spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

of the need for behavior change among (adolescent) believers, and to the provision of care and
support networks for HIV-patients. Only a minority of publications focuses on the provision of
(faith) healing within churches (e.g. Scorgie 2008), so these kinds of institutional healing
practices are generally not included in debates.
This chapter moves away from the focus on the relationship between the church and AIDS (as
discussed in Chapter 4), and addresses instead the believers’ quest for physical, mental and
spiritual healing. It is acknowledged that this quest can be triggered by the effects of HIVinfection,
but it is not strictly AIDS-related. The church-based healing discourse exceeds the
conventional role of the church in the fight against HIV/AIDS in as much as its scope is
determined by the idea that healing entails liberation and deliverance from evil powers.
5.1.3 Exorcism: an introduction
This section briefly introduces the theme of exorcism and deliverance, and alludes to a following
section (5.3) that offers an in-depth analysis of the concepts of healing and deliverance ministry
in church life. The purpose of this introduction to the phenomenon of exorcism is to show that it
is a central feature of church-based healing activities.
In The Next Christendom Jenkins (2006) describes in detail how Christians in the southern
hemisphere perceive daily life. Through vivid text and many illustrations he illuminates the
churches’ firm focus on evil, fear and general insecurities in life. Believers in Africa attach great
importance to the battle against supernatural evil, and they aim to restore health and wholeness
of life. Every kind of mishap obstructing the well-being of a person, such as physical or mental
deficiencies, unemployment and marital problems, can be related to the effect of evil powers in
the spiritual realm. Churches in Southern Africa are faced with the task of addressing these
spiritual powers, including their impact on the life of believers, by way of healing and
deliverance or exorcism ministries. In this sense, global southern Christianity can be seen as a
healing religion par excellence (Jenkins 2006:98).
African Initiated Churches and PCCs in particular have developed extensive and professional
healing ministries, although similar deliverance activities are also being offered within mainline
or missionary-founded churches. This emphatic focus on healing has always attracted many
health-seeking people to attend church and researchers have explained this by pointing to the
lack of sufficient healthcare provisions for all social groups in Southern African countries. They
observed that the lack of access to medical facilities for the poorest people of society was
compensated for by what the church offered. Thus, the church provides a service where
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