Negotiating Religious Traditions — Babu wa Loliondo’s Theology of Healing
In: ExchangeRetired Lutheran pastor Ambilikile Mwasapila became the most celebrated healer in Eastern Africa for half a year in 2011. His healing consists of an herbal potion, brewed according to the recipe he got from God in dreams. According to Rev. Mwasapila, the potency of the medicine stems from the presence of the Word of God in it. It is efficient only when administered by him. He perceives himself as a prophet called by God to alleviate sufferings of humankind in a world pestered by illnesses sent by Satan. His theology of healing has clear Lutheran sacramental theological elements combined with views from African traditional medicine and Christian charismatic faith healing. His cosmology is deeply rooted in African views of the spirit world interpreted through Pentecostal-charismatic demonology. The ideas underlying his ministry can be seen as an oral charismatic Lutheran contextual theology lived out in practice.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
11
See Joel Robbins, ‘Afterword: Let’s Keep It Awkward: Anthropology, Theology, and Otherness’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 24/3 (2013), 329-337; Philip Fountain and Sin Wen Lau, ‘Anthropological Theologies: Engagements and Encounters’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 24/3 (2013), 230.
-
28
Afe Adogame, ‘Engaging the Rhetoric of Spiritual Warfare: The Public Face of Aladura in Diaspora’, Journal of Religion in Africa 34/4 (2004), 493-522.
-
32
Dilger, 266. See also Rosalind Hackett, ‘Discourses of Demonization in Africa and Beyond’, Diogenes 50/3 (2003), 61-75; Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008, 182-183.
-
36
See Birgit Meyer, ‘Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches’, Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (2004), 456-458. This issue is naturally not limited to Africa; similar developments can be found in, among other contexts, the history of European Christianity. For example, among the Sami in the very north of the Nordic countries, the Laestadian revivalist attack against the goblins is supposed to have extended the life-span of this dimension of Sami traditional religion (Nilla Outakoski, Lars Levi Laestadiuksen saarnojen maahiskuva, Oulu: Oulun historiaseura 1991, 152-153, 155).
-
54
See Ken L. Sarles, ‘A Theological Evaluation of the Prosperity Gospel’, Bibliotheca Sacra 143/572 (1986), 331-333.
-
58
Auli Vähäkangas, ‘Contextual Pastoral Counseling among Terminally Ill Patients in Tanzania’, The Journal of Pastoral Theology 22/1 (2012), 6-4.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 265 | 38 | 1 |
| Full Text Views | 202 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 19 | 8 | 0 |
Negotiating Religious Traditions — Babu wa Loliondo’s Theology of Healing
In: ExchangeRetired Lutheran pastor Ambilikile Mwasapila became the most celebrated healer in Eastern Africa for half a year in 2011. His healing consists of an herbal potion, brewed according to the recipe he got from God in dreams. According to Rev. Mwasapila, the potency of the medicine stems from the presence of the Word of God in it. It is efficient only when administered by him. He perceives himself as a prophet called by God to alleviate sufferings of humankind in a world pestered by illnesses sent by Satan. His theology of healing has clear Lutheran sacramental theological elements combined with views from African traditional medicine and Christian charismatic faith healing. His cosmology is deeply rooted in African views of the spirit world interpreted through Pentecostal-charismatic demonology. The ideas underlying his ministry can be seen as an oral charismatic Lutheran contextual theology lived out in practice.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 265 | 38 | 1 |
| Full Text Views | 202 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 19 | 8 | 0 |