Christ, Evil, and Suffering in Ghanaian Christian Liturgy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ptcs.v14i1.9Keywords:
Ghanaian Christianity, evil and suffering, victory and freedom, identity transformation, power, contextualizationAbstract
This paper examines the contextualization of the Jesus story by Ghanaian Christians. It approaches it through the analysis and evaluation of inherent ideas in their songs, sermons and practices that reflect their interpretation of the Christian experience in relation to primal religion and culture, and the Bible. The results show that Ghanaian Christians do not play down the ubiquity of evil in the world. Nonetheless, they see in Jesus Christ the incomparable, victorious Saviour who has made it possible for believers to overcome the evils of this world. Accordingly, they insist that in Christ believers can enjoy “full” and “complete” salvation in every area of life.
References
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Adutwum, K. O. “African Traditional ‘Psalms’ of Confidence”. Trinity Journal of Church and Theology 1.2: 16–18.
Alokan, A. 1991. The Christ Apostolic Church: CAC 1928–1988. Ibadan: Ibukunola Printers Nigeria.
Anderson, R. M. 1979. Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Arnold, C. E. 1996. The Colossian Syncretism: The Interface between Christianity and Folk Belief. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. K. 2000. “Renewal within African Christianity: A Study of Some Current Historical and Theological Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana”. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, UK.
—. 2005. African Charismatics: Current Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana. Accra: Africa Christian Press.
—. 2007. “‘On the “Mountain” of the Lord’: Healing Pilgrimages in Ghanaian Christianity”. Exchange: Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Research 36: 65–86.
—. 2012. “African Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity: Overview”. August. Available at www.lausanneworldpulse.com/worldreports/464?pg (accessed 8 August 2012).
—. 2013. Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity: Interpretation from an African Context. Oxford: Regnum Books International.
Asimeng, J. M. 1995. Salvation, Social Crisis and the Human Condition. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.
Badu-Wood, E. 2008. “The Attractive Church”. In Tell the Next Generation: Lecture Notes on the Annual Themes of The Church of Pentecost 2. Accra: National Literature Committee, The Church of Pentecost: 195–7.
Barlett, D. L. 1993. Ministry in the New Testament. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Bediako, G. M. 1997. Primal Religion and the Bible: William Robertson Smith and his Heritage. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Bediako, K. 2001. “Scripture as the Hermeneutic of Culture and Tradition”. Journal of African Christian Thought 4.1: 2–11.
—. 2000. Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African History and Experience. Carlisle: Paternoster Publishing.
—. 1995. Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press and Orbis Books.
Bevans, S. B. 2002. Models of Contextual Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Blomberg, C. 1997. Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey. Leicester: InterVarsity Press.
Boer, H. 1961. Pentecost and Mission. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.
Buah, F. K. 1998. A History of Ghana, revised edn. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Chitando, E. 2000. “Songs of Praise: Gospel Music in an African Context”. Exchange 29.4: 296–310.
—. 2002. “Review of Thomas Turino, Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe”. Zambezia 29.1: 89.
de Wit, H. 2004. “Through the Eyes of Another: Objectives and Backgrounds”. In H. de Wit, L. Jonker, M. Kool and D. S. Schipani (eds), Through the Eyes of Another: Intercultural Reading of the Bible. Elkhart, IN: Evangel Press: 3–53.
Dube, M. W. (ed.). 2001. Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible. Geneva: WCC Publications.
Duewel, W. L. 1986. Touch the World through Prayer. Grand Rapids, MI: Francis Asbury Press.
Duncan, G. and O. U. Kalu. 2007. “Bakuzufu: Revival Movements and Indigenous Appropriation of Christianity”. In Kalu, African Christianity: 245–69.
Dunn, J. D. G. 2003. Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making 1. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.
Dunn, J. D. G. and G. H. Twelftree. 1980. “Demon-Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament”. Churchman 94.3: 210–26.
Gifford, P. 2004. Ghana’s New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy. London: Hurst & Co.
Glasser, A. G. with C. E. Van Engen. 2003. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Gomang, S. N.-K. 2001. “Translating the Divine: The Case of Modimo in the Setwane Bible”. In Dube, Other Ways of Reading: 78–97.
Green, J. B. 1997. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.
Griffiths, M. 1986. Serving Grace: Gifts without “ ”. Bromley: MARC Europe.
Hamon, B. 1990. Prophets and Personal Prophecy. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers.
Hollenweger, W. J. 1996. “From Azusa Street to the Toronto Phenomenon”. Concilium: International Journal for Theology 3: 3–14.
—. 1997. Pentecostalism: Origins and Development. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Kalu, O. U. (ed.). 2007. African Christianity: An African Story. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
—. 2007. “Introduction: The Shape and Flow of African Church Historiography”. In Kalu, African Christianity: 3–22.
