spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

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on the Holy Spirit enabled the discovery of particular dimensions of healing that refer to God’s involvement in creation and address life in the African context. When we think about who God is amidst our illness and suffering, we may focus on the work of the Spirit, because then we can discover that God is with us. As sons and daughters of God, we are assured of His faithfulness through His Spirit. Just as She filled our lungs with the breath of life when we were born, so will She continue to empower and inspire us throughout the heights and depths of our lives. When we experience illness, the Spirit shares God’s life with us, just as She once did with Jesus on the cross. She is present in our loneliness and embraces our despair, groaning and praying within us until the pain subsides and relief comes. She gives us the power to act upon our healing by enabling us to relate to others. She is the One who leads us to people who strengthen, love and bless us so that our well-being and healing are embedded in these relationships. That is the gracious work of the Spirit. We can experience the agency of the Spirit when She touches our vulnerability. We humans detest the weakness and vulnerability that we experience in our illness. In the confrontation with our vulnerability, we focus on being fit and healthy, and usually see healing as a return to our physical or mental fitness. However, while we simply want our bodies to be restored, the Spirit wants our identity to be restored. She challenges the idea that our identity is determined by fitness or illness, and therefore bestows us with her gifts that will lead us to our true identity: that is, that we are the ones who are loved by God and that we fully depend on Him. That is healing according to the ways of the Spirit. When we learn to live in the Spirit, we may experience that God’s faithfulness is beyond non-survival and impossibility, for the Spirit will make a way where we cannot discern one, and help us to become who God meant us to be. After reaching the conclusion that a pneumatological perspective on healing holds the promise of new, contextual ideas on healing, there is one further observation that should be mentioned at the end of this study. It concerns the fact that health and healing is a very complex topic to undertake due to the many different dimensions of (the meaning of) health. During the exploration of new theological responses to healing, I discovered how this differentiated nature of health was undermined regularly due to my dominant biomedical understanding of healing as an objective process of restoration and physical recovery so that the body can function properly again. It happened frequently that I realized after some time that the biomedical construction had prevailed over other constructions of health, and that I was searching for theological articulations of healing in terms of physical relief, absence of pain, and retrieval of the situation as it was before. It took some effort to become conscious of this mechanism, which proves how governing the biomedical frame of reference is. In acknowledgment of the prominence of scientific 282
iomedical constructions of health, it can be concluded that any theological reflection on health and healing is to articulate explicitly how health is perceived in that particular reflection. In order to do justice to the complexity of the theme of healing, any theology of healing is to start with clarifying what healing is, before moving towards a response to the quest for healing. The theological quest for healing is a complex and multifaceted endeavor. And that is exactly as it should be, for life itself is complex and multi-dimensional. In its complexity and variety, creation reflects the Creator, the One who desires healing and wholeness for all of creation. And it is the Spirit of this Creator God who groans and rejoices with creation in many different, but always innovative, creative, life-giving and life-restoring ways! 283
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SPIRIT AND HEALING IN AFRICA: A REF
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It feels like this
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I would like to believe that my chi
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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 11 1
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PART II. EXPLORING A REFORMED PNEUM
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INTRODUCTION 1. Research background
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and her status? Does the Bible not
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traditional healing, the HIV/AIDS c
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This thesis centralizes the proper,
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subject of health within the variou
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7. Research outline This research c
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and materiality. The answers to thi
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physical affliction, and it points
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1.2 MEANING OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIS
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trust) that can influence health an
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1.3.2 Discourse When one follows th
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still resists a clear definition an
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the study of African healing starte
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industrialized world” (Helman 200
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produced, that a certain gesture re
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influence in Southern Africa. The a
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collective experiences, codes of th
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However, despite many attempts to a
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impact on African indigenous cultur
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Suffering as a relational matter
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situation in which one is actively
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particular rituals are subject to c
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Ngoma’s ability to recreate socie
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2.4 BORDERS OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL
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carefully balance their practices a
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connection with the human beings wh
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ancestors and other spirits is impo
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a network of vessels through which
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healing, because relationships are
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esistance. Without denying that mis
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century it turned out that the medi
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scientific insights. The rigid Enli
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determined the course of missionary
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exclusive and divergent therapy, th
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merely regarded as the mirror of th
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esearch starts (as it is in convent
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a given society), but it should be
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eliefs and deeds were reproduced th
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missionary discourse focuses not on
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The notion of transformation result
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3.5.3 Transformation without superi
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The transformation of biomedicine i
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people make sense of health and ill
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ut should have narratives and perso
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these, but all of them include, imp
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Epidemiological constructions of AI
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investigating sexual activities wit
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within a specific society. The ackn
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This section aims at exploring some
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assessment and prevention. However,
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which Jesus directly turns towards
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include the dismissal of the assume
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4.4.2 Quality of social life From a
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The church now acknowledges that it
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ehavior, has mainly determined the
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CHAPTER 5. CHURCH-BASED HEALING DIS
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independent Pentecostal Churches, t
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deficiencies in medical healthcare
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that the human covenant partner nee
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approach towards the cause of disea
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Besides the argument that Jesus him
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malevolent forces or demons, who ha
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of benevolent spiritual forces in o
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5.3.3 Power of the Holy Spirit With
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for Jesus’ holistic approach to t
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prophet-healer is seen as someone w
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church-based healing discourse does
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church-based healing would be depri
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who have to deal with a changing st
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manifests itself, but it is definit
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PART II. EXPLORING A REFORMED PNEUM
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matrix? What are the essential elem
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the work of the Spirit? What consti
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6.2 REFORMED PNEUMATOLOGIES The fol
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Another feature of Calvin’s pneum
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providence allows for a limited yet
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meaning of the association of Word
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Kuyper’s thought is of great impo
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life within the old life through hi
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physical healing is such an inactiv
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whether the Christological focus in
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the power that man receives from Go
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any room for dualism between heaven
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Van Ruler deliberately distinguishe
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The significance of Van Ruler’s a
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historical condition of this world,
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disabilities that they suffer, they
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the verb. The implication is that h
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The focus in Welker’s pneumatolog
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the power of sin by the forgiveness
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(becoming whole) and integrated thr
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eorientation of Christian theology.
