This thesis has been written to address the reality that we tend to arrive at
philosophical positions based on our worldview which is largely affected by our culture and
background. This is so ingrained into our system that it is difficult for us to break away from
that position. In a Christian context, this affects the way we interpret scripture, and it is only
when we step back and objectively examine carefully what we believe against what is written
in scripture that we begin to question how accurately our worldview reflects biblical teaching.
This tendency to base our beliefs on our culture has enormous significance when we come to
export our faith to other cultures.
The thesis examines the beliefs of people in an animistic society, and attempts to
differentiate between what is purely cultural and what is religious. It takes note of the fact
that heavy emphasis is being placed on respecting the existing cultures in societies in which
the Christian faith is being propagated. But in so doing there is a blurring of what is cultural
and what is religious, so that demands are made to add Christianity to an existing religion
rather than to switch from serving foreign gods to worshipping the one true God.
The thesis also examines western evangelical Christianity which has been strongly
influenced by enlightenment thinking, so that the supernatural events of the New Testament
have given way to scientifically explained alternatives. It notes that much of the Christian
faith that has been taken to pe ople of different cultures has carried the baggage of that
western culture. This has had serious deficiencies when dealing with societies that have been
steeped in animism, which the thesis contends is nothing more than demonic influences. The
brand of Christianity that has been brought has been inadequate to deal with these
phenomena. The result of this is that people have not been liberated from the influences of
their animistic past.
It is postulated that the Christianity of the Bible does indeed deal w ith issues of
animism, and that to a significant degree. It was faced in New Testament times and
powerfully dealt with by the Christianâs authority over the demonic forces. It further holds
that this New Testament ministry is still valid for today, and tha t the results of missionary
activity could have been very different if this biblical theology had been understood and
practised. Instead, the failure to equip emerging churches with the ability to deal with these
forces, has led them to attempt to deal wit h them in their own way. The only way they knew was to continue the practice of appeasing the spirits. This is why there is such a strong appeal
to include appeasement of the spirits, referred to as âancestors,â in the enculturated
Christianity of the emerging churches. This has contributed to religious dualism in South
Africa, since a demonstration that the Christian faith is powerful enough to deal with the
demonic forces would have obviated the need to find solutions elsewhere. It is also noted that
where it has been possible to break out of the limitations of western enlightenment theology,
evangelism has been more effective.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08222005-105835 |
| Date | 22 August 2005 |
| Creators | Froise, Harald |
| Contributors | No information available. |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08222005-105835/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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