Coping with Evil in Ghanaian Pentecostalism

From songs, sermons and practices, this article examines the way Ghanaian Pentecostals address the question of evil and suffering. It approaches this from the perspective of common believers and leadership. The discussions reveal that there are multiple understandings, perceptions and interpretative...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Exchange
Main Author: Quayesi-Amakye, Joseph (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2014
In: Exchange
Further subjects:B evil and suffering Ghanaian Pentecostals false contextualisation debatable contextualisation
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:From songs, sermons and practices, this article examines the way Ghanaian Pentecostals address the question of evil and suffering. It approaches this from the perspective of common believers and leadership. The discussions reveal that there are multiple understandings, perceptions and interpretative tensions concerning how to cope with evil among Ghanaian Pentecostals. Whereas common believers approach it through what Opoku Onyinah calls ‘witchdemonology’, leadership considers this as inadequate. This is because common believers fail to understand the role of evil and suffering in human existence. As such they tend to promote the devil far above the Almighty God. According to leadership the presence of evil may not necessarily contradict God’s goodness and purpose. The paper concludes with some Biblical propositions in an attempt to resolve the apparent tension.
ISSN:1572-543X
Contains:In: Exchange
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/1572543X-12341327