African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity: The Resilience of a Demonized Religion

Right from the beginning of humankind God has never deprived a people of his grace and revelation. In fact God uses peoples environment and culture to communicate his will. There is no single religion that can claim to have the exclusive possession of Gods revelation for God is too immense to be confined within one faith. Hence it was erroneous blasphemous and misleading for some of the early Christian missionaries to Africa to claim that they had brought God to Africa a mentality that implied the non-existence of God in Africa before their arrival. Of course God was already in Africa but the missionaries either failed to discern his presence or just disregarded the traces of his existence. This book explores the religious beliefs practices and values of the indigenous people of Africa at the time of the early missionaries arrival with particular reference to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It also evaluates the extent of the missionaries successes and challenges in converting Africans to Christianity. It finally surveys how African Christians have remained attached to the indigenous religious beliefs that used to provide answers to their existential questions. JOHN CHITAKURE is adjunct Professor of World Religions and The Religious Quest at The University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio Texas. He is the author of The Pursuit of the Sacred (2016) and Shona Women in Zimbabwe--A Purchased People (2016).