Among the many factors that separate churches in the West from those of the global South, there may be no greater difference than their respective attitudes toward supernatural "powers and principalities." In this follow-up to her book For Freedom or Bondage? African theologian Esther Acolatse bridges the enormous hermeneutical gap not only between the West and global Christianity but also between the West and its own biblical-theological heritage.

In Ghana today, many people who suffer from a variety of human ills wander from one pastor to another in search of a spiritual cure. Because of the way cultural beliefs about the spiritual world have interwoven with their Christian faith, many Ghanaian Christians live in bondage to their fears of evil spiritual powers, seeing Jesus as a superior power to use against these malevolent spiritual forces.In For Freedom or Bondage? Esther Acolatse argues that Christian pastoral p...

In this book, established scholars from different religions, regions, and disciplines continue the dialogue that Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen began in his A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World series and respond to his work in light of their diverse expertise and context. Each of the three parts focuses on a key area of Kärkkäinen’s engaging work: 1) highlighting how his method shaped each volume, 2) highlighting his commitment to global perspectives, and 3) highlighting his...

The study of lived religion is an enterprise which attempts to elucidate how "ordinary" men and women in all times and places draw on religious behavior, media, and meanings to make sense of themselves and their world. Through the influence of liberation theology and postmodernism, pastoral theologians-like other scholars of religion-have begun more closely to examine the particularity of religious practice that is reflected through the rubric of lived religion.Pastoral Bearing...

A critical examination of the impact of Evangelical Christianity on African societies todayEvangelical Christianity's presence is increasing exponentially in African states and is exercising significant influence in virtually all spheres of life.African Evangelicalism and the Transformation of Africa is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the impact of Evangelical Christianity on Africa. It examines the social, cultural, political, and e...

Wealth, Health, and Hope in African Christian Religion offers a portrait of how contending narratives of modernity in both church and society play out in Africa today through the agency of African Christian religion. It explores the identity and features of African Christian religion and the cultural forces driving the momentum of Christian expansion in Africa, as well as how these factors are shaping a new African social imagination, especially in providing answers to the most challenging...

How do African Pentecostals theologize about pandemics, evil, and hope? What are the religio-theological lessons that can be drawn from COVID-19 and the history of pandemics in Africa? This book draws from African theological, philosophical, historical, and practical theological perspectives to discuss the discourses and responses to pandemics in African socio-cultural contexts. Their authors, from diverse perspectives, look at the relevance of African eschatological and apocalyptic attitu...