Pneumatology in African Perspective and Its Implications for the 21st Century Christians

Abstract

African Traditional Religion assets that the world is permeated with divinities and spirits who can have positive effects on every aspects of life. It is believed that the bad spirits inflict injury and cause accidents and sufferings. Spirits are also said to posses and influence human beings for their own purposes. These beliefs still exert a powerful influence on the 21st Century Christians. In fact, strong beliefs in the spirit world and morbid fear have led many African Christians and Churches into unbiblical doctrine and practices. The descriptive and analytical methods were used. The paper discovers that although the spiritual world plays such an important role in African life, the spirit in general belongs to the ontological mode of existence between God and man. To sum it all, spirits are not bad as people think; they have many roles to play. They are invisible and can be either malevolent or benevolent depending on how people experience the forces of nature and how they act towards human beings. Biblical and African views on the problems of evil are so close. Although certain aspects of the African views are surpassed and need to be modified or perfected by the biblical message, other aspects could be retained as very useful means of planting Christianity firmly in the African soil.