Shembe, Ancestors, and Christ

Shembe, Ancestors, and Christ PDF Author: Edley J. Moodley
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1556358806
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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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.

Shembe, Ancestors, and Christ

Shembe, Ancestors, and Christ PDF Author: Edley J. Moodley
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1556358806
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book

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.

Theology of a South African Messiah

Theology of a South African Messiah PDF Author: Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004669620
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description


IziHlabelelo ZamaNazaretha

IziHlabelelo ZamaNazaretha PDF Author: Isaiah Shembe
Publisher: University of Natal Press
ISBN: 9781869141363
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
The texts comprise the original isiZulu hymns as well as English translations, and are brought to life with an accompanying compact disc of song, story and interview excerpts. These include detail about the seminal moment of change and controversy in the 1990s, when the organ was introduced by church member and ethnomusicologist, Bongani Mthethwa, to accompany the Shembe hymnal repertory. The initiative gave birth to dozens of youth choirs who sang the hymns in a new style, and began to compose their own repertory about Shembe in a more `gospel-inflected' musical version of their faith. --

Text and Authority in the South African Nazaretha Church

Text and Authority in the South African Nazaretha Church PDF Author: Joel Cabrita
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107054435
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
This book tells the story of one of the largest and most influential African churches in South Africa.

The Theology of a South African Messiah

The Theology of a South African Messiah PDF Author: Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen
Publisher: Brill Archive
ISBN: 9789004047723
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description


Jesus Christ as Logos Incarnate and Resurrected Nana (Ancestor)

Jesus Christ as Logos Incarnate and Resurrected Nana (Ancestor) PDF Author: Rudolf K. Gaisie
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725252856
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
This book seeks to demonstrate the significance of Ancestor Christology in African Christianity for christological developments in World Christianity. Ancestor Christology has developed in the process of an African conversion story of appropriating the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:4) in the category of ancestors. Logos Christology in early Christian history developed as an intricate byproduct in the conversion process of turning Hellenistic ideas towards the direction of Christ (A. F. Walls). Hellenistic Christian writers and modern African Christian writers thus share some things in common and when their efforts are examined within the conversion process framework there are discernible modes of engagement. The mode of Logos Christology that one finds in Origen, for example, is an innovative application of the understanding of Jesus Christ as Logos (incarnate); a new key but not discontinuous with the Johannine suggestive mode or the clarificatory mode of Justin Martyr. African Ancestor Christology is at the threshold of an innovative mode and the argument this book makes is that this strand of African Christology should be pursued in the indigenous languages aided by respective translated Bibles; a suggested way is a Logos-Ancestor (Nanasɛm) discourse in Akan Christianity.

Jesus Christ as Ancestor

Jesus Christ as Ancestor PDF Author: Reuben Turbi Luka
Publisher: Langham Publishing
ISBN: 1783687177
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
In this critical study, Dr Turbi Luka uses historical-theological methodology to engage in detail with Christologies of key African theologians and conventional theological sources for Christology, including the church fathers Tertullian and Athanasius as well as modern theologians. Turbi argues that existing African Christologies, specifically ancestor Christologies, are inadequate in expressing the person of Christ as Messiah and saviour, the fulfilment of Old Testament prophesies. Providing a new approach, Turbi proposes an African Linguistic Affinity Christology that explicitly portrays Jesus as Christ in a contextually relevant way for Africans in everyday life. This crucial study highlights the need for biblically rooted Christology and for sound theological understanding and naming of Jesus at every level. This book also warns the church in Africa, and elsewhere, to avoid repeating the dangerous christological heresies of the ancient church by remaining faithful to a biblical interpretation and orthodox theology of Christ.

Shembe

Shembe PDF Author: Absolom Vilakazi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description


Intercultural Theology, Volume One

Intercultural Theology, Volume One PDF Author: Henning Wrogemann
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830873090
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
Christianity is not only a global but also an intercultural phenomenon. The diversity of world Christianity is evident not merely outside our borders but even within our own neighborhoods.M Over the past half century theologians and missiologists have addressed this reality by developing local and contextual theologies and by exploring issues like contextualization, inculturation, and translation. In recent years these various trajectories have coalesced into a new field called intercultural theology. Bringing together missiology, religious studies, social science research, and Christian theology, the field of intercultural theology is a fresh attempt to rethink the discipline of theology in light of the diversity and pluriformity of Christianity today. Henning Wrogemann, one of the leading missiologists and scholars of religion in Europe, has written the most comprehensive textbook on the subject of Christianity and culture today. In three volumes his Intercultural Theology provides an exhaustive account of the history, theory, and practice of Christian mission. Volume one introduces the concepts of culture and context, volume two surveys theologies of mission both past and present, and volume three explores theologies of religion and interreligious relationships. In this first volume on intercultural hermeneutics, Wrogemann introduces the term "intercultural theology" and investigates what it means to understand another cultural context. In addition to surveying different hermeneutical theories and concepts of culture, he assesses how intercultural understanding has taken place throughout the history of Christian mission. Wrogemann also provides an extensive discussion of contextual theologies with a special focus on African theologies. Intercultural Theology is an indispensable resource for all people—especially students, pastors, and scholars—that explores the defining issues of Christian identity and practice in the context of an increasingly intercultural and interreligious world. Missiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.

Vision in Progress

Vision in Progress PDF Author: Rodney Ragwan
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1608995577
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The work of American Baptist missionaries among the Telugu people in India in the nineteenth century came to fruition in 1897, when Telugus established their own indigenous missionary organization, the Telugu Home Missionary Society. Six years later, in 1903, the society took the highly ambitious step of sending one of its own, John Rangiah, to South Africa as a missionary to work among Telugus who'd gone to that country as indentured laborers. Vision in Progress tells the story of Indian Baptists' work in South Africa, work mitigated by the negatives influences of colonialism and racism, manifested by the openly racist South African doctrine of apartheid. It examines the values, missions philosophy, and struggles of John Rangiah and of others--men and women--who have shaped the history of Indian Baptists in South Africa up to this day. In telling this story, the author provides a thorough history of the organization Indian Baptists formed--the Baptist Association of South Africa--and its friction-filled efforts to work alongside other Baptist groups. Informational and inspirational, Vision in Progress serves ultimately as a testimony of people of great faith who were up against tremendous odds.