spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

The acceptance of her vulnerability led Grace Banda to believe that it was possible to live
positively with the virus present in her body. She came to learn that the quality rather than the
quantity of life was important. The support that she received from the group made her focus on
the enhancement of the quality of whatever life she had left. Grace Banda developed a positive
attitude to the vulnerable life that she was given by God. AIDS continues to ravage her extended
family, and will also one day take Grace Banda herself. She is fully aware that she is susceptible
to the damage of the virus, yet she is also susceptible to thanking and glorifying the Lord who is
with her. In this sense, Grace Banda is a vulnerable woman who partakes in the beautifying
mission of the Spirit. Living positively, then, is a redefinition of health, and of the beauty of
vulnerable life.
9.4 CONCLUSIONS
This chapter forms part of the constructive exploration of Reformed articulations on health and
healing. The aim here was to engage one key notion of an African health discourse with
Reformed theological discourse, and to find out what would happen with Reformed articulations
of health when the notion of quality of life is centralized in these articulations.
The exploration in this chapter builds on the findings of Chapter 4, in which the discourse on
HIV/AIDS is discussed and analyzed. The conclusion was that the discourse on HIV/AIDS
seems to evolve around the motif of quality of life, whether medically, socially, or spiritually.
The motif of quality of life represented an alternative understanding of health and healing,
because it emphasizes the presence of quality of vulnerable and suffering life. The emphasis on
quality of life is an explicit rejection of the disqualification of life, and it sheds light on the
subjective experience of the one who is ill. In other words, the notion of quality of life generates
a redefinition of healing. Returning to the central question of this chapter, how will this
redefinition affect Reformed theological articulations of healing?
The locus of linking the notion of quality of life with Reformed thinking is the doctrine of
creation. The Reformed doctrine of creation reveals a high esteem for creation, in the sense that
creaturely life is identified as qualitatively good life. The biblical resources on the original
goodness of creation, the theological emphasis on the renewal of (the quality of) creation, and in
particular the contemporary focus on the vulnerability of creation, point toward the inherent
quality with which creation is endowed by its Creator.
The Holy Spirit is associated with the creation of cosmic life on biblical grounds. Creation is
perceived as the product of divine breath, of the Giver of life. The Spirit is also believed to be the
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