His research has helped to introduce and popularize new concepts in religious studies, such as the term reverse missionaries, referring to African prelates sent to Europe and the United States. Thus, everythingis not completely unpredictable and chaotic because of this order. Islam has experienced a similar rapid growth. Some traditional African societies like the Yoruba believed in the existence of lessergods. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, and which is being practised today in various forms and various shades and intensities by a very large number . 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. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. 4 0 obj Some Africans believe that the ancestors are equal in power to deities, while others believe they are not. Furthermore, the issue is whether a strict order of retribution cannot be tolerated if human ambition gets in the way of realizing enduring moral virtue and well-being. inequality and class divide, dreams and interpretation, names and religious identity. With regard to the issue of offering ones wife in generosity, this practice, as Laurenti Magesa has shown, applied to a very limited number of African ethnic groups, such as the Masai, and in very tightly controlled situations among friends within the same age group fraternity and on very limited occasions. <> 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. He sees the other faith as complementing and even adding spiritual potency to his own spiritual practice of constructing effective amulets. Commonly, God is believed to dwell in the skies. The Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional life in which brotherhood and the extended family play a central role. 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. in social anthropology from Oxford University, is studying for a master of theological studies (M.T.S.) SUMMARY OF REFORMED THEOLOGY IN 10 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. OLUPONA: No, this type of binary thinking is simplistic. For instance, if we were to lose indigenous African religions in Africa, then diviners would disappear, and if diviners disappeared, we would not only lose an important spiritual specialist for many Africans, but also an institution that for centuries has been the repository of African history, wisdom, and knowledge. 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. degree at Harvard Divinity School. For example, in 14 of the 19 countries surveyed, more than three-in-ten people say they sometimes consult traditional healers when someone in their household is sick. The Church is the Christian family, in which all are accompanied to one another through belief and baptism in Jesus Christ. The understanding of God normally needs some refining when one comes from African Traditional Religion to be a Christian. To understand African tradition, one needs to understand the position of African Traditional Religion on God, the human person, and creation. GAZETTE: But yet you said its a mixed bag? Traditional Africans made images of the Supreme God or other supernatural beingswhich they worshipped. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. The vigor with which the African Traditional Religion (ATR) has continued to resist the onslaught of Christianity is a cause of academic preoccupation. Devoid of essential personal characteristics they represent the essence of what might be called structural personality. 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. Authoring or editing more than half a dozen books on religion and African culture (including the recent African Religions: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press), Olupona has researched topics ranging from the indigenous religions of Africa to the religious practices of Africans who have settled in America. 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? . 1 Their central thrust is to emphasize the similarities rather than the differences between current movements in the world religions, particularly Christianity and Islam, but Christians do not have regard for their powers because they believethat they overcome all evil through the name of Jesus. This is the function of Gods providence and sustenance of the universe. Therefore, these traditional theologians condemned those who said, ATR and similar non-western religions are followed by irrational or foolish people who in their stupidity bow down to stones, trees and rivers instead of the Creator who created such objects and themselves. I answered two, The paper discusses the state of traditional African religion in post-apartheid South Africa. x + 306. In many communities across the world traditional beliefs and practices are passed down generations and are a feature of day-to-day life, despite the influence of outside sources. Religion is part and parcel of daily life. This is one of the most amazing opportunities l have to speak or write in the hope of bringing freedom, to show the value of every human life, and to help girls who are in immense suffering. Baptismis by being sprinkled on water or being dipped in water. Instead of God keeping his distance from man, He, throughout history and today reaches down in love to draw humans toward him. Omissions? He has researched and written about such diverse religious cultures as the Hare Krishnas, Zoroastrians, Shakers, and the Old Order Amish. Witchcraft was also feared and witchdoctors were respected as they had power tocurse, make people get sick or end their life. It was believed that Vodun was a representativeof the Supreme God known as Mawu. This is called the Trinity. In five countries (Tanzania, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal and Mali) majorities express this belief. African Traditional Religion and Concepts of Development: A Background Paper 1 . } Part one looks briefly at the matter of religion itself. An important area Green points to has to do with the role of God in these two systems of thought. Africans believe in the existence of a mystical, invisible, hidden, spiritual power in the universe. Belief in the ancestors presents the idea of reciprocity in the African traditional moral world. x\s6Q|jyLd*{-Jb"$e~ $@ 6G"F@w? Traditional Africans communicated to God through ancestors. This condition is under a traditional religion belief called the trokosi system or wives of the ancestral gods. These ancestral gods lived in the spiritual world, which according to ATR, is the world populated by spirits. It evolved through many centuries, before the westerner come to Africa. Second, Africans believe in a moral order given by God, stipulated by the ancestors in the past. 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. Christ Jesus, God's own son, takes the "groaning" of humans to God. They are not mutually exclusive. They take the communion to remember thedeath and resurrection of Jesus. GAZETTE: What is the state of indigenous African religions today? 