African Origins of the Major "Western Religions"

African Origins of the Major Author: Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Publisher: Black Classic Press
ISBN: 9780933121294
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Dr. Ben critically examines the history, beliefs, and myths that are the foundation of Judaism. Christianity, and Islam.

African Origins of the Major "Western Religions"

African Origins of the Major Author: Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Publisher: Black Classic Press
ISBN: 9780933121294
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Dr. Ben critically examines the history, beliefs, and myths that are the foundation of Judaism. Christianity, and Islam.

African Origins of the Major World Religions

African Origins of the Major World Religions PDF Author: Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Publisher: Lushena Books
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Featuring Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Charles S. Finch,Modupe Oduyoye, Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin and Wayne B.,Chandler.,.

African Origins of Monotheism

African Origins of Monotheism PDF Author: Gwinyai H. Muzorewa
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1620323109
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
African Origins of Monotheism recasts an African knowledge of God in a new and original way. It aims to recapture concepts of God as originally reflected upon by pristine African religious thinkers. Muzorewa is seeking after the traditional African understandings of the Divine, which trace their origins back before the rise of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Monotheism, he maintains, is the ancient view of God, ubiquitous across the continent of Africa; indeed, monotheism comes "out of Africa." The book challenges the way that the idea of God has been manipulated by Eurocentric agendas, by colonizers, enslavers, and empire builders, all of whom were using God-talk to achieve their own personal ends. In African thinking, the God concept is guided by a sense of the presence of the all-pervasive and omnipresent God, which has instilled in the people a sense of respect for life at all costs. Thus, respect is not based on a commandment or on fear but on a propensity for affinity.

African Religion

African Religion PDF Author: Aloysius Muzzanganda Lugira
Publisher: Facts on File
ISBN: 9780816057290
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Looks at the history of African religion and its basic beliefs, discussing oral tradition, rituals, sacred spaces and places, mystical forces, and how it is practiced today.

African Religions

African Religions PDF Author: Douglas Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1610697529
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
This book supplies fundamental information about the diverse religious beliefs of Africa, explains central tenets of the African worldview, and overviews various forms of African spiritual practices and experiences. Africa is an ancient land with a significant presence in world history—especially regarding the history of the United States, given the ethnic origins of a substantial proportion of the nation's population. This book presents a broad range of information about the diverse religious beliefs of Africa that serves to describe the beliefs, practices, deities, sacred places, and creation stories of African religions. Readers will learn about key forms of spiritual practices and experiences, such as incantations and prayer, dance as worship, and spirit possession, all of which pepper African American religious experiences today. The entries also discuss central tenets of the African worldview—for example, the belief that humankind is not to fight nature, but to integrate into the natural environment. This volume is specifically written to be highly accessible to students. It provides a much-needed source of connections between the religious traditions and practices of African Americans and those of the people of the continent of Africa. Through these connections, this work will inspire tolerance of other religions, traditions, and backgrounds. The included selection of primary documents provides users first-hand accounts of African religious beliefs and practices, serving to promote critical thinking skills and support Common Core State Standards.

African Historical Religions

African Historical Religions PDF Author: E. Curtis Alexander
Publisher: Eca Assoc
ISBN: 9780938818052
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description


Òrìşà Devotion as World Religion

Òrìşà Devotion as World Religion PDF Author: Jacob Kẹhinde Olupona
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299224646
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Book Description
As the twenty-first century begins, tens of millions of people participate in devotions to the spirits called Òrìsà. This book explores the emergence of Òrìsà devotion as a world religion, one of the most remarkable and compelling developments in the history of the human religious quest. Originating among the Yorùbá people of West Africa, the varied traditions that comprise Òrìsà devotion are today found in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia. The African spirit proved remarkably resilient in the face of the transatlantic slave trade, inspiring the perseverance of African religion wherever its adherents settled in the New World. Among the most significant manifestations of this spirit, Yorùbá religious culture persisted, adapted, and even flourished in the Americas, especially in Brazil and Cuba, where it thrives as Candomblé and Lukumi/Santería, respectively. After the end of slavery in the Americas, the free migrations of Latin American and African practitioners has further spread the religion to places like New York City and Miami. Thousands of African Americans have turned to the religion of their ancestors, as have many other spiritual seekers who are not themselves of African descent. Ifá divination in Nigeria, Candomblé funerary chants in Brazil, the role of music in Yorùbá revivalism in the United States, gender and representational authority in Yorùbá religious culture--these are among the many subjects discussed here by experts from around the world. Approaching Òrìsà devotion from diverse vantage points, their collective effort makes this one of the most authoritative texts on Yorùbá religion and a groundbreaking book that heralds this rich, complex, and variegated tradition as one of the world's great religions.

