A theological reflection using Pentecostal narratives to explore the connection between Pentecostalism and indigenous religions of Malawi

Abstract

This essay uses a theological reflection of Pentecostal narratives from Malawi in southeast Africa where I was born and raised to explore the connection between Pentecostalism and indigenous religions. It has been sparked and undergirded by several key events that I have experienced in my faith life. I am a descendant of a Pentecostal preacher (my father), a Presbyterian minister (my grandfather) who had two brothers, one an indigenous religion priest and spiritual healer and the other a founding apostle of an African Independent Church. Yet, I have taken on an academic journey in theological education with Pentecostal leanings. Chief among the events that sparked my Pentecostal curiosity behind the argument of this essay is the conversion of my grandfather’s brother from an indigenous religion to Christianity and the myriad struggles he faced as he discerned what to do with his longstanding spiritual gifts as a medium for the community. He had refused to convert to Christianity for a long time in spite of—or maybe because of—his Presbyterian brother’s witness. He always said that Christianity (especially that of his Presbyterian brother) did not understand the spirit world with which he had dealt every day all his adult life. He refused to recognize it as a religion because for him, a religion must attend to the spirit-world. If it did not, like the Christianity of my grandfather, it was only fit to be a moral philosophy.