Wandering «A» Gendered Wilderness: Suffering and Healing in an African Initiated Church

ISBN-13: 9780820488837 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 154 str.

Mukonyora, Isabel

Opis

Wandering a Gendered Wilderness discusses the gendered way Christianity is practiced by millions of Africans, exploring how feelings of marginality lead people to go out to pray in a sacred wilderness where God is understood to be the source of life, divine wisdom, and healing power. Isabel Mukonyora maintains that different experiences of reality among the poor, the sick, and victims of oppression the majority of whom are women give character to the Masowe Apostles, a popular African Initiated Church found in southern, central, and east Africa since the 1930s. This book will be of great interest to students of religion, history, anthropology, and gender studies."

Recenzje

«Isabel Mukonyora's well timed triumph of inter-disciplinarity, combining deeply felt participatory experience with insights from history, anthropology and theology is a landmark in the study of African Christianity. Ideas from three disciplines are harnessed to insistent memories of a childhood spent in a fast changing colonial and post-colonial society where gender shapes attitudes to the landscape, and Masowe Apostles use the latter to give meaning to their challenge of mission Christianity.» (Terence Ranger, St Antony's College, University of Oxford)
«Eaving history, ethnography and personal narrative, Bella Mukonyora takes us on a fascinating walk through the masowe or sacred wilderness of the Shona heartlands of Zimbabwe. With a salutary focus on the plight and agency of women, she argues that the survival gospel is more of a reality than the prosperity gospel for members of the Masowe Apostles Church. This book will engage those interested by the critical intersections of marginality, displacement, spirituality, gender, and land issues, as well as providing a refreshing new analysis of one of the most well-known African-initiated churches.» (Rosalind I. J. Hackett, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor in the Humanities and President, International Association for the History of Religions University of Tennessee, Knoxville)

O autorze

The Author: Isabel Mukonyora has a masters degree in the history of religions from the University of Aberdeen and a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford. She is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Western Kentucky University.