Emmanuel Y. Lartey – författare

Postcolonializing God examines how African Christianity especially as a practical spirituality can be truly a postcolonial reality. The book offers thoughts as to how African Christians and by that token others who were colonial subjects, may practice a spirituality that bears the hallmarks of their authentic cultural heritage, even if that makes them distinctly different from Christians from the colonizing nations. There are themes in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Scriptures in which God’s activities result in shattering hegemony, overthrowing the powerful, diversifying communities and affirming pluralism. These have by and large been ignored or downplayed in the formation of Christian communities by western and westernized Christians in Africa. The effect of this is that much of the practice of African Christians imitates that of a European Christianity of bygone times. Postcolonializing God charts a different course uplifting these ignored readings of scripture and identifying how they are expressed again by Africans who courageously seek through the practices of mysticism and African culture to portray a God whose actions liberate and diversify human experience.Postcolonializing God seeks to express the human diversity that seems to be the Creator’s ongoing desire for the world and thereby to continue to manifest the manifold and diverse nature and wisdom of God. It is only as humans refuse to be created in the image of any other human beings, that the richness and complexity of the divine image will be more closely viewed throughout the world.

A comprehensive resource on the nature and value of African religious lifePortrayals of African spirituality have been tainted in the past by harmful stereotypes and negative judgments or have altogether ignored African religions. Very few scholarly works have encompassed the depth of how spiritual care is conceptualized and practiced in African and African diasporic communities.Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures offers insights into the nature and value of African religious life while also giving persons of different religious persuasions information about African beliefs and practices. This book reveals how practitioners of African traditional religions and people who engage in African spirituality draw on their own spiritual traditions to help them live satisfying and productive lives. Lartey addresses key beliefs about the divine realm, ancestors, evil, health, death, and life, as well as practices such as ceremonies, manifestation of spirit, naming, and healing rites inherent in African and African Heritage religions, which are utilized in providing care for persons amid the challenges of living. He invites us to go beyond maligning and misrepresenting African religions and to enter into the therapeutic and life-giving realities of African life and thought.Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures is a comprehensive resource on African understandings of spiritual care and has the potential to enhance communal relationships for multicultural communities.

A comprehensive resource on the nature and value of African religious lifePortrayals of African spirituality have been tainted in the past by harmful stereotypes and negative judgments or have altogether ignored African religions. Very few scholarly works have encompassed the depth of how spiritual care is conceptualized and practiced in African and African diasporic communities.Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures offers insights into the nature and value of African religious life while also giving persons of different religious persuasions information about African beliefs and practices. This book reveals how practitioners of African traditional religions and people who engage in African spirituality draw on their own spiritual traditions to help them live satisfying and productive lives. Lartey addresses key beliefs about the divine realm, ancestors, evil, health, death, and life, as well as practices such as ceremonies, manifestation of spirit, naming, and healing rites inherent in African and African Heritage religions, which are utilized in providing care for persons amid the challenges of living. He invites us to go beyond maligning and misrepresenting African religions and to enter into the therapeutic and life-giving realities of African life and thought.Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures is a comprehensive resource on African understandings of spiritual care and has the potential to enhance communal relationships for multicultural communities.

The meaning of pastoral care in modern multicultural societies is challenged and re-examined from a pluralistic, global perspective in this book. Emmanuel Lartey stresses the importance of recognizing different cultural influences on individuals in order to effectively counsel, guide and empower them. He provides a clear and concise history of pastoral care and considers its relationship to different models of counseling and spirituality.This new edition has been updated to reflect postmodern and postcolonial studies and provides illustrations of how an intercultural approach can work in practice. Theological teachers and students will welcome its return as an indispensable introduction to the field of pastoral care. In Living Color is an essential source of inspiration to leaders from any religious stream who wish to provide pastoral care in a way that reflects their community's cultural diversity. This book is also a useful resource for practitioners in a wider range of caring contexts who work in multicultural environments.