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. In the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups the above phenomenological conception of ATR called for education in the light of the scriptures. OLUPONA: Yes, its a mixed bag because in the African diaspora mostly due to the slave trade starting in the 15th century indigenous African religions have spread and taken root all over the world, including in the United States and Europe. One of Jacob Oluponas earliest memories in Massachusetts is of nearly freezing in his apartment as a graduate student at Boston University during the great snowstorm of 1978. These shrines were built near waterbodies, next to big trees or near other sacred places. Different fathers played a role in the development of this religion. But it is also the strict commitment, to the observance of certain (written or unwritten) divinely inspired moral prescriptions or codes of ethics, promulgated by the religious authorities and enforced by sanctions. stream Ifa is an indispensable treasure trove of knowledge that cant be duplicated elsewhere; much of its knowledge has been handed down from babalawo [Ifa priest/diviner] to babalawo for centuries. The Church also combines those who have died and those who still live. The writing of this paper is another opportunity given to me so that l would use my talents given by the Holy Spirit to help our relatives still under the worldview of Satan to see and come into the Light of Life. SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCE, CONTEXT AND TRADITION, IN https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972016000565, Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. KEYWORDS: African Culture, Christian God, Deities, Religion, Values. Moral culpability is always on the shoulders of humanity. The same hierarchy evident in the relationship between God, the ancestors, and humanity is also present in the relationship between the animate and the inanimate world, the former being superior to the latter. As I have discussed elsewhere in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African, for example, some African societies are so conscious of the implications of crossing the line on some ethical matters, like adultery, incest, and murder, that anyone who engages in these acts is considered automatically to be putting the very survival of the community in danger. It is a counter culture in response to the, The move towards contextual Christianity in Africa is an essential venture if Christianity is to communicate with the African cultural heritage. l| -O;l0bo?Ge_4=MQ=EO|`X\G~Ah,yyG]%,GmF/-w F%YX`Ip}( na~!e[X/K879 ,y?R'd&h. d?ZKS=h8\%M{h(5M=xUeQG:3Sp}#-%>KpC3`zI *vw() 2 0 obj 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). As a resident fellow, Sherman will teach a study group on negotiation and diplomacy this semester. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. (1981) and Ph.D. (1983) in the history of religions from Boston University. I should add that without claiming to be full members of indigenous traditions, there are many professed Christians and Muslims who participate in one form of indigenous religious rituals and practices or another. They claimed or argued strongly that in the light of the more objective or scientific study of religions, ATR can no longer be justifiably characterized as stupid, since the worshippers do not worship the said material objects per se, but the Spirit of the Creator reflected in them. of the people which are all together. The missionaries succeeded in spreading Christianity in Africa at a time when tribal religions were ignored or denigrated. Traditional African religious influences on the church and the Bible It is worth noting that Cameroonians ferociously resisted foreign religions in the 18th century to maintain their traditional religions when Christianity entered Cameroon (Betoto, 2012). (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax The spiritual medium is the physical embodiment of the religious retributive order in which Africans know themselves to stand.. However, they do not seek the services of magicians orwitchdoctors. Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z Africans had shrines they believedGod dwelt in. GAZETTE: What allows African indigenous religions to be so accommodating? 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. Holding or maintaining to a uniform doctrine is not the essence of indigenous African religions. 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. In respect and honor of my culture, I also dress in my traditional Nigerian attire when Im in my country. and O?+dOw\eOoHc_o~ Q:c qeM1ehb/j|-Xyy#=g vnxX,o"\4/I+{U40f_dX!y2#i.7Xi0}zi*_Qk({_8D2M"09E%kR`O"}Ec#O3+lwP/z[r=]jPh!eC6Ci{FKnW4 <> ABSTRACT The concept of God in the traditional religion of Akan and Ewe ethnic groups compare to the Bible By Godwin Kwame Ofosuhene I am going to focus this writing, on how the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups of Ghana, understood God in their traditional religious practices and after that compare or discuss these beliefs in the light of the Holy Scriptures. This view influences the way humans relate to the universe: on the one hand, they strive to maintain harmony between themselves and the invisible universe by observing the moral and religious order; at the same time, humans see the universe in a utilitarian way, from the point of view of what is beneficial or harmful to them. This bitter conflict has led to wanton destruction of lives and property, and this has become a source of great worry to the writers. 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. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa. 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. The introduced religions of Islam (in northern Africa) and Christianity (in southern Africa) are now the continent's major religions, but traditional religions still play an important role, especially in the interior of sub-Saharan Africa. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. "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. As judge, God is understood to uphold this standard by ultimately punishing its violations and by rewarding the righteous (usually in some eschatological domain). OLUPONA: Indigenous African religions refer to the indigenous or native religious beliefs of the African people before the Christian and Islamic colonization of Africa. 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. 4 0 obj However,among the people of South Benin in West Africa sometimes the lesser god known asVodun would ask for human sacrifices. 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