Showing papers on "Supreme Being published in 2019"

Divinity in Akan Proverbs: The Concept of God

Abstract: This paper assesses the Akan conception of divinity as reflected in their proverbs. It considers the attribute of God from the lens of the Akan as highlighted in their proverbs and its bearing on their religious beliefs. The paper is a dilation of the Akan concept of God before the arrival of the early missionaries. It considers how the concept of divinity found manifestation in the Akan proverbs. This is because a society’s conception of God is the focal point that navigates their religious beliefs and beyond that, their socio-political endeavors (Agyarko, 2013). Human society’s perception of God and divinity forms the bases to direct their spheres of life. The Akan society has a belief not only in the supreme being but other supernatural creatures thus by divinity, the paper discusses the placement of the supreme being in relation to other deities in the framework of the Akan proverbs. Against the background of the complexity of the social life of the Akan society, the paper seeks to draw a relationship between the Akan conception of divinity and human behavior through the construction and conceptualization of divinity in Akan proverbs. To attain this, thirty (30) proverbs were sourced from the Akan setting and analysis made through focus group discussion to the conclusion that Akan perceive the Supreme Being to have sharable and non-sharable attributes. Moreover, most of the contemporary beliefs in religion have a close bond with the Akan concept of divinity which according to Idowu (1973), Olupona (1990), Bowler (1990), Geertz (2009) were described as primitive, retrogressive, fetish and superstitious.

On the Non-worshipping Character of the Akan of Africa

Abstract: According to Wiredu, the Akan profess secular esteem rather than religious worship to supra-natural beings (including the Supreme Being), who they perceive in an empirical sense. He backs this up by re-reading what he sees as the Akan general ontology in a way that denies them of the concepts of the supernatural, the transcendental, the mental, the spiritual, and an ontologically distinct mind. At the end of denying the three criteria of worship as well as all of these other concepts which might otherwise be available to the Akan, one might struggle to find any evidence that the Akan even had a religion. I dispute this secular reading, and I more generally demonstrate that the characterizations of the Akan attitude to divinity as non-worshipping, non-supernatural, non-transcendent, and non-spiritual, are either conceptually flawed, factually incorrect, or both.

The Trinity in African Christian theology: An overview of contemporary approaches

Abstract: This contribution offers a survey of the modern African theological discourse on the Trinity as a distinctive Christian doctrine of God. It is a systematic narrative review of primary literature on the doctrine of the Trinity in modern African theology with a view to identify main trends, key concepts and major proponents. It is argued that the contemporary African Trinitarian Hermeneutics cannot be understood in isolation from African debates on translatability of concepts of God framed first in terms of the reinterpretation of the theological significance of pre-Christian African concepts of God and subsequently as an outcome of African Christological reflection. The article affirms an apophatic resistance to any tendency to take God for granted as recently advanced by Ernst Conradie and Teddy Sakupapa.

Religious Pluralism and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Abstract: Religious pluralism implies a diverse variety and multiplicity of faiths found to exist simultaneously in a given society. The beauty of these religions in their respective distinctiveness, even as they uphold and teach variegated divine sparks of the incomprehensible Supreme Being (God), is seen when they inclusively work together in one purposeful and concerted effort to unfold (de-envelope) the naturalness which humanity must conquer in order to be termed: developed. The platforms and bridges of religious inclusivism, ecumenism and tolerance lead naturally to greater freedoms, self-actualization, civilization and peace which are critical components of sustainable development. Religious pluralism has inherent integrative powers to transform the society positively. However, historical experiences reveal that societies which tie political battle for supremacy, socio-economic dominance and cultural superiority complex to their religions breed developmental crises. One example of such a specimen is Nigeria. The interactions between the three dominant religions in Nigeria, namely: Christianity, African Traditional Religion and Islam have been largely governed by divisiveness, hatred, bigotry and violence. The consequence is developmental deficits. This paper strove to discuss the integrative value of religious pluralism which brings sustainable development. It also examined exclusivity as a common possible weakness of religious pluralism which destroys the integral growth of peoples and nations. The methodology employed in this work is historic-descriptive which means that the relationship patterns of the three religions in Nigeria and their impacts on sustainable development were studied over time guided by the progressive value of religion. Finally, the paper recommended the need to eschew religious absolutism or totalitarianism, and secularity of constitutions to be upheld among others to promote the harnessing of the gains of religious diversity. Key Words : Religious pluralism, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, Sustainable development, Nigeria.

