Healing and Salvation as Paradigms for Evangelisation in the Acts of the Apostles
Date
2001-02
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
A recent sojourn in Togo has led me to observe a mushrooming of local FM radio stations
in the capital city Lome, most of them with the declared objective of spreading the Good News.
City squares have become the stages for itinerant preachers in Lome, as one can also observe in
the Nairobi Uhuru Park and other places in the Kenyan capital. A common characteristic of these
preachings either in Lome or in Nairobi, is the stress on the healing miracles of Jesus. Most
preachers claim to be 'anointed with the Holy Spirit' to perform similar healing miracles in Jesus'
name for the benefit of their congregations. The faithful of these healing miracle-based
denominations generally refer to themselves as the 'saved'. In the Catholic Church, churches are
often filled to overflowing at the celebration of the so called 'healing mass.' This phenomenon,
it seems to me, indicates a great concern people have for their health in our economically
precarious societies, where health care and the cost of it are often beyond most people's reach.
This has motivated me to research the relationship between faith and health and the salvation
brought about by Jesus. These concerns about healing and health-related issues should be a field
of Christian evangelisation as expressions of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Any culture provides its people with a basis for understanding the meaning of human
existence, interpersonal relationships and the relationship with the divine or God. It also provides
the basis for understanding the rules for the transmission, promotion and ultimately the protection
and conservation of life. Among the Nawdeba of northern Togo,' the cultural representations of
the universe, the human being, the social institutions and religious practices appear to have been
conceived and organized in order to receive, fulfil and conserve human life. The social and
religious practices aim at dispelling dangers which directly or indirectly threaten human life and its fulfilment. Christianity, in order to be credible and relevant as Good News among the
Nawdeba, must incarnate itself in the people's struggle for life against the forces of anti-life.'
Sickness, "ill living and ill dying"3 are for the Nawdeba the most dreadful anti-life forces, and thus
are the targets of the therapeutic systems which aim at restoring health, good-living and gooddying
in view of the perseverance in life. Sickness, health and salvation are, therefore, culturally
defined and understood.4
My research seeks an understanding of sickness, healing, health and salvation in Luke-
Acts, in so far as the restoration of health through the name of Jesus and faith in this name have
become an occasion for preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins in that name to a Jewish
audience. I will engage in a socio-cultural and theological reinterpretation of Peter's speech on
the healing of the lame beggar in Acts 3:12-26. The question of the relevance of this speech as
Christian scripture for evangelisation in a non-Jewish Christian context, requires an understanding
of these notions of healing/health and salvation in that particular culture. I want to examine its
relevance in the cultural context of the Nawdeba of Northern Togo. I am aiming at proposing a
basis for a theology of sickness, healing/health and salvation among the Nawdeba.
I will be answering, among others, basic questions such as: What was the meaning of this
healing miracle for both the apostles and the people of Jerusalem, their co-believers? Was it
essential to have a healing miracle in order to announce Jesus as Messiah and saviour in Jerusalem? Must today's preachers of the Good News, in the socio-cultural contexts of the
Nawdeba perform healing miracles, as a necessary means for the proclamation of the word of
God as Good News? What relationships exist between sickness, healings/health and salvation,
in Luke-Acts, on the one hand and among the Nawdeba, on the other hand? Must there
necessarily be healings/health in order to attain salvation?
My objective is to attain the meaning(s) of the speech, hence, I have chosen the thematic
approach. My criteria for structuring the speech for the exegesis will be thematic. The exegesis
will be an analysis or commentary of the content of the identified themes. The analysis or
commentary seeks to attain the sense of a theme. The structural unit thus, is the semantic theme.
A theme conveys among other features, the views and intentions, the motivations, beliefs, values
of the speaker, and to some extent of the hearers, inasmuch as there is communication between
the two.
The work will be divided into three chapters. The first chapter places the speech in Acts
with the definition, type and function of this literary genre in Ancient Historiography and in the
acts of the Apostles. After this preliminary step, comes the exegesis of the speech. The second
chapter is a reflection on the meaning of salvation and its relationship to healing in Luke-Acts and
in the cultural setting of the Nawdeba. The third or last chapter lays the foundations for the
preaching of the mystery of Jesus in terms of healing and salvation among the Nawdeba.
Description
Keywords
Healing, Salvation, Evangelisation, Paradigms, Apostles