Religion In Traditional African Religion

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Something that is said to be "divine per se" or simply divine must necessarily exist. Because there is nothing else for it to depend on it is understood as divine in whole. This means that any coherent understanding of the whole of reality is "religious", in the sense that it involves belief in something that is "unconditionally and non-dependently real". (Clouser, 2005:56). Clouser states there are various ways in which the divine and the non-divine might relate to each other. It is the pagan dependency arrangement, under which (Clouser, 2005:44). The natures of religion are an example of this and they include the Materialism and the Polytheistic religions where everything is believed to depend on matter and energy, or the Pantheistic dependency…show more content…
the other avenue that the divine and non-divine can also relate is termed the biblical dependency arrangement, where the divine per se is not part of the universe and the universe is not part of the divine; there is a fundamental discontinuity between the creator and all else which is his creation (Clouser, 2005:47),Christianity and Islam are examples. As the coherent belief systems about reality of religions have been identified through the study of Clouse this paper will now establish the type of religious belief involved in traditional African…show more content…
The order of the hierarchy is the Creator, gods, objects embodied spirits, ancestors’ spirits, miscellaneous spirits which are not human. Regarding the many beliefs in Africa, it is not all parts of traditional religions in Africa that believe in pantheon of divinities. There are exceptions like in other parts of West Africa and South Africa. As many as there are divinities in Africa each has its specific area of influence. The theological foundations of traditional belief allows for the plurality of divinities opens a way for the assimilation of other beliefs of other religions to old religions but there is no openness with the Christianity as they believe in one Supreme God. Since the Supreme Being was unknown to traditional Africans he was not actively involved in their everyday traditional African life. (Turaki, 1999) use the philosophical term Ontological to describe the order involved in the Hierarchy of spiritual beings. He then Asserts that there are four basic philosophical foundations namely the Holism which is governed by the Law of harmony, the spiritualism which is governed by the Law of the Spirit, the power – consciousness which is governed by the Law of power and lastly the communalism which is governed by the Law of

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