Karecki, M. 1997. “Discovering the Roots of Ritual”. Missionalia 25.2: 169–77.
Kärkkäinen, V.-M. 2000. “‘Truth on Fire’: Pentecostal Theology of Mission and the Challenges of a New Millennium”. Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies 3.1: 33–60.
Kato, B. 1985. Biblical Christianity in Africa: Theological Perspectives in Africa. Achimota: ACP.
Larbi, E. K. 2001. Pentecostalism: Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity. Accra: CPCS.
—. 2002. “The Nature of Continuity and Discontinuity of Ghanaian Pentecostal Concept of Salvation in African Cosmology”. Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies 5.1: 87–106.
Malina, B. J. 1998. Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Marshall, I. H. 2000. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Acts. Leicester: InterVarsity Press.
Marshall-Fratani, R. 1998. “Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism”. Journal of Religion in Africa 28.3: 278–315.
Massey, R. D. 1998. “The Word of God: ‘Thus Saith the Lord’”. In K. Warrington (ed.), Pentecostal Perspectives. Carlisle: Paternoster Publishing: 64–79.
Mbuweyesango, D. R. 2001. “How Local Divine Powers Were Suppressed: A Case of Mwari of the Shona”. In Dube, Other Ways of Reading: 63–77.
Menzies, R. P. 2007. “Luke’s Understanding of Baptism in the Holy Spirit”. PentecoStudies 6.1: 108–26.
Morris, L. 1986. New Testament Theology, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Murphy, J. O. and C. S. Murphy. 1994. Prophets and Prophecy in Today’s Church. San Diego, CA: Hundredfold Press.
Ntumy, M. K. 2012. No Easy Road: A Pastor’s Journey into Paralysis. Erzhausen: Sch-nbach-Druck.
Omenyo, C. N. 2006. Pentecost outside Pentecostalism: A Study of the Development of Charismatic Renewal in the Mainline Churches in Ghana. Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum Publishing House.
Onyinah, O. 2002. “Akan Witchcraft and the Concept of Exorcism in the Church of Pentecost”. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, UK.
—. 2004. “The Man James McKeown”. In O. Onyinah (ed.), The Church of Pentecost: 50 Years of Sustainable Growth. James McKeown Memorial Lectures. Accra: Pentecost Press: 55–104.
Osborn, G. R. 2006. The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Oyedepo, D. O. 2000. Riding on Prophetic Wings. Ota, Lagos: Dominion Publishing House.
Phillips, G. A. 1994. “The Ethics of Reading Deconstructively, or Speaking Face to Face: the Samaritan Woman Meets Derrida at the Well”. In E. S. Malbon and E. V. Knight (eds), Literary Criticism and the New Testament. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press: 283–318.
Pokorný, P. 1991. Colossians: A Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Rae, S. B. 2000. Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics, 2nd edn. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Sarpong, K. 1998. Dear Nana: Letters to my Ancestor. Takoradi: Franciscan Publications.
Shank, D. A. 1994. Prophet Harris: “The Black Elijah of West Africa”, abridged edn. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Shieffield, D. 2011. “Herbert E. Randall: A Canadian Holiness Missionary in Egypt and his Quest for More of the Holy Spirit”. Canadian Journal of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity 2: 1–40.
Smith, E. W. (ed.). 1926. The Christian Mission in Africa: A Study Based on the Work of the International Conference at Le Zoute, Belgium, September, 14–21, 1926. London: Edinburgh House Press.
Tackett, Z. M. 2013. “As Citizens of Heaven: Peace, War, and Patriotism among Pentecostals in the United States during World War I”. Canadian Journal of PentecostalCharismatic Christianity 4: 27–43.
Tenobi, D. n.d. A Short History of the Apostolic Church in Ghana. n.p.
Turner, M. 1998. The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts in the New Testament Church and Today. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Ukah, A. 2003. “Advertising God: Nigerian Christian Video-Films and the Power of Consumer Culture”. Journal of Religion in Africa 33.2: 203–31.
—. 2008. “Seeing is More than Believing: Posters and Proselytization in Nigeria”. In R. I. J. Hackett (ed.), Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talks, Free Markets and Culture Wars, London: Equinox: 165–96.
—. 2008. “Roadside Pentecostalism Religious Advertising in Nigeria and the Marketing of Charisma”. Critical Interventions 2: 125–41.
Vroom, H. M. 2007. “Why Are We Inclined to do Evil”. In H. M. Vroom (ed.), Wrestling with God and with Evil: Philosophical Reflections. Amsterdam: Rodopi: 131–46.
