African Religions
Author: Jacob K. Olupona
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 177
ISBN-13: 0199790582
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book connects traditional religions to the thriving religious activity in Africa today.
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African Religions
Author: Douglas Thomas
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Published: 2019
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 1610697510
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis 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.
Encyclopedia of African Religion
Author: Molefi Kete Asante
Publisher: SAGE
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 473
ISBN-13: 1412936365
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCollects almost five hundred entries that cover the African response to spirituality, taboos, ethics, sacred space, and objects.
Religious Plurality in Africa
Author: Jacob K. Olupona
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2013-03-01
Total Pages: 480
ISBN-13: 3110850079
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.
Contemporary Perspectives on Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora
Author: Carolyn M. Jones Medine
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2015-10-14
Total Pages: 509
ISBN-13: 1137498056
DOWNLOAD EBOOKContemporary Perspectives on Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora explores African derived religions in a globalized world. The volume focuses on the continent, on African identity in globalization, and on African religion in cultural change.
Phenomenological Approaches to Religion and Spirituality
Author: Essien, Essien D.
Publisher: IGI Global
Published: 2021-01-29
Total Pages: 298
ISBN-13: 1799845966
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThere is an interesting knowledge trajectory that God remains incomprehensible, not imperceptible. This lends credence to the fact that religious study since the Enlightenment has dedicated itself almost entirely to the problem of reconciling the non-existence of God in the physical world with his necessary existence in the metaphysical world. When seriously examined, it would be discovered that these two aspects are logically contradictory, and this is a problem with no solution. But interpreting God not as a physical being but as a phenomenological thing changes the nature of the problem enough that a solution emerges almost automatically. In this phenomenological model, the crux of the matter is that God does not exist, but God is real. Therefore, it is imperative to return to experience and verifiability, hence, purging it of unexamined and often hidden assumptions. Phenomenological Approaches to Religion and Spirituality brings together the different disciplines and research approaches to provide a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenology of God and spirituality, as well as offering an effective epistemological apparatus capable of dealing with this concept. The book employs multidisciplinary approaches from religious studies, theology, philosophy, anthropology, and other segments to dissect the subject matter for efficient evaluation and all-inclusive findings. While covering various aspects of religion such as the testaments of the Bible, the church, the religious experience, and various aspects of spirituality, this book is intended for theologians, philosophers, religious leaders, policymakers, academicians, researchers, students, public institutions, and agencies with a special interest in religious matters, values, knowledge, and truth.
Introduction to African Religion
Author: John S. Mbiti
Publisher: Waveland Press
Published: 2015-01-14
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13: 1478628928
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn his widely acclaimed survey, John Mbiti sheds light on the survival and prosperity of African Religion in different historical, geographical, sociological, cultural, and physical environments. He presents a constellation of African worldviews, beliefs in God, use of symbols, valued traditions, and practices that have taken root with African peoples throughout the vast continent. Mbiti’s accessible writing style sympathetically portrays how African Religion manifests itself in ritual, festival, healing, the human life cycle, and interplay with the mystical and invisible world. The account embraces foundational traditions, while touching on elements that spawn transitions, including migration, the spread of Christianity and Islam, political-economic development, and modern communication. This popular introduction leaves readers with informed knowledge of the riches of African heritage.
Morality Truly Christian, Truly African
Author: Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Published: 2014-11-15
Total Pages: 368
ISBN-13: 0268088675
DOWNLOAD EBOOKGiven the largely Eurocentric nature of moral theology in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, what will it take to invest the theological community in the history and moral challenges of the Church in other parts of the world, especially Africa? What is to be gained for the whole Church when this happens in a deep and lasting way? In this timely and important study, Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor brings greater theological clarity to the issue of the relationship between Christianity and African tradition in the area of ethical foundations. He also provides a constructive example of what fundamental moral theology done from an African and Christian (especially Catholic) moral theological point of view could look like. Following a brief history of the development of African Christian theology, Odozor examines responses of African theologians to African tradition and Christian responses to the reality of non-Christian religions. In a context where the African religious experience and heritage are powerful sources of meaning and identity, Christian evangelization raises questions both about the African primal religions and about Christianity itself and its claims. Odozor takes up the subject of moral reasoning in an African Christian theological ethics and concludes with case studies that show how the African Church has tried to inculturate moral discourse on a religiously pluralistic continent and relate the healing gospel message to African situations. Students and scholars of moral theology and ethics and church leaders will profit from the issues raised in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African.
The Lausanne Covenant
Author: John R. W. Stott
Publisher:
Published: 1975
Total Pages: 62
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAfrican Religion Defined
Author: Anthony Ephirim-Donkor
Publisher: University Press of America
Published: 2012-07-10
Total Pages: 160
ISBN-13: 0761853294
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAfrican religion is ancestor worship; that is, funeral preparations, burial of the dead with ceremony and pomp, belief in eternal existence of souls of the dead as ancestors, periodic remembrance of ancestors, and belief that they influence the affairs of their living descendants. Whether called Akw?sidai, Homowo, Voodoo, Nyant?r (Aboakyir), CandomblZ, or Santeria in Africa or the African Diaspora, ancestor worship centers on the ancestors and deities. This makes it a tenably viable religion, because living descendants are genetically linked to their ancestors. The author, a traditional king and professor, studies the Akan in Ghana to demonstrate that ancestor worship is as pragmatic, systematic, theological, teleological, soteriological — with a highly trained clerical body and elders as mediators — and symbolic as any other religion in the world. Ancestor worship follows prescribed rites and rituals, formulas, precepts for ritual efficacy, and festivities of honor with music and dances to provoke ancestors and deities into joining in the celebration.
