Over at The Atlantic, Josh Kron writes about an evangelical group, the Emerging Church, which is influential in Africa and whose leading members are behind Invisible Children and Kony 2012. Kony’s creator, Jason Russell, was earlier in the good news for his viral video and later in the bad news for what appears to be [...]
Tags:Africa·Brian McLauren·Emerging Church·evangelical Christians·Gnostic·Jason Russell·Kony 2012·liberal Christianity·mysticism
In 2006, University of Oslo archaeologist Sheila Coulson gave an open lecture about her work at a small cave in the Tsodilo Hills of northern Botswana. Although her lecture focused on Middle Stone Age tools recovered from the cave and an unusual rock formation that looked to her like a snake or python, she also [...]
Tags:Africa·Alec Campbell·Botswana·Bushmen·cupules·George Brook·Larry Robbins·Michael Murphy·Middle Stone Age·Nyame Akuma·oldest religion·oldest ritual·python·Python Cave·Rhino Cave·sacrifice·San·Sheila Coulson·snake·Stanley Ambrose·Tsodilo Hills·worship
After many years of meaning to do so, I finally came round to reading Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. The reviews are uniformly favorable if not fantastic, and it is considered to be a modern classic. For good reason. Kingsolver hit a home run.
If you are like me and have been putting off this read [...]
Tags:Africa·Baptist·Barbara Kingsolver·Congo·missionaries·Oprah·post-colonial·The Poisonwood Bible
In English and American law, “force majeure” clauses are standard in most contracts. These clauses simply recognize that the world can be a chaotic place and that when a contracting party cannot perform due to such chaos, the lack of performance will not constitute a breach of contract. Such clauses typically include a standard list [...]
Tags:acts of God·Africa·American law·angry God·Azande·Bangui·Bartolomé Goroth·Central African Republic·chance·chaos·contracts·covens·E.E. Evans-Pritchard·force majeure·Graeme Wood·Hex Appeal·jurisprudence·law·magic·Mbutu·Pygmies·spells·witchcraft·witches
Just the other day, I commented on the origin of ritual and noted that Jonathan Z. Smith sees “the thrill of coincidence” as at least a partial explanation. Before rationalists dismiss this thrill as mere superstition, Smith also notes that the same kind of coincidence resides at the heart of scholarship:
The discovery that two events, [...]
Tags:Africa·Assembly of God·Catholics·charismatics·charms·coincidence·evangelicals·exorcism·Foursquare Gospel·Geoffrey MacDonald·Glimpses of African Belief·indigenous beliefs·Johann Hari·Jonathan Z. Smith·Massachusetts·mediums·pagans·Pentecostals·possession·psychics·ritual·rituals·rosaries·saints·Salem·secret interconnection·spells·spiritual tourism·spiritualism·superstitition·The Gathering·The Masque of Africa·The Vault·transubstantiation·V.S. Naipaul·voodoo·Wicca·witchcraft
Over the past few days, I have been missing one of my favorite religion news sources — the Religion News Service’s daily roundup — because the RNS journalists are attending the Religion Newswriters Association Conference in Denver. I had considered attending, but after reviewing the schedule, which is heavy on Christian scriptural topics and “featured” [...]
Tags:Africa·Archbishop Chaput·Catholic Church·Charles Chaput·condoms·Denver archdiocese·Denver Conference·disrespecting religion·Laurie Goodstein·pedophile priests·Religion News Service·Religion Newswriters Association
Over at Live Science, Benjamin Radford stereotypically reports — with no irony and little thought — that “Belief in Witchcraft Widespread in Africa” is prevalent:
A new Gallup poll found that belief in magic is widespread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with over half of respondents saying they personally believe in witchcraft. Studies in 18 countries show belief [...]
Tags:Africa·Africans·angels·Benjamin Radford·Christianity·demons·Gallup Poll·helplessness·Islam·Ivory Coast·lack of control·magic·propitiation·religiosity·sorcery·spirits·supernatural beings·supernatural forces·Uganda·witchcraft
