An analysis of COVID-19 and spirituality among African Christian women

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title An analysis of COVID-19 and spirituality among African Christian women
 
Creator Igboin, Benson O.
 
Subject Religion; Spirituality; Theology African spirituality; Christian spirituality; COVID-19; faith; health; human flourishing; spirituality for; spirituality of.
Description There has been increasing research into the COVID-19 pandemic and the theological responses to it. However, not much research has been done on the COVID-19 and how women, particularly in Africa, utilised spiritual resources to respond to the pandemic. This article sought to bridge this gap. The article utilised both descriptive and analytical methods, and argued that many African women were more concerned about the health of the community than their male counterparts who concentrated more on arguments about the pandemic. Gleaning from our ethnographic data carried out from the Christ Apostolic Church and the Spirit and Life Family Bible Church in Nigeria, the article used Galen Watts’ theory of ‘spirituality of and for’ to analyse how African Christian women deployed their spirituality and resources to address the existential challenges the pandemic posed. It argued that the African Christian women shunned the ‘spirituality of’ argument that relates with discursive functions of being spiritual, which does not correspond to its practical application, and adopted ‘spirituality for’ which resonates with how spiritual resources are deployed to (re)solve existential challenges towards human flourishing. This, it argued, aligns much with the theology of The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.Contribution: The article concluded that most women were accentuated towards ‘spirituality for’ because it is compassion-driven and responds to the existential quest for the health of the community.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-07-11
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v79i3.8504
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 79, No 3 (2023); 9 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/8504/25360 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/8504/25361 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/8504/25362 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/8504/25363
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Benson O. Igboin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT