An African Response to Karl Barth's Notion of Evil as Nothingness
In African spiritual exercises, there is so much talk about the menace of demons or evil spirits. These spirits are conceived of as the antithesis of God or as the spiritual opposition to the benign activities of God. Modern African religion sees them as the causes of sicknesses and any form of cata...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2022
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| In: |
Transformation
Year: 2022, Volume: 39, Issue: 3, Pages: 150-162 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KDD Protestant Church NBH Angelology; demonology |
| Further subjects: | B
Nothingness
B karl B ekwensu B Demons B Barth B evil spirits |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In African spiritual exercises, there is so much talk about the menace of demons or evil spirits. These spirits are conceived of as the antithesis of God or as the spiritual opposition to the benign activities of God. Modern African religion sees them as the causes of sicknesses and any form of catastrophe in the lives of people. The paper takes off from Karl Barth's conception of evil and demons as nothingness and argues that when correctly understood, the so-called evil spirits or demons are nothing but the active agents of God in His relationship with humans. Since African cosmology sees the world as a universe of forces held in harmony by God, it seems that the African idea of the deities and spirits as subordinates of God better captures the idea of the evil spirits or demons as nothingness outside the purview of God than the Barthian conception. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8931 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Transformation
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/02653788221096152 |