spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

motifs were engaged with Reformed theological discourse? Can pneumatology be approached
from these motifs? Would it be possible to discern some intersections of culturally determined
health notions and particular motifs in Reformed pneumatological thought? Are there
insurmountable differences that hinder an encounter between contextual frames of health and
contextual Reformed pneumatology? Or could it be that new ideas or alternative constructs with
regard to health arise, that fit within the Reformed pneumatological matrix and connect with
African health ideas? Answering these secondary questions will assist in addressing the research
problem.
4. Research hypothesis
The situation of multiple African health conceptualizations can be considered as the source of
new possibilities for speaking about God and healing from a Reformed perspective, if I succeed
in linking these multiple health ideas to pneumatological discourse. There are at least two
reasons for linking the theme of healing to a focus on the Holy Spirit. The first reason is that the
recent pneumatological renaissance has brought to the fore that the ways of the Spirit are diverse,
abounding and open to the experiences of believers in any context. The Spirit always finds new
and surprising ways to connect people to God. The implication is that pneumatological discourse
is open, wide-ranging and contextual, which means that an orientation to the Holy Spirit holds
the promise of new statements about God and healing. The second reason is that, in the African
context, the relation between Spirit and healing is very important. The effectiveness of
Pentecostal theology, which is displayed by the significant growth of Pentecostal churches all
over the region of Southern Africa, seems to affirm the meaning of the link between Spirit and
healing. The impact of African traditional religion (ATR) on contemporary Christian ideas about
spirits, illness and healing also shows how crucial the link between Spirit and healing in Africa
is. Thus, the hypothesis of this research is that a focus on the person and the work of the Holy
Spirit will open up Reformed theological discourse for new insights on health and healing in the
African context.
A pneumatological orientation may encourage new thinking on God and health from a Reformed
perspective by emphasizing various characteristics of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit can be
identified as the bond of love between Father and Son, as the ecstatic God, as the Spirit of
adoption, as the cosmic Spirit and Lord of life and as the Spirit of Christ. These understandings
of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit can assist in linking African health discourses and
theological discourse, and thus in exploring new articulations of God and health from a
Reformed perspective.
16