Religion, Well-Being, and Therapeutic Landscape

Abstract: Religious communities and institutions have been pivotal in the growth of cities and urban communities in the world, usually as cradles around which large cities emerge. This chapter addresses the role of religion in the maintenance and promotion of populations’ well-being through the case of Ghanaian and Somali immigrants in Canada. Through an empirical study of religious groups and by the application of the therapeutic landscapes concept, this chapter shows how religious places help to nurture newcomers/immigrants into Canadian society. Attention is paid to whether religious places contain elements of the physical, social, emotional, symbolic and spiritual sense of well-being, and also how these help form and sustain community. The study revealed that religion is important as a factor in understanding the well-being of populations, but rather than viewing religion in narrow spiritual terms as a call to a Supreme Being, a wider view is warranted. In fact, the chapter advocates reframing the spiritual component of religion to combine the physical, social, symbolic, emotional and other factors that characterize religious place making, and to consider vulnerable religious places that jeopardize populations’ well-being.

The Encounter Between Christianity and Asante Culture: Impact and Repercussions

Abstract: The Asante Traditional Religion was in existence and the home of many Asantes long before Western missionaries introduced Christianity and Islam into Asanteman. The Asantes believe in the Supreme Being, spirits, ancestral veneration and life after death. However, with the introduction of Christianity and Western education, Western missionaries condemned Asante culture and religion and taught Asantes to abandon their culture and religion, and convert into Christianity. Some Asantes who converted into Christianity were asked to imbibe Western European culture and religion and to become like Western Europeans in thought and action. They were to assume the names of European saints and abandon some of their traditional names and practices which were considered pagan. Christian rites of passage were introduced to replace the time-tested Asante rites of passage. With the introduction of Christianity and Western education, many young Asante converts abandoned their culture and traditional religion and adopted the Western European culture and religion as a way of life. Even though official Church teachings and documents urged European missionaries to be Asantes with Asantes, some missionaries still abandoned caution and judged the Asante converts from the perspective of a European worldview.The author conducted a doctoral research in 2017 at Ejisu Juaben Municipality among three selected Churches, namely, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church Ghana and the Church of Pentecost using 377 respondents and nine purposive in-depth interviews. The study also reviewed existing literature available on the subject. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences software for Windows, version 23 was used to analyse the data. Majority of respondents agreed that early Western missionaries provided formal education, health care and charitable services to the needy in the municipality. However, they also admitted that the early Western missionaries interfered with Asante culture and considered Asante Traditional Religion as pagan. The early Western missionaries were unable to study the language and culture of the Asantes and so could not penetrate the deep-rooted traditional Asante culture and religion. This paper proposes that Christian missionaries should synthesise the Christian message with Asante culture in order to win the heart of the Asante convert into Christianity. Keywords: Encounter, Christianity, Asante culture, Asante Traditional Religion DOI : 10.7176/JPCR/42-04 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

«Религия Человека»: духовный опыт, свобода и традиция в философии Рабиндраната Тагора

Abstract: The author offers a research of the philosophy of Indian poet, writer and thinker Rabindranath Tagore based on hermeneutical analysis of his book “The Religion of Man”. In terms of phenomenological approach the philosophy of the Indian thinker is described as a combination of spiritual experience in contemplation the Supreme Being, the freedom as a methodological approach, the tradition as the source of thought as well as the proof for the correctness of ideas, which is appropriate to Tagore. Having put himself within the tradition of Vedic rishis’ contemplation, the poet developed his own philosophy (ontology and anthropology). The philosophy of Tagore's religious humanism can be described as a synthesis of freedom of thinking and various Indian unorthodox philosophical traditions. The key idea of Tagore's ontology is jīvan-devatā ('the Lord of life’) the eternal Personality and Supreme Man, the Creator of the Universe and human beings. The phenomenon of a human being is the pivotal point in the development of the universe because he is considered there as an expression of the Truth and the Meaning of a life. The Tagore’s philosophy in this respect is far from the traditional Indian understanding of the phenomenon of a human being. Along with the teaching about the links of human soul to the Brahman (jīvan-devatā), the human as the result of Creation is being considered as His co-creator in the World and the Life, the main figure in evolution, the maker of Civilization and the Creator of culture. Man is understood as free, future-oriented and creative being. Tagore affirms for India the idea of value of human freedom, dignity and his earthly life not only for spiritual liberation (mukti), but for other people, society and culture.