Spirits and Power

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This book is about Shona cosmology. The author suggests that for the full impact of Christianity to be enjoyed by African peoples, there must be a confrontation between Christianity and the fundamental features of traditional cosmologies. The first five chapters of the book undertake to expose power as the root concept of the traditional religion of the Shona in Zimbabwe. The various spirits, upon whose actions the Shona believe that their life and well-being depend, are seen as symbolic representations, or conceptualizations, of those manifestations of 'power' which are looming large in their daily lives. In the rest of the book the author shows that this traditional conceptualization of spirits plays a central role also in the Shona 'Churches of the Spirit', which form an important branch among Independent Churches in Zimbabwe.