This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. Human beings are the link between the heavens and the earth, between the visible and the invisible universe. University of Notre Dame, McGrath Institute for Church Life Like Ronald Green, Magesa argues that African Traditional Religion is in the background of all African religiosity, both in Christianity and Islam, and supplies the basic attitude or worldview of most African Christians. INTRODUCTION Man considers life worth living because he finds certain things intrinsically valuable; hence value in its simple connotation means a thing of worth. A holistic interpretation of the book between Paul and James. Everywhere he went in southwestern Nigeria, he never opposed or spoke out against African culture including initiation rites, festivals, and traditional Yoruba dress as long as it didnt directly conflict with Christianity. 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. African Traditional Religion appears to be a self-sufficient system, both from atheological point of view, in that it provides answers to questions of ultimate reality and meaning, at least to its adherents; and from the point of view of morality, in that it provides the moral rules, norms, and instruction in virtues by which human beings can live upright moral lives. The worship can be direct , but is done (mostly) indirectly through divine agents like the gods or divinities (abosom in Akan , legbaa in Ewe ) and the ancestors. OLUPONA: My father, a faithful Anglican priest, was a good example. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. of the people which are all together. 1xxp~I7m#MWjxAqN,PT2^]R6C3Y'K~Bwv4-xwE@;5 God, the ancestors, and the spirits are all moral powers whose actions affect human life in various ways and to various degrees. A Background to Religion and Magic in Western Thought Our modern usage of the term 'magic' derives from the Greek magike, I wont pray to an orisa, but I will affirm the importance of my connection with members of my age group. 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. Keywords: contextualization . All rights reserved. Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z The understanding of God normally needs some refining when one comes from African Traditional Religion to be a Christian. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Holding or maintaining to a uniform doctrine is not the essence of indigenous African religions. But after braving that first blizzard in a land far from his native Nigeria, Olupona stuck it out and earned his Ph.D. Pratten, David In some communities masks were used to representcertain gods or ancestral spirits. 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, . We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. This paper uses a qualitative research approach in the form of document analysis to critically explore the religious intersectionalities between Christianity and African Traditional. Traditional Africans made images of the Supreme God or other supernatural beingswhich they worshipped. Read our research on: Congress | Economy | Black Americans, Side by side with their high levels of commitment to Christianity and Islam, many people in the countries surveyed retain beliefs and rituals that are characteristic of traditional African religions. Africans had shrines they believedGod dwelt in. This is not to say that indigenous African spirituality represents a form of theocracy or religious totalitarianism not at all. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. Those to whom this power is accessible can use it for good, such as healing, rainmaking, or divination, while others can use it for harm, through magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. Corrections? 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. Traditional Africans communicated to God through ancestors. |,utv2QdjrqfM7PC)2-|O7,0[i=_a/Om"X`Y2FpXBjsFxCqDd`%*g,-J1e*jjq,tm{w>qAsAqN$D Some ancestors may even be reincarnated to replenish the lineage. For example, an African amulet might have inside of it a written verse from either the Koran or Christian Bible. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. GAZETTE: How do you balance your Christian and indigenous African identity? Some traditional African societies like the Yoruba believed in the existence of lessergods. This supreme . 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. Pp. They take the communion to remember thedeath and resurrection of Jesus. 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/ 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? Christ Jesus, God's own son, takes the "groaning" of humans to God. Traditional Africans worshipped in shrines. They believe that Obatala helped Olurun in creating theworld and everything in it. Ritual sacrifices and witchcraft beliefs are still common. Traditional Religion as a source of African theology just as Christian theology is. 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 . This power is not accessible to everyone, and in most cases it is inborn, but the person has to learn how to use it. OLUPONA: The role of ancestors in the African cosmology has always been significant. Indigenous African spirituality today is increasingly falling out of favor. 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). Church Life Journal Christians do not have regard for their powers because they believethat they overcome all evil through the name of Jesus. Prayers and sacrificial offerings are usually directed toward secondary divinities, who are intermediaries between the human and sacred realms. as a burnt offering. 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. Olupona, professor of indigenous African religions at Harvard Divinity School and professor of African and African-American studies in Harvards Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently sat down for an interview about his lifelong research on indigenous African religions. 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. 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. This should make it clear why some African intellectuals would question the relevance of Christianity on the continent. 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. "useRatesEcommerce": false by Richard Chowning [ ATR Topics Page | Africa Missions Research and Strategy Page | Africa Missions Main Page | Help ] [ QuickStart ] Creator God The supreme being in most African Traditional Religions is seen as the creator of humans and all other living things. Veneration of departed ancestors is a major characteristic of all traditional religions. GAZETTE: How have ancestors played a role in traditional societies? 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. / 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, 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. An old African adage says: The sky is large enough for birds to fly around without one having to bump into the other.. 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. <> It was believed that the animals blood appeased God. Christianity, African traditional religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism. Before you discuss on how somebody is doing something, it is also good to look at the reason why the person is doing that thing, so that you can be in a better position to educate the person properly. To ensure that a natural balance is maintained between the world of the sacred and that of the profane, the roles of the chief within the state, family elders in relation to the lineage, and the priest within society, are crucial. These could be caves, forests,mountains and so on. This is a universal belief among Africans. Both have places of worship. Inculturation, as we will argue later in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African, sheds the light of the gospel on cultural practices like this one to reveal what is sinful in them and to show that human beings, especially women, in this case, deserve better treatment than this. Modernity has not put a total stop to its influence. The cup of wine symbolises the blood Jesus shedand the bread symbolises His body which was broken for us. It appeals more to social scientists than to those working in religious studies, particularly scholars of specific religious traditions. One of the things these diaspora African religions testify to is the beauty of African religions to engage a devotee on many spiritual levels. It was believed that Vodun was a representativeof the Supreme God known as Mawu. Wendy Sherman, who was the lead U.S. negotiator in the nuclear deal with Iran, was welcomed by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. In four countries, for instance, half or more of the population believes that sacrifices to ancestors or spirits can protect them from harm. $70.00/$25.00. The idea is that the traditional African practitioner who constructed that amulet believes in the efficacy of other faiths and religions; there is no conflict in his mind between his traditional African spirituality and another faith. People may complain to God and the ancestors, but they will never accuse them of any moral wrongdoing. He sees the other faith as complementing and even adding spiritual potency to his own spiritual practice of constructing effective amulets. They do not offer any libation. Even though their differences outnumber their. Published online by Cambridge University Press: <>>> They are not mutually exclusive. endobj Traditional theologians explained that one could not worship the Supreme Being formally, without the agency of the divinities or ancestors. Religion as a source of African religions testify to is the beauty of African religions in traditional?! 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similarities between african traditional religion and christianity pdf