "heretical" and "orthodox" in the Christianity themselves change - in its political-legal and philosophical-religious aspects .
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Lewis, David. "Problematising Hierarchy and Dualism for Ecological Concern: Johnsen’s Decolonial Methodology in Defence of Non-Hierarchical Worldmaking." Studies in World Christianity 30, no. 1 (March 2024): 62–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2024.0458.
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The climate crisis presents an urgent problem for World Christianity. Since Lynn White, Jr., argued that ‘Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen’ (White 1967), theologians have debated to what extent Christianity is responsible for ecological crisis. In this article, I will focus on two related problems for Christian thought that Majority World theologians have highlighted – hierarchy and dualism – in order to postulate what a non-hierarchical Christian worldview might entail, drawing on the work of Sámi Norwegian Lutheran theologian Tore Johnsen, primarily his recently published book Sámi Nature-Centered Christianity in the European Arctic (2022). This article utilises a multidisciplinary, World Christianity approach to theology that draws upon Johnsen’s work to examine the two themes of hierarchy and dualism, critically questioning these concepts and examining theological implications for the climate crisis. Johnsen’s research amongst the Sámi demonstrates their expression of ‘nature-centred’ Christianity that exhibits a non-hierarchical cosmology. He contrasts this with Western Christian expressions, in particular that of the Church of Norway. Johnsen’s decolonial approach questions aspects of the Western worldview critically and helpfully with reference to the climate crisis. This article therefore problematises two related concepts of hierarchy and dualism, notions which have become embedded within Christian tradition. In questioning these underlying concepts, it draws upon Johnsen’s work to consider whether and to what extent a non-hierarchical expression of Christianity might serve as a viable alternative.
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Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. "'"Christ is the Answer": What is the Question?' A Ghana Airways Prayer Vigil and its Implications for Religion, Evil and Public Space." Journal of Religion in Africa 35, no. 1 (2005): 93–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1570066052995834.
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AbstractReligion and life, both private and public, remain strongly linked in Africa. This was recently expressed in a prayer vigil organized by Ghana Airways when the staff and management invited a London-based Ghanaian evangelist, Lawrence Tetteh, to lead a 'healing and deliverance' service aimed at exorcizing evil spirits from the affairs of the airline and releasing it from its predicaments. The organization of a healing and deliverance session by a public corporation, it is argued, is symptomatic of the quick African resort to the sphere of religion in the search for solutions to life's difficulties. Religious functionaries including Pentecostal/ Charismatic pastors are important in Africa as purveyors of powerful prayers, potent medicines, and amulets for protection against evil. The Pentecostal 'healing and deliverance' ministry has become popular in African contexts like that of Ghana because it takes African worldviews of mystical causality seriously. This Christianity promises Christian alternatives to the search for security that drives people into the courts of other religious functionaries.
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Dadaeva, A. I. "RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF DEATH IN “HARRY POTTER”: MOTIFS OF RESURRECTION AND SACRIFICE." Bulletin of Udmurt University. Series History and Philology 32, no. 5 (October 14, 2022): 1110–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.35634/2412-9534-2022-32-5-1110-1114.
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The article explores recurring motifs of dying, resurrection and sacrifice in the Harry Potter series that one way or another are related to the theme of death in its religious interpretation. The author of this article analyzes the exact ways in which J.K. Rowling builds semantic fields of the theme of death, «marrying» tradition with modernity and referring to intertextuality, especially in her use of elements from Christianity and its tradition.
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Percy, Martyn. "A Practical-Prophetic-Pastoral Exemplar: An Extended Homily on the Ministry and Writings of Percy Dearmer." Journal of Anglican Studies 19, no. 1 (May 2021): 37–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1740355321000036.
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AbstractAn extended homily or meditation that focuses on some aspects of the life and work of Percy Dearmer. Dearmer, in his pastoral attentiveness, irenic prophetic action, and practical Christianity, sought to continue a distinctive English Anglican tradition of faithfully fulfilling his vocation through a richly incarnational ministry.
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Kangwa, Jonathan. "Prophecy, Divination and Gender Justice in the Lumpa Church in Zambia." Feminist Theology 27, no. 1 (September 2018): 75–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0966735018794485.
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This article examines the role of Prophecy and divination in the success of the Lumpa Church of Alice Mulenga Lenshina in Zambia. Concurring with James Amanze (2013), the article argues that the rapid growth of Christianity in Africa is to a large extent due to its engagement with prophecy and divination. Strong growth in African Christianity takes place mainly in the African Initiated Churches (AICs) which are Pentecostal-charismatic in their outlook. In these Churches the emphasis is on the prophetic ministry of the Church, evident in the performance of divination, healing and in predictions of the future. A good example is the Lumpa Church of Lenshina. Taking this Church as a case study, the article argues that Lenshina’s success and that of her Church are based on the fact that divination, prophecy and a search for gender justice were taken seriously.