At Progressive Revival, Diana Butler Bass discusses witchcraft in African Christianity and its implications for reading Christianity in Africa and in the United States:
Since the 2002 publication of historian Philip Jenkins’ fine book, The Next Christendom, it has become popular in some Christian circles to romanticize African Christianity as more orthodox, spiritually vital, and morally pure than western Christianity. Although Jenkins did not specifically say so (and it is a bit misreading to so claim), his readers have often depicted western Christianity as a tired and corrupt tradition awaiting the energy, insight, and vibrancy of a new Reformation springing from Africa that would remake the Jesus-faith for the future.
[…]But stories like this witchcraft story prove otherwise. African Christianity is as vast and diverse as American Christianity. Some of its most vibrant forms are its most progressive types—like the theologies that fostered justice in South Africa or sponsored the Truth and Reconciliation movements. And, as the Associated Press points out, some of its most regressive forms are its most literal—like small town pastors who kill children they think to be witches.
And it also shows that western Christianity—especially its liberal and progressive versions—has something important to say in today’s world. A few hundred years ago, western Christians killed witches, too. In places like Massachusetts. And they also interpreted the Bible literally—“You shall not allow a witch to live.”
Read the full post here.