Williams, J. R. 1996. Renewal Theology: Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective, Three Volumes in One. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Wyllie, R. W. 1974. “Pioneers of Ghanaian Pentecostalism: Peter Anim and James McKeown”. Journal of Religion in Africa 6.2: 109–22.
York, J. V. 2000. Missions in the Age of the Spirit. Springfield, MO: Logion Press.
Adutwum, K. O. “African Traditional ‘Psalms’ of Confidence”. Trinity Journal of Church and Theology 1.2: 16–18.
Alokan, A. 1991. The Christ Apostolic Church: CAC 1928–1988. Ibadan: Ibukunola Printers Nigeria.
Anderson, R. M. 1979. Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Arnold, C. E. 1996. The Colossian Syncretism: The Interface between Christianity and Folk Belief. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. K. 2000. “Renewal within African Christianity: A Study of Some Current Historical and Theological Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana”. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, UK.
—. 2005. African Charismatics: Current Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana. Accra: Africa Christian Press.
—. 2007. “‘On the “Mountain” of the Lord’: Healing Pilgrimages in Ghanaian Christianity”. Exchange: Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Research 36: 65–86.
—. 2012. “African Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity: Overview”. August. Available at www.lausanneworldpulse.com/worldreports/464?pg (accessed 8 August 2012).
—. 2013. Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity: Interpretation from an African Context. Oxford: Regnum Books International.
Asimeng, J. M. 1995. Salvation, Social Crisis and the Human Condition. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.
Badu-Wood, E. 2008. “The Attractive Church”. In Tell the Next Generation: Lecture Notes on the Annual Themes of The Church of Pentecost 2. Accra: National Literature Committee, The Church of Pentecost: 195–7.
Barlett, D. L. 1993. Ministry in the New Testament. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Bediako, G. M. 1997. Primal Religion and the Bible: William Robertson Smith and his Heritage. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Bediako, K. 2001. “Scripture as the Hermeneutic of Culture and Tradition”. Journal of African Christian Thought 4.1: 2–11.
—. 2000. Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African History and Experience. Carlisle: Paternoster Publishing.
—. 1995. Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press and Orbis Books.
Bevans, S. B. 2002. Models of Contextual Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Blomberg, C. 1997. Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey. Leicester: InterVarsity Press.
Boer, H. 1961. Pentecost and Mission. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.
Buah, F. K. 1998. A History of Ghana, revised edn. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Chitando, E. 2000. “Songs of Praise: Gospel Music in an African Context”. Exchange 29.4: 296–310.
—. 2002. “Review of Thomas Turino, Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe”. Zambezia 29.1: 89.
de Wit, H. 2004. “Through the Eyes of Another: Objectives and Backgrounds”. In H. de Wit, L. Jonker, M. Kool and D. S. Schipani (eds), Through the Eyes of Another: Intercultural Reading of the Bible. Elkhart, IN: Evangel Press: 3–53.
Dube, M. W. (ed.). 2001. Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible. Geneva: WCC Publications.
Duewel, W. L. 1986. Touch the World through Prayer. Grand Rapids, MI: Francis Asbury Press.
Duncan, G. and O. U. Kalu. 2007. “Bakuzufu: Revival Movements and Indigenous Appropriation of Christianity”. In Kalu, African Christianity: 245–69.
Dunn, J. D. G. 2003. Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making 1. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.
Dunn, J. D. G. and G. H. Twelftree. 1980. “Demon-Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament”. Churchman 94.3: 210–26.
Gifford, P. 2004. Ghana’s New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy. London: Hurst & Co.
Glasser, A. G. with C. E. Van Engen. 2003. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Gomang, S. N.-K. 2001. “Translating the Divine: The Case of Modimo in the Setwane Bible”. In Dube, Other Ways of Reading: 78–97.
Green, J. B. 1997. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.
Griffiths, M. 1986. Serving Grace: Gifts without “ ”. Bromley: MARC Europe.
Hamon, B. 1990. Prophets and Personal Prophecy. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers.
Hollenweger, W. J. 1996. “From Azusa Street to the Toronto Phenomenon”. Concilium: International Journal for Theology 3: 3–14.
—. 1997. Pentecostalism: Origins and Development. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Kalu, O. U. (ed.). 2007. African Christianity: An African Story. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
—. 2007. “Introduction: The Shape and Flow of African Church Historiography”. In Kalu, African Christianity: 3–22.
Karecki, M. 1997. “Discovering the Roots of Ritual”. Missionalia 25.2: 169–77.
Kärkkäinen, V.-M. 2000. “‘Truth on Fire’: Pentecostal Theology of Mission and the Challenges of a New Millennium”. Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies 3.1: 33–60.
Kato, B. 1985. Biblical Christianity in Africa: Theological Perspectives in Africa. Achimota: ACP.
