Inculturated African spiritual elements in the Johane Masowe weChishanu yeNyenyedzi church in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This study is in the domain of Church History under a sub theme 'Africanisation of Christianity'. Though Africanisation of Christianity is not a modern-day topic in Church History, this study posits that the theme should continue enjoying attention. The reason to this proposal is that it seems there is again a problem today on how African Indigenous Churches (AICs) interface with local traditional spiritualities in communities in which they are planted. Thus, this current study deals with the blurred interface and religious boundaries between African spiritual elements of faith and traditional Christian spiritual elements of faith as depicted in the Johane Masowe weChishanu inotungamirirwa neNyenyedzi(led by the star) (JMCN) Church in Zimbabwe. The hypothesis of this study is that the traditional African spiritual elements of faith dominate in JMCN Church spirituality at the expense of traditional Christian spiritual elements of faith. It is this unconscious adapting and adopting of 'incompatible' African spiritual elements of faith by the JMCN Church that has whet the appetite to examine whether JMCN Church spirituality can be described as a genuinely Christian. In an attempt to understand the genuineness of JMCN Church spirituality this study grouped AICs into two categories those that are said to be 'undisputed' and those that are said to be 'disputed'.While both groups have inculturated African spiritual elements of faith, this study argues that the undisputed AICs conscious selected compatible African spiritual elements of faith against the disputed AICs who unconsciously selected incompatible African spiritual elements of faith. Accordingly, the spirituality of JMCN (hereafter refered to as the Church) identified by its appropriation of African/Karanga spiritual elements of faith such as praying in traditional sacred caves and baptizing church members in traditional sacred pools and dams. Critical to JMCN spirituality is the removal of faith in Jesus Christ's death, resurrection and faith in the Bible as the word of God for human salvation. These are replaced by belief in the power of water spirits and tsanangudzo dzeMweya, (the sayings of the spirit) respectively.This study uses phenomenological and Theological Reflective approaches for data collection and interpreting of the data. Phenomenological method was used because it has two essential strands; the descriptive and the hermeneutical strands.The descriptive aspect helps the researcher to describe the spirituality of the Church accurately, while hermeneutic phenomenological and Theological Reflective approaches give the researcher the ability to evaluate the spirituality of the Church in light of Biblical Christian spirituality. The research study concludes that the JMCN church moved way from being a Christian Church to another syncretic religious denomination due to its inculturation of incompatible African spiritual elements of faith. This study argues that AICs have the liberty to inculturate local religious spiritual elements to shape their Church spiritualities, but the selection criteria should be carefully chosen to avoid obfuscating central Biblical spiritual elements of faith in the process.