spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

CHAPTER 5. CHURCH-BASED HEALING DISCOURSE
Many churches in Southern Africa have adopted a distinctive approach to health, illness and
healing. Their approach is not fully compatible with other discursive reflections (like the
discourses described in the previous chapters), in the sense that it has a certain singularity based
on particular elements from the Christian tradition that are not found in the other healing
paradigms. Although there are some similarities with ideas and concepts developed within other
discourses, the substantial expressions of church-based healing theories give enough reason to
perceive the whole of Christian faith inspired ideas and practices as a separate category.
Faith communities have a major impact on how people make sense of health, illness and healing
in Southern Africa. Religion and well-being are closely connected in the African traditional
framework, and this connection is extended within the churches, but on more biblical grounds.
Churches and faith communities play an important role in matters of illness and healing. In
addition, this impact of the church on health matters can also be explained by the fact that many
Africans (still) do not have access to medical care and treatment in hospitals and clinics, so they
seek healing elsewhere. Many churches (especially African Instituted Churches and
Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches) have succeeded in addressing themes like illness and healing
in a way that makes sense to the majority of African believers.
The influence of faith communities on health, illness and healing receives increasing scholarly
attention. Various academic disciplines have started to pay attention to the impact of faith
communities on people’s daily life in Southern Africa. For a long time, the effects of religion
have been disregarded by the so-called objective and unbiased sciences, but particularly the
AIDS pandemic has directed attention to the contributions made by churches and communities in
processes of prevention, empowerment and health constructions.
Jenkins (2007:146) states that “issues of healing, whether of mind or body, dominate the
everyday life of the churches of the poor”. In other words, healing and deliverance practices
constitute an important part of the identity of most churches in Southern Africa. This is not only
true for African Pentecostal and African Instituted churches, but also for mainline churches like,
for example, the Roman-Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the Lutheran Church. The
healing ideologies of the different churches may be expressed in different ways, which can be
easily explained by studying the history and theology of their particular traditions, but the fact is
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