Christology and evil in Ghana : towards a Pentecostal public theology /
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Pentecostalism has traditionally always been other-worldly in the sense that Pentecostals tend to believe that people's lives are controlled by unseen powers that are responsible for both good and bad. This makes people look for a power that is stronger than those of evil and can ensure that believers enjoy good health and prosperity. Pentecostals find this power in Jesus Christ, who is victorious over all evil powers, and therefore pray that Jesus will save them. For them, life is characterised by suffering and evil, but in Christ they are conquerors, and life is full of concrete blessings. Using songs and sermons, this book shows the main widespread beliefs of the leadership and grassroots members of the Church of Pentecost (Ghanaian Pentecostals) on Christology and evil. It discusses their fear of evil and their finding solace in the power of Jesus. The author supplements this attitude by the biblical calling to help build a just and peaceful society. He thus develops a theology of the public domain in which the church can make a difference by developing its diaconal services, establishing more educational institutions, and helping-together with people who want to collaborate-build a just and more affluent society with good healthcare and a literate and thriving population. This book balances on the interface between traditional African religious ideas and practices and Christian ideals for a more humane society.
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1 online resource (xi, 363 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401210041 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A decade of Ghana : politics, economy and society, 2004-2013 /
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This chronology for 2004 to 2013 compiles the chapters on Ghana previously published in the Africa Yearbook. Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara . Political stability in Ghana in the last few years contrasted with dramatic developments in other West-African countries. Ghana has a relatively high growth-rate, and also plays a role in regional security issues.
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1 online resource (vi, 148 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004310940 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hindu gods in West Africa : Ghanaian devotees of Shiva and Krishna.
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In Hindu Gods in West Africa , Wuaku offers an account of the histories, beliefs and practices of the Hindu Monastery of Africa and the Radha Govinda Temple, two Hindu Temples in Ghana. Using historical material and data from his field work in southern Ghana, Wuaku shows how these two Hindu Temples build their traditions on popular Ghanaian religious notions about the powerful magicality of India's Hindu gods. He explores how Ghanaian soldiers who served in the colonial armies in India, Sri Lanka, and Burma during World War II, Bollywood films, and local magicians, have contributed to the production and the spreading of these cultural ideas. He argues that while Ghanaian worshippers appropriated and deployed the alien Hindu religious world through their own cultural ideas,as they engage Hindu beliefs and rituals in negotiating challenges their own worldviews would change considerably.
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1 online resource (346 pages) :
9789004255715 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Critical Perspectives on Politics and Socio-Economic Development in Ghana /
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This volume provides a comprehensive and integrated analysis of Ghanaian politics, economy and society, outlining tensions, dilemmas and prospects that the country has to contend with. The chapters critically examine the performance and prospects of democratic institutions and processes; responses to, and impact of, economic policies and programs; and how culture intersects with the preceding developments to shape socio-economic and political institutions and practices. The collection is divided into four thematic sections: Politics, the State and Democratic Consolidation Economic Crisis and Neo-Liberal Reforms: Responses and Implications Indigenous Institutions and the Shaping of Development Culture, Indigenous Knowledge and Development It combines rich, recent, empirical material with sophisticated theoretical analyses, and brings unique interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on the issues examined.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047402169
9789004130135
Unveiling modernity in twentieth-century West African Islamic reforms /
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In this book Ousman Kobo analyzes the origins of Wahhabi-inclined reform movements in two West African countries. Commonly associated with recent Middle Eastern influences, reform movements in Ghana and Burkina Faso actually began during the twilight of European colonial rule in the 1950s and developed from local doctrinal contests over Islamic orthodoxy. These early movements in turn gradually evolved in ways sympathetic to Wahhabi ideas. Kobo also illustrates the modernism of this style of Islamic reform. The decisive factor for most of the movements was the alliance of secularly educated Muslim elites with Islamic scholars to promote a self-consciously modern religiosity rooted in the Prophet Muhammad's traditions. This book therefore provides a fresh understanding of the indigenous origins of "Wahhabism."