Larbi, E. K. 2001. Pentecostalism: Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity. Accra: CPCS.
—. 2002. “The Nature of Continuity and Discontinuity of Ghanaian Pentecostal Concept of Salvation in African Cosmology”. Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies 5.1: 87–106.
Malina, B. J. 1998. Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Marshall, I. H. 2000. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Acts. Leicester: InterVarsity Press.
Marshall-Fratani, R. 1998. “Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism”. Journal of Religion in Africa 28.3: 278–315.
Massey, R. D. 1998. “The Word of God: ‘Thus Saith the Lord’”. In K. Warrington (ed.), Pentecostal Perspectives. Carlisle: Paternoster Publishing: 64–79.
Mbuweyesango, D. R. 2001. “How Local Divine Powers Were Suppressed: A Case of Mwari of the Shona”. In Dube, Other Ways of Reading: 63–77.
Menzies, R. P. 2007. “Luke’s Understanding of Baptism in the Holy Spirit”. PentecoStudies 6.1: 108–26.
Morris, L. 1986. New Testament Theology, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Murphy, J. O. and C. S. Murphy. 1994. Prophets and Prophecy in Today’s Church. San Diego, CA: Hundredfold Press.
Ntumy, M. K. 2012. No Easy Road: A Pastor’s Journey into Paralysis. Erzhausen: Sch-nbach-Druck.
Omenyo, C. N. 2006. Pentecost outside Pentecostalism: A Study of the Development of Charismatic Renewal in the Mainline Churches in Ghana. Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum Publishing House.
Onyinah, O. 2002. “Akan Witchcraft and the Concept of Exorcism in the Church of Pentecost”. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, UK.
—. 2004. “The Man James McKeown”. In O. Onyinah (ed.), The Church of Pentecost: 50 Years of Sustainable Growth. James McKeown Memorial Lectures. Accra: Pentecost Press: 55–104.
Osborn, G. R. 2006. The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Oyedepo, D. O. 2000. Riding on Prophetic Wings. Ota, Lagos: Dominion Publishing House.
Phillips, G. A. 1994. “The Ethics of Reading Deconstructively, or Speaking Face to Face: the Samaritan Woman Meets Derrida at the Well”. In E. S. Malbon and E. V. Knight (eds), Literary Criticism and the New Testament. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press: 283–318.
Pokorný, P. 1991. Colossians: A Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Rae, S. B. 2000. Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics, 2nd edn. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Sarpong, K. 1998. Dear Nana: Letters to my Ancestor. Takoradi: Franciscan Publications.
Shank, D. A. 1994. Prophet Harris: “The Black Elijah of West Africa”, abridged edn. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Shieffield, D. 2011. “Herbert E. Randall: A Canadian Holiness Missionary in Egypt and his Quest for More of the Holy Spirit”. Canadian Journal of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity 2: 1–40.
Smith, E. W. (ed.). 1926. The Christian Mission in Africa: A Study Based on the Work of the International Conference at Le Zoute, Belgium, September, 14–21, 1926. London: Edinburgh House Press.
Tackett, Z. M. 2013. “As Citizens of Heaven: Peace, War, and Patriotism among Pentecostals in the United States during World War I”. Canadian Journal of PentecostalCharismatic Christianity 4: 27–43.
Tenobi, D. n.d. A Short History of the Apostolic Church in Ghana. n.p.
Turner, M. 1998. The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts in the New Testament Church and Today. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Ukah, A. 2003. “Advertising God: Nigerian Christian Video-Films and the Power of Consumer Culture”. Journal of Religion in Africa 33.2: 203–31.
—. 2008. “Seeing is More than Believing: Posters and Proselytization in Nigeria”. In R. I. J. Hackett (ed.), Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talks, Free Markets and Culture Wars, London: Equinox: 165–96.
—. 2008. “Roadside Pentecostalism Religious Advertising in Nigeria and the Marketing of Charisma”. Critical Interventions 2: 125–41.
Vroom, H. M. 2007. “Why Are We Inclined to do Evil”. In H. M. Vroom (ed.), Wrestling with God and with Evil: Philosophical Reflections. Amsterdam: Rodopi: 131–46.
Williams, J. R. 1996. Renewal Theology: Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective, Three Volumes in One. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Wyllie, R. W. 1974. “Pioneers of Ghanaian Pentecostalism: Peter Anim and James McKeown”. Journal of Religion in Africa 6.2: 109–22.
York, J. V. 2000. Missions in the Age of the Spirit. Springfield, MO: Logion Press.
Published
2015-02-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Quayesi-Amakye, J. (2015). Christ, Evil, and Suffering in Ghanaian Christian Liturgy. PentecoStudies, 14(1), 9-41. https://doi.org/10.1558/ptcs.v14i1.9
