spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State
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spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

etd.uovs.ac.za
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23.06.2013 Views

the source of all forms of healing until the believer is finally adopted as a son or daughter of the Father. 238

CHAPTER 9. THE SPIRIT AND QUALITY OF LIFE This chapter is explores one way in which the relationship between God and health can be examined. As in the previous chapters, there is an assumption that this is possible through the engagement of the African health discourse with Reformed pneumatological discourse. In this chapter, the aspect of quality of life is used as an avenue to articulate a link between God and health, a topic that played a major part in the discourse on HIV/AIDS (see Chapter 4). Thus, the central question in this chapter is: what happens with Reformed theological articulations of health when the motif of quality of life is central to the discussion? To focus on the motif of quality of life necessitates a different lens on the theme of health; using the same analogy, this is akin to the lens of relationality (Chapter 7) and the lens of transformation (Chapter 8), which both gave their own distinct perspectives on the theme of healing. Everything that evolves from the engagement of this notion of quality of life with theological reflection, is to be understood as new suggestions for a link between God and health. In other words, the lens of quality of life generates a new fragment in the relationship of God and healing, whereby this fragment is not necessarily consistent with the previously explored fragments. 9.1 QUALITY OF LIFE AND THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE The HIV/AIDS discourse described in Chapter 4 was highly significant in the discussion on how health and disease is approached within the context of Africa. The discourse on HIV/AIDS embraces a variety of responses to the AIDS pandemic, and thus influences the health perceptions of people in many ways. For example, how disease in Africa is reported in the media is generally determined by social groups and institutes that are involved in epidemiological research. The epidemiological approach to disease and illness emphasizes behavioral change, thus illness is often understood as the result of one’s own behavior. Furthermore, in the wake of the focus on behavior, racism and stereotyping also entered the discussion on how health and illness are viewed. A more recently established approach to HIV/AIDS is known simply as ‘beyond epidemiology’. This perspective was developed in response to the epidemiological approach, and aims to emphasize the social and religious aspects of HIV/AIDS. This means that the HIV/AIDS discourse is not merely based on biomedical knowledge, but is constituted by the whole of written and unwritten texts that portray a dimension of the quest for quality of life in the face of a deadly disease. Epidemiologists are searching for ways to stop the spread of the virus, and to arrest the development of the virus in the body. Within the social sciences, experts 239

<strong>the</strong> source <strong>of</strong> all forms <strong>of</strong> <strong>heal<strong>in</strong>g</strong> until <strong>the</strong> believer is f<strong>in</strong>ally adopted as a son or daughter <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

Fa<strong>the</strong>r.<br />

238

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