Africas of the Americas

Africas of the Americas PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047432703
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
The anthropology and history of African American religious formations has long been dominated by approaches aiming to recover and authenticate the historical transatlantic continuities linking such traditions to identifiable African source cultures. While not denying such continuities, the contributors to this volume seek to transcend this research agenda by bracketing "Africa" and "African pasts" as objective givens, and asking instead what role notions of "Africanity" and "pastfulness" play in the social and ritual lives of historical and contemporary practitioners of Afro-Atlantic religious formations. The volume’s goal is to open up contextually salient claims to "African origins" to empirical scrutiny, and so contribute to a broadening of the terms of debate in Afro-Atlantic studies.

The Religious Traditions of Africa

The Religious Traditions of Africa PDF Author: Elizabeth Isichei
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031305228X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
This work is a first of its kind historical introduction to the major religions of Africa. The vast majorities of Africa's peoples have been Muslim, Christian, or Traditionalist for a great deal of time, making an inclusive study of these religions essential. Isichei's work gives equal attention to all three religions and balances the elements of each to construct an easily accessible overview. It is also the first book to provide a comprehensive look at the traditional religion in Africa, filling the void in the literature on African religious history. Written by a pioneering scholar in the African religious experience, this volume blends in-depth research and personnel accounts to explore the origins and effects of religion in Africa. While primarily a work of history this book also incorporates the latest findings while engaging with current issues such as the interface of neo-traditional religion and contemporary cultures. This work includes four sections, each dedicated to a separate religion, detailed maps, a glossary, and a guide to further reading.

African Religions: A Very Short Introduction

African Religions: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Jacob K. Olupona
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199790787
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
What are African religions? African Religions: A Very Short Introduction answers this question by examining primarily indigenous religious traditions on the African continent, as well as exploring Christianity and Islam. It focuses on the diversity of ethnic groups, languages, cultures, and worldviews, emphasizing the continent's regional diversity. Olupona examines a wide range of African religious traditions on their own terms and in their social, cultural, and political contexts. For example, the book moves beyond ethnographic descriptions and interpretations of core beliefs and practices to look at how African religion has engaged issues of socioeconomic development and power relations. Olupona examines the myths and sacred stories about the origins of the universe that define ethnic groups and national identities throughout Africa. He also discusses spiritual agents in the African cosmos such as God, spirits, and ancestors. In addition to myths and deities, Olupona focuses on the people central to African religions, including medicine men and women, rainmakers, witches, magicians, and divine kings, and how they serve as authority figures and intermediaries between the social world and the cosmic realm. African Religions: A Very Short Introduction discusses a wide variety of religious practices, including music and dance, calendrical rituals and festivals, celebrations for the gods' birthdays, and rituals accompanying stages of life such as birth, puberty, marriage, elderhood, and death. In addition to exploring indigenous religions, Olupona examines the ways Islam and Christianity as outside traditions encountered indigenous African religion. He shows how these incoming faith traditions altered the face and the future of indigenous African religions as well as how indigenous religions shaped two world religions in Africa and the diaspora. Olupona draws on archaeological and historical sources, as well as ethnographic materials based on fieldwork. He shows that African religions are not static traditions, but have responded to changes within their local communities and to fluxes caused by outside influences, and spread with diaspora and migration.