Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots

Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots PDF Author: G. Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004100350
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This publication clearly indicates the dynamics of indigenous Christianity in Southern Africa with its holistic approach addressing the needs of their flocks in all dimensions of their existence. Their own church problems also receive attention.

Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots

Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots PDF Author: G. Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004100350
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This publication clearly indicates the dynamics of indigenous Christianity in Southern Africa with its holistic approach addressing the needs of their flocks in all dimensions of their existence. Their own church problems also receive attention.

Afro-Christian Religion at the Grassroots in Southern Africa

Afro-Christian Religion at the Grassroots in Southern Africa PDF Author: Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
ISBN: 9780889462267
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description


Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots

Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots PDF Author: G.C. Oosthuizen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004664580
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The spontaneous and rapid growth of indigenous African Christianity, especially in South Africa, has undermined the appropriateness of the term "mainline" for the traditional, denominational churches in the area. Some of these churches lost more than twenty-five percent of their membership in the period 1980-1990, while membership of the indigenous churches increased by a similar percentage in the same period. The contributions to this volume are based on grassroots research and each one treats some significant aspect within the life and work of this vast, self-motivating movement, a movement largely ignored for over a century by western-oriented Christianity. The work of these researchers clearly indicates how it is that African Indigenous Churches, with their holistic approach to religion - a feature of traditional African religion - serve as such a dynamic vehicle in effectively addressing the needs of their flocks. A further focus of the essays is on issues faced by these churches within their own church context.

Afro-Christian Religion and Healing in Southern Africa

Afro-Christian Religion and Healing in Southern Africa PDF Author: Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
This study seeks an understanding of one result of the syncretism of Southern African Christianity, namely, the increasing evidence among African Christians of ancestor veneration, belief in possession by alien spirits, dance-induced trancing, and witch beliefs.

Study of Religion in Southern Africa

Study of Religion in Southern Africa PDF Author: Johannes Smit
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047407490
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
This collection of essays in honour of Gerhardus Cornelis (Pippin) Oosthuizen, provides perspectives on current research in Religion and Southern Africa. It includes essays on Indigenous and Diaspora Religions and Religious Literature Hermeneutics.

All Things Hold Together

All Things Hold Together PDF Author: M. L. Daneel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The African Initiated Churches (AICs) in many parts of Southern Africa represent up to 50% and more of African Christianity. They have often been negatively characterised as 'sects' of a dubious Christian nature or as 'separatists', growing mainly by virtue of African reaction to the mission endeavours of Western denominations. In-depth studies appearing in this series, however, have convincingly illustrated that in terms of growth rates, indigenized evangelisation, missionary campaigns, and ecclesiastical contextualisation the AICs can no longer be regarded as a peripheral phenomenon. They belong to the mainstream of African Christianity and have developed innovative mission methods of their own which can only rate as a major contribution to the expanding Church in Africa. Although the individual essays focus on AIC leadership, worship, sacraments, healing, dialogue with practitioners of African Traditional Religion, and earthkeeping, the narration as a whole portrays the richness of AIC life and faith. The composite picture reflects the attraction this form of inculturated Christianity holds for African people - an attraction which stimulates recruitment and rapid church expansion.

Under the Canopy

Under the Canopy PDF Author: Linda Elaine Thomas
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 9781570033117
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The culture of a black South African community & the religion & rituals that enabled it to survive the devastating apartheid era.

Doing Theology at the Grassroots

Doing Theology at the Grassroots PDF Author: Kalilombe, Patrick A.
Publisher: Luviri Press
ISBN: 9996098206
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Patrick Kalilombe has been distinguished for more than twenty-five years as a pioneering theologian and ecclesiologist. Circumstances have determined that much of his best work has been produced and published outside Malawi and through such diversity of outlets that it is very difficult for students and others to have access to his work as a whole. Hence we are convinced that his collection of his essays will have a very wide appeal, both in Malawi and beyond. The chapters are quite varied in their origins and subjects but the reader will not take long to notice recurrent themes: the author's missionary vocation, the critical role of the "grassroots" in theological construction, the integrity of Chewa traditional beliefs, the combination of Catholic commitment with radical openness to all religious and cultural traditions. Throughout the book is a series of photographs which lead progressively through the events of Bishop Kalilombe's 25th Jubilee celebration at Mua in 1997.

The Healer-Prophet in Afro-Christian Churches

The Healer-Prophet in Afro-Christian Churches PDF Author: Gerhardus C. Oosthuizen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004319840
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Apart from the mainline, Pentecostal, and Zionist churches, there are different types of African Independent/Indigenous Churches (AIC). The greater part of the more than four thousand denominations and eight million adherents came into the AIC during the past three decades, mainly from the traditional African religious background. The important role of the diviner in the traditional society has been replaced by the prophet in the AIC; the prophet understands the worldview of his/her people, especially the cultural diseases. In some churches the office of prophet cum diviner is represented by one person. The AIC movement is the most dynamic church movement in many parts of Africa, especially Southern Africa. The consistent growth of these churches can largely be accounted for by the healing procedures they use, which ar highlighted in this study. Dr. Oosthuizen approaches healing from various angles, as sickness is not only determined by physical and psychological factors, but also by disturbed human relationships and socio-political and economic tensions.

Shembe, Ancestors, and Christ

Shembe, Ancestors, and Christ PDF Author: Edley J. Moodley PhD
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1630879967
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
The Christian axis has shifted dramatically southward to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, so much so that today there are more Christians living in these southern regions than among their northern counterparts. In the case of Africa, the African Initiated Churches-founded by Africans and primarily for Africans-has largely contributed to the exponential growth and proliferation of the Christian faith in the continent. Yet, even more profoundly, these churches espouse a brand of Christianity that is indigenized and thoroughly contextual. Further, the power and popularity of the AICs, beyond the unprecedented numbers joining these churches, are attributed to their relevance to the existential everyday needs and concerns of their adherents in the context of a postcolonial Africa. At the heart of Christian theology is Christology-the confessed uniqueness of Christ in history and among world religions. Yet this key feature of Christianity, as with other important elements of the Christian faith, may be variously understood and re-interpreted in these indigenous churches. The focus of this study is the amaNazaretha Church, an influential religious group founded by the African charismatic prophet Isaiah Shembe in 1911 in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The movement today claims a following of some two million adherents and has proliferated beyond the borders of South Africa to neighboring countries in Southern Africa. The book addresses the complex and at times ambivalent understanding of the person and work of Christ in the amaNazaretha Church, presenting the genesis, history, beliefs, and practices of this significant religious movement in South Africa, with broader implications for similar movements across the continent of Africa and beyond.