Kroesbergen, H. 2019. The language of faith in Southern Africa: Spirit world, power, community, holism.

Abstract

This book is an interdisciplinary study, bringing together the disciplines of systematic theology, anthropology, and philosophy in interpreting the lan-guage of faith in Southern Africa. The main argument in the bookis that even with careful consideration, scholars sometimes misunderstand the language of faith in Africa and end up falling into the trap of interpreting African religious experiences as strange. The book moves beyond two main schools in interpreting the language of faith. The first one belongs to critical realists who embrace the metaphorical approach in interpreting the spirit world. The second one belongs to postmodernists who embrace a realistic approach to African life and experiences. Kroesbergenargues that these two schools of interpretation are mistaken in connecting the African experiences to the ‘descriptions of the world’. HeusesAfrican theology, anthropology, his experiences in Africa,and the Wittgensteinian philosophy of language to point out that the language of faith in Africais not as strange as many scholars from the Euro-American contexts perceive it to be.