Essay: Historic Mission Churches and Interpretation of Evil Curses

Sample Essay

I share Basham’s opinion that a major reason for the attraction of Pentecostal/Charismatic Spirituality is it’s sympathetic or at least a serious approach…to life and culture, fears and uncertainties, and to the worldview of spirits, magic, and witchcraft.’ The belief that sickness and misfortune could result from both natural and mystical causes is found also in African traditional religions. Just like the adherents of African traditional religions, Pentecostals also believe in natural causality.

However, in both contexts, the lines between natural and spiritual causes of sickness and misfortune are not that sharply drawn. This explains why African Pentecostal/Charismatic theology generally holds the processes of healing from sickness and deliverance from the demonic together in an inseparable manner. Sometimes sickness or misfortune may be of natural causes, but it is believed that evil spirits could capitalize on the situation and worsen the plights of their victims. (Basham, 1972)

Unlike the Pentecostals historic mission churches generally tend to have an Enlightenment mindset, at least at the official level, because of their western missionary heritage. In those historic mission contexts, as illustrated in Achebe’s story, persons tabooed by traditional religions would simply be accepted in church if they wished to convert to Christianity. Not so in modern Pentecostal/Charismatic contexts where the ‘spiritual’ or ‘ritual’ status of such persons may not be overlooked because of the belief that association with traditional religions implies an association with the demonic supernatural realm controlled by the devil.

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