spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

7. Research outline
This research consists of two parts. The first part identifies four prominent health discourses in
the African context. Chapter one starts by defining health, and provides a substantiation of the
social constructivism understanding of health as the theoretical framework for this research. This
epistemological basis offers the opportunity to explore ways in which health is understood in the
Southern African context. According to the Foucauldean discourse theory, four distinct African
health discourses can be identified: (1) the African traditional healing discourse (or the ngoma
paradigm); (2) the missionary medicine discourse; (3) the HIV/AIDS discourse, and (4) the
church-based healing discourse.
Chapter two offers a description of the African traditional healing discourse and the ngoma
paradigm, and identifies the idea of relationality as the key element of how health is understood
within this discourse.
Chapter three portrays the missionary medicine discourse, which was developed in the late
eighteenth century and had its heyday in the nineteenth century. In missionary-founded churches
Africa, the influence of missionary thinking about healing is still present. In this discourse, the
notion of transformation is recognized as a crucial factor in the conceptualization of health and
healing.
Chapter four is an account of the discourse on HIV/AIDS in Africa. The influence of this
discourse on how people perceive health is too important to ignore, even though the discourse
itself is heterogeneous and constantly changing. Despite the division between the
epidemiological and the non-epidemiological approaches within the discourse, it is possible to
identify one significant motif common to both in the understanding of health and that is quality
of life.
Chapter five is an elaboration on the church-based healing discourse, which mainly focuses on
the existence of healing and deliverance ministries as prominent phenomena in the African
context. The notion of power is recognized as an important feature of this discourse.
The second part of this research is an exploration of new articulations of Spirit and healing from
a Reformed perspective. The exploratory nature of this part has to do with my interest in finding
productive avenues for Reformed theology in Southern Africa. The multi-layered understandings
of health, as identified in the first part, are related to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in such a way
that new articulations of God and healing can be identified.
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