Tuesday, October 05, 2010

The Holy Spirit and spirit worlds of Asia

I grew up in the culture of rural north-eastern Zimbabwe where the spirit world was real and everyday and affected people's lives in unpredictable ways.  Each family lived in a group of huts as a homestead, with fields surrounding them.  Homesteads of the extended family were clustered together.  Around each clan were the spirit guardians, the spirits of the dead ancestors who existed alongside the living, who needed care and appeasement but provided spiritual protection and guidance to the clan. 

The n'yanga, or traditional healer lived just across the valley from us.  Many saw the n'yanga as merely a herbalist but many n'yangas dealt with much more than physical illness.  For example, they would help those who claimed to be affected by ngozi, wandering spirits who were angry at the lack of ceremonies carried out at their death and who had been unable to join the clan spirits.  This was particularly relevant after the war of independence - many ex-combatants sought help, believing themselves haunted by the spirits of those they had killed.  There were also svikiros, or spirit mediums, those able to make contact with, become possessed by and effectively manipulate spirits - often for negative purposes.  My parents, as Pentecostals, were able to engage effectively with this world view, not to dismiss the world of the supernatural but to help transform it, not replacing it with Western rationalism but rather an authentic folk Christianity which took both the spirit world of rural Zimbabwe and the Holy Spirit seriously.


I am taking part in the OMF Mission Research Consultation here from 4th - 8th OctoberThe theme of the consultation is "Aspects of Trinitarian Mission - the Holy Spirit and the spirit worlds of Asia".  I listen to Moe Moe Nyunt, a Burmese thinker and writer talk about the Burmese world-view.  She tells us that Burma is full of pagodas, temples and shrines, a leading country of Theravada Buddhism.  But in fact, Burmese spirituality is firmly rooted in the worship of spirits called nats.  She describes the elaborate categories that exist to help describe this spirit world and it's interaction with human beings.  Moe Moe Nyunt mentions the authentic spiritual thirst that Burmese people have - and how a Western enlightenment theology that emphasizes the rational and the scientific and downplays the supernatural may miss opportunities to introduce the Burmese to the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them to come to terms with and make sense of their world view as well as have it changed by the good news of Jesus.  Echos of my childhood come back to me as she talks.

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