The Language of Faith in Southern Africa: Spirit World, Power, Community, Holism

Abstract

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. After an MA thesis in philosophy of religion on the work of Wittgensteinian philosopher D.Z. Phillips, he obtained a PhD in systematic theology from the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands, investigating the relationship between systematic theology and ordinary language of faith from a Wittgensteinian perspective. He served for four years as a pastor in a congregation of the Protestant church in the Netherlands, and lectured in theology, philosophy and ethics at Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, in Zambia for six years. In Zambia, he became interested in African theology and the distinctive character of African language of faith. He published widely in leading international journals in theology and philosophy of religion, and he edited four books on contemporary themes in African theology with contributions from all over Southern Africa. I thank Dr Naomi Haynes and Dr Chammah Kaunda for their comments on a chapter of this book. I thank Sherri and Dustin Ellington, and Jolanda and Charles Cartwright for their comments and corrections of my English. And, finally, my wife, Johanneke: you are a part of this book every step of the way. Thank you for exploring the world together with me!

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“…These findings corroborated with Kroesbergen (2019), who argued that in Africa, leadership is directly linked to the spirit world. That is the case because all the people in the leadership position are believed to have been chosen by God.…”

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“…Instead of taking religion as an alternative provider of a sort of scientific explanation, prediction, and control, a closer look at the way religion is lived shows that religious explanations and means of control work very differently. Religion speaks of control where there is no control and is an explanation where human explanations are failing (Kroesbergen, 2019 , pp. 47–58).…”

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“…As I (Kroesbergen 2014:190) have argued before, it is important to 'acknowledge both that our language is relative to the context in which we find ourselves, and that our language deals with reality' (see also Kroesbergen 2019b). This is a form of what could be dubbed 'ordinary realism' and it works by providing reminders of how language is used in everyday life.…”