<> It is worth noting that these animals areat no time offered as burnt offerings to God. A Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, by Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor Consequently, traditional Africans have different ideas on what role the ancestors play in the lives of living descendants. :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 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. Everything is said to center on them. of the people which are all together. . <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> 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. There are also the lesser gods that take residency in streams, rivers, trees and mountains. Belief in the ancestors presents the idea of reciprocity in the African traditional moral world. A holistic interpretation of the book between Paul and James. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. The Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional life in which brotherhood and the extended family play a central role. A follower of African diaspora religions has many choices in terms of seeking spiritual help or succor. Witchcraft was also feared and witchdoctors were respected as they had power tocurse, make people get sick or end their life. / DI41@ tD}r;Y w,XVzwiA1JtvrlfFaD7E@s 00=L"q{Vf\}ioKy=lXS.P6ChX m% ~nUV)=vp%FBvy}+6,0+V8sG&>K_iBOntQvyCN[I'uvR;}hA/D|+I9Q$cL, Traditional African religious beliefs, such as belief in the protective power of sacrifices to ancestors, Traditional African religious practices, such as owning sacred objects. x][oH~GroA $9,f K3d~VU_% fYU]q{Z?Fo?>w&j/n>>]?b5M._GYTQ|_W/_c\yA,bQQ)xn0ZtK*Q/Xb)zetab~x2e*w1Ym2n}{%2Kt[nQ,^'D^}WI_:'ym;eup|5>)$c4"y"E_C/ 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. They do so by going to the hospital. For example, sickness in the indigenous African worldview is not only an imbalance of the body, but also an imbalance in ones social life, which can be linked to a breakdown in ones kinship and family relations or even to ones relationship with ones ancestors. Christian teaching forbids making of any kinds ofimages to represent God. 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. 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. 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 . Mystical power is found in all of them, in diminishing degrees. I had it. OLUPONA: No, this type of binary thinking is simplistic. Eternal Rest of the Soul. 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. In this paper, I interrogated the Gabola church in terms of its origins, purpose and its distinctiveness as a postcolonial manifestation of freedom of religion in South Africa. 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. The success of Christianity and Islam on the African continent in the last 100 years has been extraordinary, but it has been, unfortunately, at the expense of African indigenous religions. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa. INTRODUCTION Man considers life worth living because he finds certain things intrinsically valuable; hence value in its simple connotation means a thing of worth. Whilst interacting with the local African indigenous communities, and observing, The contact between African Traditional Religion (ATR) and Christianity is inextricably linkedto European economic activities that culminated into colonialism. 1"7$X9Xyyyb GNpL!9I&mxo0++44cA@5c. May the Lord assist us to know the truth and walk in it. Green points out that there is a rational basis to African Traditional Religion that shows, in Kantian terms, that there is a deep structure of universal moral and religious reason to it. The three requirements of reason at the heart of this structure are: first, a basic rule or procedure of moral choice; second, a metaphysic grounding the possibility of strict moral retribution; and third, . 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. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. x + 306. These intermediary agents include the ancestors, members of the community who at death become idealized. This should make it clear why some African intellectuals would question the relevance of Christianity on the continent. For the full article, see, New religions, independent churches, and prophetic movements, https://www.britannica.com/summary/African-religions. Whenever. 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. To understand African tradition, one needs to understand the position of African Traditional Religion on God, the human person, and creation. 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. Taboos and customs cover all aspects of human life: words, foods, dress, relations among people, marriage, burial, work, and so forth: A part of this belief in the moral and religious order is belief in the invisible universe, which consists of divinities, spirits, and the ancestors (the living dead). The African Traditional Religion, which is still in place today, can be compared to Christianity through their similarities and differences. (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. 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. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. The contact was in fact,between two. 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. The vigor with which the African Traditional Religion (ATR) has continued to resist the onslaught of Christianity is a cause of academic preoccupation. 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. Part one looks briefly at the matter of religion itself. for this article. Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-79tgq % 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. Postcolonial, Abstract Interfaith dialogue is commonly used in building peace and understanding among religious groups. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Such activities include the making of sacrifices and the pouring of libations. But after braving that first blizzard in a land far from his native Nigeria, Olupona stuck it out and earned his Ph.D. This is not to say that indigenous African spirituality represents a form of theocracy or religious totalitarianism not at all. This is called the Trinity. ufF'dXeA^l4a*0(1l HLtA@a2O>bOk)x6*. Omissions? GAZETTE: But yet you said its a mixed bag? Animism is a common feature of African religions, and misfortune is often attributed to witchcraft and sorcery. African religions, Indigenous religions of the African continent. 3 0 obj Ritual functionaries include priests, elders, rainmakers, diviners, and prophets. Baptismis by being sprinkled on water or being dipped in water. Updated: 10 . This hierarchy is also evident in human society, where there are chiefs, clan heads, family heads, older siblings, and so on. Itis made of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit working together as one. While some African cosmologies have a clear idea of a supreme being, other cosmologies do not. Christ Jesus, God's own son, takes the "groaning" of humans to God. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. Additionally, I will not discourage, disparage, or try and convert those who practice their form of African indigenous religions. GAZETTE: Are ancestors considered deities in the traditional African cosmology? Traditional African religion does not show any belief in the Trinity. As a resident fellow, Sherman will teach a study group on negotiation and diplomacy this semester. 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. In some communities masks were used to representcertain gods or ancestral spirits. Our duty is to preach the Word of God and trust the saving grace of Jesus Christ for conversion of souls. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. But as we learnt in Unit One, Christians can also worship Him attheir homes or other places. &RcIX6Wa). The other very big difference between African Traditional Religion and Christianity is the worship. 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. It was believed that the animals blood appeased God. These spirit do not carry the desires of humans to the Creator God. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. ^xH&M'YZ7EDi%qN^K Moreover, the religions developed in the Americas impact Africa in that devotees of the African diaspora have significant influence on practices in Africa. Christ was tempted in all the ways Modernity has not put a total stop to its influence. Both have places of worship. 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). One is also sometimes givena new name after baptism. . Mbiti makes a very controversial point when he claims that in African societies there are no acts that would be considered wrong in themselves. Indigenous African religions are by nature plural, varied, and usually informed by ones ethnic identity, where ones family came from in Africa. Some scholars have rightly observed that the centre of gravity of Christianity is shifting from the West to the two-thirds world, that is Asia, South America and Africa. Part two provides a condensed historical survey of the, The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters, by R. S. Sugirtharajah. They can also be the dead of the tribe, following the order of primogeniture. Christians do not believe in the existence of any other godapart from the Supreme Being. Indigenous African religions are pragmatic. KEYWORDS: African Culture, Christian God, Deities, Religion, Values. 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`! When one becomes a Christian he/she is baptised. 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. 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