E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats <p>ERATS is peer-reviewed and operates an open access policy aimed at Advancing Religous and Theological Studies throughout Africa. ERATS focuses on theoretical and empirical research in Religious and Theological studies. The journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts with the theoretical or empirical aspects from the following categories: African Traditional Religion, Biblical Interpretation, Biblical Translation Studies, Christian Education, Church History, Church and Society, Comparative Study of Religions, Ecocriticism, Ethics, History and Mission, Inter-religious Dialogue, New Testament, Old Testament, Pentecostal Studies, Theology, Wisdom Literature. We however accept manuscripts relating to other areas not stated above pertaining to religious and theological research.</p> <p>You can view this journal's website <a href="https://noyam.org/journals/erats/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> en-US <p>All research papers published in ERATS are open access. This means that they are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication for free download on the journal website. With open access, authors can easily share the content of their research work with a much wider audience, the global research community can have access to all articles, there is no need to have any kind of membership or pay any fees in order to use, or download published journal articles. Any user can read, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.<br /><br />The copyright holder – author(s) of all published articles grants usage rights to others using an open license (CC BY license). All Research articles in this journal are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> jkadjaottor@noyam.org (Professor Jonathan Edward Tetteh Kuwornu-Adjaottor) naakaiam@noyam.org (Naa Kai Amanor-Mfoafo) Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:10:10 +0000 OJS 3.3.0.11 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 Engaging the Evil Forces in the Spirit Realm: A Theology of Spiritual Warfare in African Neo-Pentecostal Spirituality https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269604 <p>Prayer is traditionally used as a way of communicating with God and giving petitions to Him. However, within African neo-Pentecostal&nbsp; spirituality, prayer is more than communication and petitions; it is a way of addressing the evil forces in the spiritual realm. This is&nbsp; informed by the link that African neo-Pentecostals make between life challenges and evil forces in the spirit realm. In other words,&nbsp; problems such as diseases, sicknesses, miscarriages, misfortune, curses, and others are seen as coming from the spirit realm and as&nbsp; being caused by evil spirits. Surprisingly, even problems of unemployment, visa application, poverty, and inequality are linked to the evil&nbsp; forces in the spirit realm by some African neo-Pentecostals. Previous studies have addressed this phenomenon within the context of&nbsp; African neo-Pentecostal spirituality. What is new in this article is the development of a theology of spiritual warfare within the African&nbsp; neoPentecostal spirituality. This article argued that not every situation emanates from the spirit realm. Some challenges have a human&nbsp; element of incompetencies, greed, corruption, and so forth. The study is a literature review on spiritual warfare. The study makes a new&nbsp; contribution to the Pentecostal theology of spiritual warfare by paying attention to other life challenges that are not linked to evil forces.&nbsp; This changes how Pentecostal scholars and theologians study the concept of spiritual warfare, there is a need for considering other&nbsp; causative factors in life situations. It is recommended here that a Pentecostal theology of spiritual warfare should holistically look at life&nbsp; rather than always perceiving all life challenges as emanating from the spirit realm.&nbsp;</p> Mookgo Solomon Kgatle Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269604 Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 A Conundrum of <i>Makoti</i> in the Light of Proverbs 31:10-31: Decolonising Mislaid ‘African Patriarchy’ https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269606 <p>The ideal wife, according to Proverb 31, is far more indispensable in any given society and plays a far less walk-over role in her marriage.&nbsp; Conversely, the highly recognised African term makoti, which originates from abroad (Dutch culture), reduces a newlywed to slave status,&nbsp; at least when understood from its linguistic context. This is because, according to the literature that is currently available, the&nbsp; term makoti originates from either the "Dutch/Afrikaans" phrase Maak ons tee, which roughly translates to "make us tea." Consequently,&nbsp; when considered in light of Proverb 31 woman, the term makoti, as used in most African cultures, becomes problematic.