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Madagascar is a poor country with very little power on the world
stage. As a former French colony, Madagascar's wealth has often
been viewed as available to others with more power to take and use
as they please. This trend continues today; while its unique flora
and fauna and potential mineral resources excite international
business, government, and conservation interests, for the most
part, the lives of Malagasy people receive little attention. In
this context of powerlessness, an indigenous Christian movement
offers empowerment and healing to people with mental illness. The
movement, little-known outside the country, has offered care and
community to many of society's outcasts for over a century. The
impact of the movement's work is so great that national health
officials depend on the movement for mental health services, which
are woefully lacking outside the movement's camps. In this volume,
the movement's strategies for caring in community are explored,
particularly focusing on understandings and uses of power among the
powerless. The book includes discussion of power use and abuse by
colonial, missionary, ecclesial, national, and international
forces, analyzes relationships between the powerful and powerless,
asks theological questions about power and the Jesus movement
worldwide, and invites conversation on the potential power of the
building of communities of care for people with mental illness in
other contexts globally, to work toward healing, justice, and
health.
In 1894 Jesus appeared in a dream to Rainisoalambo during a period
of intense national crisis shortly before the French colonial
invasion of Madagascar. An educated member of the southern
highlands aristocracy, Rainisoalambo was also a traditional
medicine man who had fallen into grave difficulty. Being stricken
with a case of then-rampant leprosy, his business had vanished and
he and his family were starving. In this vision, Jesus told
Rainisoalambo to put away his sampy, the small idols and charms he
used for his traditional divining and healing. When he awoke, he
found that he was healed. He quickly got rid of his charms and
began a new life of fervent prayer, witnessing to his neighbors
about what had happened, and reading the gospels with new eyes, as
current reality rather than ancient reports of the far-away
dealings of the white man's god. A group of believers soon gathered
around him. Within a year of intense activity they had formally
organized themselves at Soatanna into what we would now call a base
community, the Disciples of the Lord. Their simple rules called
them to lives of economic sharing and self-sufficiency, cleanliness
and orderliness in their persons, houses, and lands, learning to
read the Bible, daily communal prayers and study, and sending out
apostles and evangelists to establish other such households and
communities. This was the beginning of what is now called the
Fifohazana, or Awakening. More than a century later the movement
comprises several tobys, or base communities, following the
appearance of several more prophets, female and male, and their
miracle-working. The members of the movement, or mpiandry, live
throughout the island, some in the tobys butmost in the cities and
villages as members of a variety of churches. The Fifohazana
continues to stress spiritual healings, exorcisms, personal service
to the poor and sick, cleanliness, prayer, Bible study, and
witnessing. This volume provides the reader with a very clear
understanding of what the Fifohazanamovement is all about
historically, theologically, in terms of the main characters
involved, its tremendous contributions to what a Christian healing
ministry might ideally be, and as it relates to the larger world of
church and society. The book is strengthened by the contributions
of a diverse international group of scholars and participants in
the movement. This has fostered the creation of an authentic piece
of research, which combines the actual voices of participants
within the movement itself along with the perspectives of scholars,
who analyze the movement from the external periphery. This is the
first book-length treatment of the Fifohazana in English. Editor
Cynthia Holder Rich has gathered contributions from authors from
five countries, including several members of the movement, to offer
several perspectives onto the history and current life of the
movement. Articles include analysis of major movement leaders, the
place of healing in the movement, history of the conflict between
the missions and the movement, the significance of oral expression
in proclamation and as a means of revival, the role of women as
leaders in the movement, and theological issues. The Fifohazana is
one of the most intriguing current instances of indigenous
Christianity in the world. While the movement has greatly evolved
and changed in over a century, Jesus continues to appear and raise
up newleaders. Various branches of the movement have developed a
variety of institutions, but the movement has not lost its power of
transformation and change. The Fifohazana: Madagascar's Indigenous
Christian Movement is an important volume for research libraries,
universities, African studies institutions and theological schools.
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Christian Zionism in Africa (Hardcover)
Cynthia Holder Rich; Foreword by Walter Brueggemann; Contributions by Mark Braverman, Suraya Dadoo, Cynthia Holder Rich, …
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R3,638
Discovery Miles 36 380
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Christian Zionism-a movement based on the belief that support of
Israel, and Israeli ownership of and residence in Jerusalem, is a
prerequisite for Christ's return-has been a significant substratum
within theologies and ecclesiologies of many churches in the US and
Europe for centuries. Since the 1970s, US-based Christian Zionism
organizations, encouraged by and collaborating with the Israeli
government, have used a significant amount of resources to spread
the movement into other regions of the world, including Africa. In
many African countries, Christian Zionism combines perniciously
with Prosperity Gospel preaching, interpreting Genesis 12:3 as a
divine map to gain blessings-material and otherwise-through
complete and uncritical support for the modern-day State of Israel.
Many African governments have come to understand that this support
is lucrative--and coercive. African officials working with Israel
learn that openly supporting Palestine will result in their
partnerships with Israel being discontinued. Contributors to this
interdisciplinary volume analyze the meaning and ramifications of
the emergence of Christian Zionist ideologies in Africa and its
churches, in interfaith work, in politics, in law, and in the use
and abuse of power between peoples of different races, histories,
economic strength, and influence on the international stage.
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