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pattern of the confession — is cl
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salvation). Questions/answers 65-82
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(Shults 2008:271-287). The understa
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heart. Calvin in particular was ver
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the transformation of the believer
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and as such dependent on God who ha
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that healing is located outside the
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Hollingsworth 2008). The broad conc
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not be disappointed: God’s love w
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justice, liberation and the affirma
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elationships among the Trinitarian
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constitute an important element of
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lost. She was caught in a vicious c
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CHAPTER 8. THE SPIRIT AND TRANSFORM
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system of the Christian church (…
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8.2.3 Spirit of adoption James Dunn
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8.2.4 Physicality and transformatio
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Metaphorical language about transfo
Page 231 and 232: Reformed thought on the theme of tr
Page 233 and 234: that God’s plan of salvation tran
Page 235 and 236: gift into a gift that is beneficial
Page 237 and 238: considered a tentative condition in
Page 239 and 240: CHAPTER 9. THE SPIRIT AND QUALITY O
Page 241 and 242: physical abilities, social circumst
Page 243 and 244: The clear distinction between the C
Page 245 and 246: Conradie 54 shows, based on Van Rul
Page 247 and 248: could say that people’s bodies ma
Page 249 and 250: 9.3.1 Vulnerability, creation and S
Page 251 and 252: in the cosmos, Polkinghorne (2006:1
Page 253 and 254: ody, and thus his or her vulnerabil
Page 255 and 256: the Holy Spirit. Moreover, this foc
Page 257 and 258: The acceptance of her vulnerability
Page 259 and 260: CHAPTER 10. THE SPIRIT AND POWER Th
Page 261 and 262: oom for creation and for the embodi
Page 263 and 264: Migliore (2008) has the same opinio
Page 265 and 266: 10.2 POWER AND THE HOLY SPIRIT Chri
Page 267 and 268: which the Spirit of God brings new
Page 269 and 270: life through this discontinuity:
Page 271 and 272: interpersonal relations. Everyone s
Page 273 and 274: God’s power is revealed through h
Page 275 and 276: The journey consists of two main st
Page 277 and 278: are a constructive part of it. In a
Page 279 and 280: transformation can be defined as he
Page 281: provided the basis for a re-visioni
Page 285 and 286: Attanasi, K 2008. Getting in Step w
Page 287 and 288: — 1997. Theology of the Old Testa
Page 289 and 290: — 2001. ‘Naming the Spirit: Tow
Page 291 and 292: Paper for use in HIV and AIDS Progr
Page 293 and 294: Hamilton, NQ 1957. The Holy Spirit
Page 295 and 296: — 2007. The Next Christendom. The
Page 297 and 298: Kraan, KJ 3 1974. ‘Opdat U genezi
Page 299 and 300: — Luther’s Works. 1957-1986. 55
Page 301 and 302: Müller-Fahrenholz, G 2000. The Kin
Page 303 and 304: Pilch, JJ 2000. Healing in the New
Page 305 and 306: Rohleder, P & Gibson, K 2006. ‘We
Page 307 and 308: — 2011. Trends and Directions in
Page 309 and 310: Twesigye, EK 1987. Common Ground: C
Page 311 and 312: — 1961b. ‘Structuurverschillen
Page 313 and 314: Warfield, BB 1946, ‘Introductory
Page 315 and 316: Wisse, M 2004. Towards a Truly Rela
Page 317 and 318: SUMMARY This study is an exploratio
Page 319 and 320: OPSOMMING Hierdie studie is ‘n ve
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