African traditional religions in contemporary society

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Bibliographic Information

African traditional religions in contemporary society

edited by Jacob K. Olupọna

International Religious Foundation : Distributed by Paragon House, c1991

  • pbk.

Available at  / 1 libraries

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Note

Papers presented at the conference "The place of African traditional religion in contemporary Africa," held in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sept. 10-14 1987, sponsored by the Council for World Religions

"A new ERA book."

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Once relegated to the realm of "primitive" and stigmatized as "pagan," today there is a new acknowledgment of the importance of African traditional religions, especially in its stress on folk practices, communal values, and personal relationships. This volume of fourteen chapters examines the nature, structure, and significance of African traditional religion(s) as dynamic, changing tradition(s). It analyzes and interprets several significant aspects of African religions and explores their possible contributions to national development and the modernization process. It also examines the impact of social change on African religion today. The contributors are scholars from several disciplines (anthropology, sociology, history of religions, theology, literature and the arts); yet, in analysis and interpretation of their data, they all take transcendence and the sacred in African thought very seriously. The newness of this approach is in treating African traditional religion not as a fossil but rather as one of the most important building blocks of modern African life.

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