Packed with fascinating real life stories and vibrant testimony, as well as history and philosophy and It is a reference book, product of summarizing the Catholic doctrine on Our Mother Mary, written in simple language.
The book is about Catholic doctrine and theology, so that the reader knows and loves Jesus and the Church through Mary. It is not about particular devotions. Showing results: of Published: Aug Downloads: 7 Pages: Published: Jul Downloads: 35 Pages: Published: Jul Downloads: 57 Pages: User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest.
Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Kwame Nkrumah, J. B Danquah and Okomfo Anokye are all regarded as Ghanaian ancestors not because Ghanaians worship them but because Ghanaians venerate them, due to the significant role s they played while they were alive.
From the forgoing, one could see that its usage is only limited to, i. African people. The early Portuguese who came to Africa in the fifteenth century onwards saw that African people used to wear charms and amulets and this made them to give the name Feitico to such things. It was earlier on believed by some Western scholars that every ethnic group in African owned a fetish. From the forgoing, it would be quite wrong to describe the religion of African people or a practice in the religion as fetishism, although there may be some element of this in the day-to-day life of African people.
Many Western writers, scholars, media and some section of African people use this word indiscriminately and racially. On this note, Awolalu writes: Prayers said during worship by Africans have been described as fetish prayers; the functionaries of a cult have been described as fetish priests; herbs prepared by African priests have been labelled fetish herbs, and not medical preparations, however efficacious such herbs may be; and taking an oath has been described as undergoing fetish Fetishism is not peculiar to African people alone, but to other world religions, so why is it ascribed to the African people and ATR alone?
Prayer beads which are used by Catholic Christians which is called Rosary , Muslims which is called Tasbih , Hindus which is called Japa Mala , Buddhists which is called Japa Mala and Sikhs which is called Mala can all be equated to fetishism.
The crucifix is also fetish used for protection by some section of Christians. Parrinder has remarked that the word fetish is a most ambiguous word, and the time has come that we can no longer accept this term as a name or description for African traditional religion. Heathenism: Heathenism is closely related to paganism. The word heathen is derived from the word heath. Heath is a vast track of land; a shrubby bushes and a heathen is one who inhabits a heath or possesses the characteristics of a heath dweller Ntreh, Thus a heathen was originally used for a person who dwelled in such bushy places.
Dwellers of heath were mostly criminals, vagabonds, and reject of the society Ntreh, Are there not bushes and bush dwellers in Europe and America? The Microsoft Encarta Premium also defines heathen as "an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody who does not acknowledge the God of the Bible, Torah, or Koran" or "an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody's way of life, degree of knowledge, or non-belief in religion". This definition suggests that world religions other than Christianity, Judaism and Islam become heathen.
This term is more sociological and racial than religious, and therefore misleading and derogatory. Idolatry: Idolatry is derived from the Greek word eidoloatria or eidolon which means the worship of image, figure or shape, usually copied from the real thing Harper, ; Kano, Thus with regard to African traditional religion; it was used by mainly European Christians who speak of ATR as the worship of false gods.
Jebadu also notes that, idolatry is the worship of the creature instead of the Creator, and creature worship is made by people who are a creature. This is where foreign scholars get it wrong.
Omoregbe explained that when an African prays before a statue, image or sculpture, he or she is not talking to or worshipping the statue or the image in question, but the divinity the Supernatural Being symbolically represented by that statue.
This corroborates with the view of Awolalu that the statue or emblem of worship by African people are not means to an end in itself, it is only a means to an end. For example, if a statue or sculpture representing Antoa Nyamaa Asante deity is destroyed possibly by natural disaster, the worshippers of Antoa will not feel that their goddess has been destroyed, because the piece of statue is only a symbol, serving as a visible embodiment of what is symbolised.
Symbolic representation is not peculiar to African traditional religion, but to other religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Shintoism among others, and so why is Idolatry only attributed to the religion of African people? It would be grossly unfair, misleading and racial to describe the religion as idolatry while the images of Mary and Jesus in the Catholic Church have not turned Christianity into an idolatrous religion. Awolalo states that its application to African deities has been perpetuated by English writer P.
Talbot in his Life in Southern Nigeria written in wherein he devoted three chapters to Juju among the Ibibio people and discussed the various divinities among them. How can a god of a race be described as a toy or doll? Juju is misleading and racially motivated term used by Euro-American investigators, media, and some African people out of sheer prejudice or ignorance. This definition suggests that these three Abrahamic religions are the only true religions.
From the forgoing, one could see that the word is only used to belittle African religion and henceforth, misleading, racial and derogatory. Thus primitive means crude, backward, uncouth, ancient, old- fashioned, outdated, etc. In the field of anthropology, Levy-Bruhl was the one who wrote about some societies and designated them as primitive in the s and s. This pejorative attitude is based on two assumptions, both of which have been found to be untrue. He thought people and their culture has gone through evolutionary process from the most primitive state of existence to most civilised state.
In this process, he thought Euro-American societies were most civilized and societies in places of Africa as most primitive. This corroborates assertions of Awolalu that: The Western scholars and media often use this term to distinguish between their society which is regarded as civilized and the African society which they consider as uncivilized and old- fashioned-just because African society does not have or adopt the same norm as that of theirs.
Anthropologists and Sociologists like to justify their use of the word on the ground that the culture is adjudged to be that which is original in the history of the human race It should be obvious from the dictionary meaning that this word cannot be appropriately used in describing African traditional religion or practitioners of the religion since it is racially motivated. Most African religious scholars now believe that the use of the concept in relation to Africa by anthropologists and sociologists has its roots in racial pride and cultural arrogance Kano, African traditional religion just like any world religion has been evolving from simpler to complex and therefore cannot be said to be primitive.
Whatever happens, the use of the word primitive by Western scholars, media, and African people is racial and misleading. Savagery is the opposite of civilization. It should also be noted that there is an element of savagery in every one of us, and in every culture, hence savagery should not be made the exclusive trait of African people. One should not forget that Africa is the cradle of civilization. Civilization started from this part of the world, i. Egypt see Diop, ; James, Unlike "God PDF's Debris," which was principally a dialogue between its two main characters, "The Religion War" is set several decades in the future when the smartest man in the world steps between international leaders to prevent a catastrophic confrontation between Christianiy and Islam.
The parallels between where we are today and where we could be in the near future are clear. According to Adams, "The Religion War" targets "bright readers with short attention spans-everyone from lazy students to busy book clubs. Reviews of the The Religion War To date with regards to the e-book we've got The Religion War responses customers are yet to nevertheless left the review of the overall game, or otherwise not make out the print nevertheless.
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