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Inculturated African spiritual elements in the Johane Masowe weChishanu yeNyenyedzi church in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.This study is in the domain of Church History under a sub theme 'Africanisation of Christianity'. Though Africanisation of Christianity is not a modern-day topic in Church History, this study posits that the theme should continue enjoying attention. The reason to this proposal is that it seems there is again a problem today on how African Indigenous Churches (AICs) interface with local traditional spiritualities in communities in which they are planted. Thus, this current study deals with the blurred interface and religious boundaries between African spiritual elements of faith and traditional Christian spiritual elements of faith as depicted in the Johane Masowe weChishanu inotungamirirwa neNyenyedzi(led by the star) (JMCN) Church in Zimbabwe. The hypothesis of this study is that the traditional African spiritual elements of faith dominate in JMCN Church spirituality at the expense of traditional Christian spiritual elements of faith. It is this unconscious adapting and adopting of 'incompatible' African spiritual elements of faith by the JMCN Church that has whet the appetite to examine whether JMCN Church spirituality can be described as a genuinely Christian. In an attempt to understand the genuineness of JMCN Church spirituality this study grouped AICs into two categories those that are said to be 'undisputed' and those that are said to be 'disputed'.While both groups have inculturated African spiritual elements of faith, this study argues that the undisputed AICs conscious selected compatible African spiritual elements of faith against the disputed AICs who unconsciously selected incompatible African spiritual elements of faith. Accordingly, the spirituality of JMCN (hereafter refered to as the Church) identified by its appropriation of African/Karanga spiritual elements of faith such as praying in traditional sacred caves and baptizing church members in traditional sacred pools and dams. Critical to JMCN spirituality is the removal of faith in Jesus Christ's death, resurrection and faith in the Bible as the word of God for human salvation. These are replaced by belief in the power of water spirits and tsanangudzo dzeMweya, (the sayings of the spirit) respectively.This study uses phenomenological and Theological Reflective approaches for data collection and interpreting of the data. Phenomenological method was used because it has two essential strands; the descriptive and the hermeneutical strands.The descriptive aspect helps the researcher to describe the spirituality of the Church accurately, while hermeneutic phenomenological and Theological Reflective approaches give the researcher the ability to evaluate the spirituality of the Church in light of Biblical Christian spirituality. The research study concludes that the JMCN church moved way from being a Christian Church to another syncretic religious denomination due to its inculturation of incompatible African spiritual elements of faith. This study argues that AICs have the liberty to inculturate local religious spiritual elements to shape their Church spiritualities, but the selection criteria should be carefully chosen to avoid obfuscating central Biblical spiritual elements of faith in the process.Church History and Church PolicyPhDUnrestricte
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Johane Masowe Chishanu Church Theology and Spirituality: A Transition from the Written Bible to Holy Spirit Utterances
No full textThis article was written at a time when decoloniality was generating a heated debate at most African universities. The point of departure of the debate is that, since Africans were born into a valid and legitimate religious knowledge system that predates the arrival of Western missionaries on the land, can African Initiated Churches (AICs) acknowledge these valid and legitimate indigenous knowledge systems and still retain the tag “African Christian churches?” These legitimate indigenous religious knowledge systems include, but are not limited to, Africans’ way of accessing the divine through oral transmission without reading books and by shunning temples, as they appropriate African traditional shrines for worship. This is so because the dawn and unfolding of Eurocentric modernity, through colonialism and European missionaries, introduced particular ways of accessing the divine through the reading of books (the Bible) and temple gatherings. These, among other factors, gave rise to the emergence of the Johane Masowe Chishanu Church (JMC Church) in Zimbabwe. Since its emergence in the 1930s, the JMC Church has developed a theology that tries to liberate Africans from colonial hegemony by distancing its theology from White missionary inventions such as worshipping in temples and the reading of the Bible in church, as this church prefers open space worship and the utterances of the Holy Spirit (tsanangudzo dzewmeya), among other things. Thus, the JMC Church, like many other AICs, is a reactionary movement that questioned the White man’s innovation, Western epistemologies and European cultural imperialism in a bid to romanticise the past. Accordingly, this article discusses the JMC Church as disregarding the Bible with regard to its spirituality in an attempt to free its theology from Eurocentric hegemony. Thus, the main question raised in this article is: Does the written Scripture matter for theology within AICs in the post-colonial period? Or, does this movement retain the tag “an African Christian church” after disregarding the Bible for theology
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Gender Inequality in the Church: Addressing Patriarchy within the Liturgical Spaces in the Johane Masowe Chishanu Church in South Africa