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1 online resource (xxxix, 383 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-356) and indexes. :
9789004233133 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Gender, social change and spiritual power : charismatic Christianity in Ghana /
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Charismatic Christianity is the most recent and fastest growing expression of Pentecostal religion in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana's capital, Accra, the charismatic churches dominate the religious scene. This book focuses on the gender discourses of Ghana's new churches, and considers charismatic perspectives on womanhood, manhood, marriage and family life. Offering a fresh perspective on the organisational structures of the charismatic churches, this study looks at the leadership roles of female pastors and pastors' wives, and draws attention to the links between female leaders and spiritual power. By highlighting the importance of spiritual power in interpreting gendered social change, the book sheds new light on the socio-cultural role of Ghana's new churches.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-248) and index. :
9789047419396 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Shaping Tradition : Civil Society, Community and Development in Colonial Northern Ghana, 1899-1957 /
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Using Northern Ghana as a case study, this book challenges the invocation of civil society as a tool for building community in the name of development. Far from equating civil society with community, colonial officials used the doctrine of community against African civil society. For colonial officers, civil society represented the corruption of authentic development, which could be avoided only by protecting traditional peasant communities in the face of economic transformation. The book charts this colonial program, from the creation of "native states" in the early twentieth century to an ambitious agricultural mechanisation scheme in the late 1940s. In its challenge to current writing on civil society, the study offers an important contribution to African history and development studies.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047410232
9789004152434
Encounters in quest of Christian womanhood : the Basel Mission in pre- and early colonial Ghana /
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Christianity has come to be a religion embraced especially by women and not least in Africa. This book provides one of the as yet rare case studies for the early stages of this development: how African women on the pre- and early colonial Gold Coast (Ghana) encountered Basel Mission Christianity, 1843-1885. Popular interpretations have tended to describe Christianity as either 'empowering' or 'domesticating' African women. Looking at variegated push-and-pull factors and in its focus on the agency of Ghanaian women this detailed analysis moves beyond. It situates the quest for Christian womanhood as part of trans-national discourses and exchanges, as well as local interactions, and writes a social history that is at once transnational and transcultural.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004193734 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion, ethnicity and transnational migration between West Africa and Europe /
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Religion, Ethnicity and Transnational Migration between West Africa and Europe focuses on the West African migrants' presence in Europe and the way they negotiate religion and ethnicity in a new context. Special attention is given to the diversity of religious background of the migrants and to exploration of interreligious (especially Christian-Muslim) relations. These dimensions of transnational migration have not been widely researched, yet. After introducing the new African religious diaspora, the situation of the Senegalese, Ghanaian and Fulbe migrants - both Christian and Muslim - in France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland is analysed. The impact the migrants make on their communities of origin in Africa is also taken into account. Contributors are: Afe Adogame, Martha Frederiks, Stanisław Grodź, Tilmann Heil, Monika Salzbrunn, José C.M. van Santen, Miriam Schader, Etienne Smith and Gina Gertrud Smith.
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Papers originally presented at a workshop held at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin in June 2011. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004271562
Global Pentecostal movements : migration, mission, and public religion /
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This volume contributes to the growing body of literature on religion and globalization and specifically global Pentecostal movements. While Pentecostalism worldwide shares a cultural resemblance, it is also localized and expressed in different ways. The variety of Pentecostalisms throughout the world are illustrated through important themes of mission, migration, and public religion. The global flows of Pentecostal practices, beliefs, and cultures, brings into contrast these variations. Negotiating what it means to be Pentecostal often leads to conflict and questions of identity. Interaction with other religions like Islam in Africa, mission work in Asia, and migration to Europe and North America is problematized. Regional coverage includes Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America.
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1 online resource (vi, 228 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004235564 :
1573-4293 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Trajectories of religion in Africa : essays in honour of John S. Pobee /
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The book, in the main, discusses issues relating to mission, ecumenism, and theological education and is presented in four sections. The first segment discusses works on ecumenical and theological education and assesses the relevance of the World Council of Churches. Other issues discussed in this segment relate to the interrelationships that exist between academic theology, ecumenism, and Christianity. The World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910, which set the agenda for world-wide mission in a promising manner in the 1920s, is also assessed in this section of the work. The second segment, which covers Religion and Public Space, discusses works that examine the relationships between religion and power, religion and development, religion and traditional religious beliefs, and religion and practices in Africa. The third segment of the book treats Religion and Cultural Practices in African and how all these work out in couching out an African theology and African Christianity. Some of the issues discussed in this section related to African traditional philosophy, spiritism, and the interrelationships that exist between African Christianity and African Traditional Religion. The last segment of the book discusses the issue of African biblical hermeneutics and specifically looks at contemporary hermeneutical approaches to biblical interpretations in Africa.
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1 online resource (414 pages) :
9789401210577 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion on the move! : new dynamics of religious expansion in a globalizing world /
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How do religions spread in today's world, where Christian missions have lost influence and modern nations have replaced colonial empires? Religions on the Move is a collection of essays charting new religious expansions. Contemporary evangelists may be Nigerian, Korean, Brazilian or Congolese, working at the grassroots and outside the mainstream in Pentecostal, reformist Islamic, and Hindu spiritual currents. While transportation and media provide newfound mobility, the mission field may be next door, in Europe, North America, and within the "South," where migrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America settle. These essays, using perspectives from religious studies, ethnography, history and sociology, show that immigrants, women, and other disempowered peoples transmit their faiths from everywhere to everywhere, engaging in globalization from below.
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1 online resource (viii, 470 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004243378 :
1573-4293 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.