&nbsp; This paper aimed to refute colonialist notions of African makoti by first describing the African daughter-inlaw or recently married woman&nbsp; in the context of Proverb 31. Methodologically, through the employment of the decolonial theory and literature review, it confirmed that&nbsp; the esteemed African term makoti originates in Dutch culture rather than the African patriarchal corpus. The primary finding of this study&nbsp; was that, contrary to the stereotype of makoti that has been fortified by colonial context, the real African daughter-in-law is more&nbsp; akin to a Proverb 31 woman. The study concluded that correcting falsehoods like these contributes to the restoration of African culture's&nbsp; dignity and the veracity of African history, while also challenging the continued colonial narratives that marginalize African women. This&nbsp; study enhances and contributes towards the decolonial agenda by dispelling stereotypes that misplace makoti as an invention of African&nbsp; culture.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> Mmamajoro Phalatsi-Shilubana Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269606 Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 The Influence of African Traditional Beliefs and Practices on Neo-Prophetic Christianity: An Analysis https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269607 <p>The rapid expansion of the neo-prophetic strand of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Africa has resulted in much public and&nbsp; academic scrutiny against the backdrop of perceived appropriation of elements of indigenous African faith. Even though African&nbsp; countries have retained secularism in place of a state religion, many African states, notably Ghana, have remained steadfastly committed&nbsp; to their traditional religions, sometimes even working in tandem with monotheistic Abrahamic religions like Islam and Christianity.&nbsp; Unquestionably, indigenous African religious beliefs have had a significant impact on African mental matrixes, which in turn has affected&nbsp; the practice of Christianity. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate how Ghanaian Christianity was impacted by traditional&nbsp; African beliefs and customs. In particular, a study of neo-prophetic churches at Manso Dome-Beposo within the Ashanti Region of Ghana&nbsp; was employed. The data for the study was gathered using interview guidelines and qualitative approaches. The data collected was&nbsp; thematically analyzed in line with the reviewed literature. The study found that most prophetic explorations involve the use of rituals,&nbsp; artefacts, and stylistic forms, which are similar to Abisa in the Akan spiritual cosmology. The study found out again that, there are several&nbsp; elements suggestive of African traditional religious influence on Christianity. For instance, it was observed that the notion of the&nbsp; existence of evil spirits in Akan cosmology has strongly influenced contemporary prophetism in Ghana. The study concluded that&nbsp; although the idea that Christianity has been affected by African traditional religion may not have empirical validity, there are plenty of&nbsp; visible indicators to back up this assertion. It has been recommended that with the evidence of possible syncretism, a clear distinction&nbsp; should be made between the culture and the religious activities of the people since at times the church wrongfully accuses members&nbsp; even when they are performing culturing duties. This will help the church authorities to inculturate Christian liturgy.&nbsp;</p> Prince Osei Yeboah, Ernest Owusu, Emmanuel Obimpeh-Quayson Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269607 Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 The Groaning of Creation (Romans 8:19-22) and the Ecological Devastation of the Niger Delta, Nigeria https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269611 <p>This work studied Romans 8:19-22 with a focus on the frustration human actions bring to the non-material creation which makes it yearn&nbsp; to be liberated from them and tries to see its relationship to the ecological devastation in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Using the historical- critical method of exegesis and comparative and contextual methods it maintains that there is a relationship between the image of&nbsp; creation painted in Rom 8:19-22 and the ecological situation in the Niger Delta. It holds that since humans played a major role in&nbsp; rendering the non-material creation incapable of realising its natural goal, humans also have a role to play in its restoration. It further&nbsp; states that since humanity through the Christ event has been reconciled to God and looks forward to the realisation of the fullness of&nbsp; such reconciliation, reconciled humans should relate to the rest of creation in such a way that it will also experience the effect of this&nbsp; reconciliation as it awaits its fullness in future. The paper contributes to the discussion on environmental realised eschatology.&nbsp;</p> Peter Chidolue Onwuka Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/269611 Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000