Religion

Introduction

Religion is a complex phenomenon, defying delineation or summary. Almost as numerous delineations and ideas of belief live as there are authors on the subject. In the broadest periods, three advances are usually taken to the scholarly study of religion: the chronicled, the phenomenological, and the behavioral or social-scientific.

All religious traditions struggle with asking and answering the question “Why?” regarding suffering, death, and difference/deviation. The answer is usually in terms of divine origin (God caused it or sent it) and/or personal responsibility (my fault or someone else's). Given that most faith traditions envision the divine in charge of events in life and mostly have understood disability as misfortune, a central thread in many faith traditions is that disability is a sign of punishment, moral deviance, or some kind of fallen state (McGrath, 50).

Discussion

Is the African God the same as the God of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or Hinduism? Is the African God a true God? Is he a personal being, an impersonal spirit, a sort of creative energy, or an abstract idea? Is the African God a loving God or a malevolent trickster? Is African traditional religion pantheistic, polytheistic, monotheistic, or henotheistic? Is the “chief god” indifferent to or actively involved in human affairs? Do Africans communicate with God or only with the ancestors and spirits? For Africans, especially those steeped in traditional culture, the reality of God is grounded in the reality of people's religious experience, and God is as real as the existence of the world or the African people (Hick, 73).

In modernity, death recedes further and further from day-to-day human experience. Humans are no longer constantly faced with death, and when they do confront death, it is usually presented in a sanitized form, with the sting of its horror far removed from everyday reality. We witness death through the mass media, but in heavily filtered fashion. When a death is anticipated, the individual is sent to a hospital, and his or her dying is left to the care of professionals (Fulton 1977). Humans today have access to a great deal of information about the process of dying (Haught, 40). Humans still attempt to reduce the shock of death by confronting and understanding it, but individuals are more informed about the process of dying than ever before (Green, 19). Advances in medicine have generated drugs that serve to reduce the pain and discomfort associated with death.

One of the most ...