A Review of Christian Conversion In an African Context

By GLENN J. SCHWARTZ

Introduction

For the last several decades I have been struggling with some fundamental questions regarding the nature of Christian conversion in the African context - particularly East, Central and Southern Africa with which I am most familiar. On a recent four week trip across Africa, I became convinced more than ever that there is ample reason for taking a serious look at this important subject.

Virtually everywhere I went from Liberia to Kenya to South Africa, I heard concerned church leaders asking why so many "believers" are turning with relative ease to practitioners of traditional religion in times of family or personal crisis.

For example, recently an ordained minister of 35 years service to the church was told that he had terminal cancer and was released from the Western hospital because medical people said "there is nothing we can do". He then went to the village of a practitioner of spiritism to live out the final few months of his life.

A young Christian university graduate had difficulty finding a job and believed there was a "spiritual" reason, so he consulted a diviner to find out who may be seeking to prevent his personal advancement.

A young mother who had several miscarriages sought a remedy from a local herbalist that was not available through the Western hospital. This "herbalist" in East, Central and Southern Africa is more than a "herbalist". Because of a totally integrated cosmology, he combines physical and spiritual remedies into one practice. And so the herbalist is searching for a spiritual solution to the problem.

The purpose of this paper is to ask why so many believers are turning to spiritism in times of crisis. It is also an effort to struggle with the phenomenon of marginal conversion - the implications of which are clearly on the increase. This is causing church leaders to wring their hands and ask fundamental questions about the adequacy of the Christian Gospel.

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