No full textThis article discusses gender inequality in the Johane Masowe Chishanu Church (JMCC), a Zimbabwean church that has established branches in South Africa. The article reports on a study that grappled with the question of how the JMCC addresses patriarchal structures that have pervaded and replicated in most African Indigenous Churches (AICs). Using an African cultural hermeneutics theory, the current study sought to build on the valuable inputs of the late Mary-Anne Elizabeth Plaatjies-Van Huffel (1959–2020), who dedicated her work to the cause of gender inclusiveness and the eradication of social injustices. Plaatjies-Van Huffel, whose extensive contribution as an academic and a minister in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), is revered throughout theological and academic settings, particularly in southern Africa. Accordingly, the study found that although the JMCC has celebrated 90 years of its existence, women and girls have not been given an equal opportunity in officiating the sacraments and other liturgies. Hence, the study recommends that the time is right for women and girls in the JMCC to follow in the footsteps of Plaatjies-Van Huffel in the struggle to liberate themselves from traditions and cultural bondage. Further, the study recommends that some religious and cultural traditions, which forbid women from occupying these sacred spaces simply because they are female, must be addressed. The data for the study was collected through conducting interviews and consulting secondary sources, such as published books and journals
African Indigenous Churches for Black Africans: A Study of the Johani Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi (JMCN) Missiological Thrust in the Diaspora
No full textThis study is an attempt to reconstruct the missiological thrust of African Indigenous Churches (AICs) in the diaspora. It specifically focuses on a Zimbabwean church, the Johani Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi (JMCN). Today, most AICs have transitioned from being churches only for black Africans by accommodating other nationalities in their gospel economy, while outside African boarders. The best example of such African churches in the diaspora is probably the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (ZAOGA), which has transitioned from being a church only for Zimbabweans to being a global African church. By contrast, JMCN has seemingly remained a Zimbabwean church, even in the diaspora. Arguably, though JMCN has crossed Zimbabwean borders into other nations, this study maintains that JMCN in principle continues to be a black Zimbabwean church. To validate the above claim this study investigates JMCN’s missiological thrust with a special focus on: how JMCN recruits church membership; how JMCN selects its sacred shrines; what language is used in JMCN—particularly in the diaspora; and where JMCN obtains sacred objects of worship such as its clay pots and wooden objects
Spiritualised political theology in a polarised political environment: A Pentecostal movement’s response to party politics in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThis article interrogates the interface between the older Pentecostal movement and politics in Zimbabwe. The country continues to face political violence and a breakdown in rule of law. The Zimbabwean populace is asking whether the Zimbabwean Pentecostal movement is ready and able to exercise its prophetic role in promoting real peace and democracy. Many Zimbabweans are asking this question, because the track record shows that whilst most mainline churches have been consistent in becoming the voice of the voiceless, some Zimbabwean Pentecostal churches seem to have been sitting on the fence for too long by adopting a middle of the road stance, thereby avoiding a head-on confrontation with the corrupt Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) government. In this article, I argue that for many decades the Zimbabwean Pentecostal movement has taken what one might refer to ironically as a ‘smart approach to politics’–in which the image of the ZANU–PF government is sanitised by espousing what I call a ‘spiritualised political theology.’ I use this critique, whilst remaining cognisant of the fact that the primary motivation of the movement on which I focus in this article, was evangelism, not politics. Thus, for the purpose of this research, the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (ZAOGA) of Apostle Ezekiel Guti was sampled to investigate its prophetic voice in a polarised political environment. This article examines the history of Apostle Guti’s political subterfuge based on the reflections of his pastoral letters referred to as the ‘Ten-days prayer letters’ issued since 1975 up to the time of writing this article. It is important at this early stage to outline that these letters were not political statements or meant to address politics only but theological letters addressing different social ills including politics. Thus, reading this letter one shall see that Apostle’s political subterfuge demonstrated a continuous oscillation of a theological position on how the church should relate to politics. Furthermore, I undertake a brief examination of other few millennial Zimbabwean Pentecostal churches to see if this political subterfuge transcended elsewhere thereby propagating a spiritualised political theology.
Contribution: What is key to note is the fact that the Zimbabwean Pentecostal movement remained insignificant with regard to democratization agenda even after the removal of President Mugabe. The above claim is evidenced by the Zimbabwean Pentecostal church founders’ continuous political subterfuge authenticated by a propagation of a spiritualized political theology
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Restrictions on Funeral Gatherings during COVID-19: A Religious/Spiritual Perspective among the Zimbabwean Community Living in South Africa
Get PDFThis essay endeavors to understand the impact of COVID-19 hard lockdown restrictions on funeral gatherings from a Zimbabwean religious/spiritual per-spective. For most Zimbabwean Christians and non-Christians, funeral rites of passage are at the apex of all religious activities and are revered in most social settings. The central questions to this study are: How have funeral gathering restrictions impacted on the religious/spiritual beliefs of many Zim-babwean immigrants living in South Africa, who were not able to attend fu-neral ceremonies back home in Zimbabwe? What religious/spiritual implica-tions does it have to attend or not attend funeral ceremonies from a Zimbab-wean religious perspective? These questions are raised because during the pandemic, most Zimbabweans who lived in South Africa were forbidden to go home to attend funeral ceremonies due to travelling restrictions between the two countries. This study found that most Zimbabwean immigrants who did not participate in funeral rites of passage due to COVID restrictions were left with spiritual distress after the pandemic. Data for this article were col-lected through interviews with individuals from Zimbabwe who are living in South Africa. Interviewees were selected using purposive sampling. Confi-dentiality, anonymity, and suppression of names are some of the ethical con-siderations maintained throughout this research
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