spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

solely responsible for their relationship with God, instead of blaming their ancestors for the
mishap and ailments they experience.
Cosmic struggle
The attribution of evil to spiritual forces and the concept of a cosmic struggle reinforce one
another. Believers take seriously external powerful agencies, and reckon with these powers,
because this framework defines the relationship between human beings and spirit beings.
Everything happening within the visible realm is influenced by the invisible realm. So one of the
pivotal concerns of the human being is to maintain the cosmic balance, because “for one to be
able to fulfill his or her aspirations in life requires the ‘balance of power’ in favor of the
supplicant” (Larbi 2002:91). The concept of power is crucial in the relations of the visible and
the invisible realities, for power is interpreted as the fuel of abundant life (Anderson 1990:70;
Bujo 1992:17ff; Ellis & Ter Haar 2004:125). Without power both the possibilities in and the
quality of one’s life will diminish. Since the human being is not able to supply him- or herself
with elementary life force, he or she depends on the provisions of the spiritual realm. The
manipulation of the spirit force plays an integral part of human life, with the cosmic struggle
between malevolent and benevolent spirits as a consequence. African Christians experience this
cosmic struggle as a reality, and this is affirmed by familiar traditional religious ideas as well as
by the battle between spiritual forces, as illustrated in the Scriptures. The concept of the cosmic
struggle will be explored further in the description of spiritual warfare thinking.
Salvation
The concept of salvation represents the third element of the rapprochement of African traditional
religious thinking and Christian thinking on the subject of healing. The two traditions agree with
one another in the concept of salvation as the ultimate destination of a human being. The aim of
human life is to attain the standard that shows how the human being is meant to be: life in
abundance, or the fulfillment of one’s destiny. So salvation or abundant life is manifested in
various dimensions of well-being, such as long life, vitality, health, prosperity, felicity, riches
and substance (for example, children, cattle, vehicles) and being free from disturbance (see Larbi
2002:91f). Just as it is in the African traditional religious frame of reference, the concept of
salvation in the church-based healing discourse stands for a state of being associated with the
here and now, with the existentially tangible and daily needs of the human being. It does not
mean that salvation in the sense of redemption of sin is absent within the church-based healing
frame, but the emphasis is rather on the kind of salvation that can be experienced in concreto
than on the kind of salvation that is still to come. Man seeks life in abundance, but needs the help
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