Independent church healing : the case of St Elijah cum Enlightenment School of the Holy Spirit in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Health and religion are closely linked. Scholars in Medicine, Social Studies and Missiology have paid a great deal of attention to African health systems. AICs in Southern Africa have studied, in particular, the relationship between Christian healing and traditional healing. Pioneer studies of these religious movements by Sundkler (1961:238-239) depict AICs as custodians of traditional culture. Seen as the revitalisation of African culture in the disguise of Christianity, they are also perceived as “bridges back to paganism” (Kealotswe 2005:1). Daneel describes this form of syncretism as transformation of “old and new” in Zionist Churches in Zimbabwe. To date, discussion has been centred on the influence of the traditional worldview to the exclusion of charismatic forms of African Christianity. This essay tries to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between the African traditional religion and Christianity by examining the aetiologies of illness and healing in a particular African independent church; the approach used is an alternative approach, phenomenology. The essay tests the contention that independent churches are not only influenced by traditional worldviews, but also integrate charismatic forms of Christianity.