Africa's Social and Religious Quest

A Comprehensive Survey and Analysis of the African Situation

Randee Ijatuyi-Morphé

This well-crafted book probes the key dimensions of Africa’s existential predicament. It constitutes an intellectual response to a gnawing “African situation”—the starting point for grasping Africa’s social and religious quest. Beyond split explanations of external versus internal factors (e.g., colonization/slavery vs. leadership/cultural values), this study accounts more comprehensively for emergent issues shaping this situation. The situation reflects a gamut of problems in traditional African religion and material culture, which hitherto defines African communality, polities, and destinies vis-à-vis the cosmos and nature. Thus, African religion and communities, each with its own attendant values, do not operate by critical engagement with larger issues of society and civilization, especially those shaped by the advent of (post-) modernity. Rather, they operate via adaptation. The communal drive for natural and social harmony inevitably produces a preservationist view of culture (“leaving things as they are”). This study takes an integrative approach to religion, society, and civilization; eschews dichotomies; and broadly defines and re-signifies life and wholeness as a true end of Africans’ quest today.

University Press of America

Pages: 646 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7618-6267-3 • Paperback • January 2014 • $82.99 • (£64.00)

978-0-7618-6268-0 • eBook • January 2014 • $78.50 • (£60.00)

Subjects: History / Africa / General, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Good & Evil, Political Science / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, Religion / RELIGION / Politics & State, Political Science / World / African

Africa's Social and Religious Quest

A Comprehensive Survey and Analysis of the African Situation

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This well-crafted book probes the key dimensions of Africa’s existential predicament. It constitutes an intellectual response to a gnawing “African situation”—the starting point for grasping Africa’s social and religious quest. Beyond split explanations of external versus internal factors (e.g., colonization/slavery vs. leadership/cultural values), this study accounts more comprehensively for emergent issues shaping this situation. The situation reflects a gamut of problems in traditional African religion and material culture, which hitherto defines African communality, polities, and destinies vis-à-vis the cosmos and nature. Thus, African religion and communities, each with its own attendant values, do not operate by critical engagement with larger issues of society and civilization, especially those shaped by the advent of (post-) modernity. Rather, they operate via adaptation. The communal drive for natural and social harmony inevitably produces a preservationist view of culture (“leaving things as they are”). This study takes an integrative approach to religion, society, and civilization; eschews dichotomies; and broadly defines and re-signifies life and wholeness as a true end of Africans’ quest today.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 646 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7618-6267-3 • Paperback • January 2014 • $82.99 • (£64.00)

978-0-7618-6268-0 • eBook • January 2014 • $78.50 • (£60.00)

Subjects: History / Africa / General, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Good & Evil, Political Science / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, Religion / RELIGION / Politics & State, Political Science / World / African

Author

Randee Ijatuyi-Morphé received his PhD from Trinity International University. He is an interdisciplinary scholar, author, and theologian and has served for eighteen years on the faculty of ECWA Theological Seminary in Jos, where he was chair of the PhD Committee. Ijatuyi-Morphé is also director of Hokma House, an educational and research organization in Nigeria serving academia, ecclesia, and oikoumene of Africa.

Table of Contents

Religion, Anthropology, and the Bible in Africa (RABA)
List of Figures
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments

DIVISION ONE:
PROLEGOMENA AND OTHER MATTERS ARISING!

PART ONE: IN PURSUIT OF LIFE AND WHOLENESS

1. On Identifying and Signifying a Quest

DIVISION TWO:
CULTURE AND RELIGION IN AFRICAN SOCIETY

PART TWO: PROTECTION AND POWER

2. Personal and Communal Stake
3. The Ancestoral Source
4. Social Ferment and Human Machinations
5. Mythology, Magic and Ritual
6. Excursus: Witchcraft Discourse and Interpretation

PART THREE: SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICE

7. Popular (or, Folk) Religion
8. Customs and Ceremonies
9. Prayer and Providence
10. African Pentecostalism and the Miraculous
11. Religion and Social Control

DIVISION THREE:
POLITICAL/ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

PART FOUR: COMMUNAL KINSHIP AND THE INDIVIDUAL

12. Communality and the Person
13. Cultural and Moral Traditions
14. Patrimonialism and Procreationism
15. Nature and Environmental Forces
16. Human Dignity/Equality and the Person

PART FIVE: HUMAN OPPRESSION AND ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT

17. Colonization and Slavery
18. Women, Culture and Liberation
19. Poverty, Wealth and Development
20. Money, Market and Prosperity
21. Social and Cultural (Or, the Genesis) Mandate

DIVISION FOUR:
RELIGION, SOCIAL HISTORY AND ETHICS

PART SIX: MORALITY, ETHICS AND THE GOOD LIFE

22. African Weltanschauung (Worldview) and Morality
23. The Good Life in (African) Religious Tradition
24. African Cultural Values and Submergence of Virtue
25. Religion, Culture and African Social Ethics
26. Social History, Progress and Moral Modern Society

DIVISION FIVE:
GOD, HUMANKIND AND THE WORLD

PART SEVEN: ISSUES DETERMINING THE QUEST

27. God and the World
28. Humankind and History
29. Salvation and Selfhood

DIVISION SIX:
THE QUEST AND THE SITUATION REVISITED

PART EIGHT: UNDERSTANDING AFRICA’S QUEST

30. The End of a Quest: Critical Reflections

Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

A formidable contribution to a giant topic . . . . The author proceeds to the project with a broad knowledge of the field as well as with impressing pedagogical skills, and the result is a book that will serve as an important discussion partner for scholars of religion, theology, and biblical studies in Africa in the years to come.
— Knut Holter, PhD, professor of Old Testament studies, MHS School of Mission and Theology, Norway

[This] is a most impressive piece of work.
— J. D. Y. Peel, PhD, professor emeritus, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

If there is a select group of books that captures the broad phenomenology of African peoples’ spirituality, this book is arguably one of [them].
— Nimi Wariboko

A must-read document for every African citizen . . . . [The] time has come for an African renaissance . . . with this cornerstone book.
— Dr. Daniel Etounga-Manguelle, chairman and CEO of SADEG Consulting Group, Yaoundé, Cameroon; former member of the World Bank’s Council of African Advisors

[A]n invaluable text, a much needed resource in a context in which Africans seek to know who [they] truly are.
— Madipoane Masenya, PhD, former chair, Department of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, professor of Old Testament studies, University of South Africa

A richness of bibliographical references and sources . . . with innovative theories, [this book] is a further confirmation of the presence of new prestigious African authors committed to the challenge of understanding Africa.
— Beatrice Nicolini, PhD, professor and chair of history and institutions of Africa, Political Science Department, Catholic University, Milan, Italy

This is a seminal work for understanding Africa’s complex social and religious situation. . . . This comprehensive and multidisciplinary survey is useful for students and teachers in many fields. . . . It sets a new benchmark for African publications.
— Adrian Helleman, PhD, visiting professor, University of Jos/Christian Studies International, Canadian affiliate of Global Scholars

This work is unparalleled among [books] written on problems confronting Africa and the[ir] proffered solutions.
— Emmanuel Usue, PhD, D.Min., Old Testament studies, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Benue State University

[A] big achievement.
— Almaz Zewde, PhD, assistant professor, African Studies Department, Howard University Graduate School, Washington, D.C.