spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

PART II. EXPLORING A REFORMED PNEUMATOLOGY FOR
AFRICA: FRAGMENTS ON SPIRIT AND HEALING
On the basis of Chapters 1-5, a few conclusions may be made. The first is that health is a social
construct, meaning that one’s social context is the determining factor for one’s understanding of
health. This also means, and this is the second conclusion, that there are multiple understandings
of health. When a particular health conceptualization is formulated within a systematic or
coherent pattern of ideas and practices, this coherent structure can be characterized as a health
discourse. Thus, the third conclusion is that within the Southern African context a number of
different health discourses can be identified. In the present research, four prominent health
discourses were studied: the ngoma discourse, the missionary medicine discourse, the HIV/AIDS
discourse, and the church-based healing discourse. Finally, the fourth conclusion is that each of
these African health discourses is determined by a particular motif, which characterizes how
health is interpreted according to that specific health discourse: as relationality, as
transformation, as quality of life, and as power.
Exploration of the relation between African health motifs and Reformed theology
The aim of the second part of this thesis is to consider and construct a relationship between
African health discourses and Reformed theology. It is about exploring a relationship that has
been scarcely addressed so far in scholarly contributions. It is not my intention to defend the
Reformed perspective vis-à-vis the various African health discourses. Nor is it my intention to
suggest a seamless congruence between Reformed theology and African health discourses.
Neither would do justice to Reformed theology or to African health discourses. The exploratory
nature of this part of the research is driven by a particular interest in finding productive avenues
for Reformed theology in Southern Africa, through which the multi-layered understandings of
health can be related to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and hence new articulations of God and
healing can be identified.
What would happen, therefore, if there was an encounter between existing African health
discourses, as described in Chapters 2-5, and the central motifs of Reformed pneumatology? Or,
if the core ideas of African health discourses were invited into Reformed theological discourse?
Would it be possible to discern some convergence of culturally determined health notions and
particular motifs in Reformed thought? Are there insurmountable differences that hinder an
encounter between contextual frames of health and contextual Reformed theology? Or could it
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