Collium Banda

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• PhD
• Researcher at North-West University

This article is an African traditional religious and cultural analysis of human responsibility as expressed in proverbs and idioms that demand human agency and transcendence in chiShona, Zimbabwean isiNdebele, and isiZulu languages. The analysis is done in line with the common spiritual belief that material wealth is a product of spiritual or magic...

The status of theological education is declining in public universities in Africa. This article focused on the decline of theology in South African public universities. The article attempted to assess the attempts to restore the status of theology through pluralist, ecumenical, scientific interdisciplinary and humanist approaches. It argued that th...

The proliferation of questionable theological qualifications thrives on a privatised perception of theology that treats studying theology as a private matter between the believer and God. Unregistered theological institutions issuing 'fake qualifications' do so based on the perception that they are dealing with something private between God and the...

The African religiosity that permeates all human existence is driven by a consuming desire for connection with the spiritual world that provides and protects human flourishing. African neo-Pentecostal prophets (ANPPs) respond to this need by imposing themselves as the sacral agents that can connect people to God. The sacralisation of prophets leads...

This article critically examines how African neo-Pentecostal prophets (ANPPs) address the pervasive issues of uncertainty and hopelessness in South Africa through controversial prophetic practices that challenge conventional notions of divine holiness. In light of South Africa’s persistent state of uncertainty, despite its status as one of the most...

What is a theological-ethic that the church can use to challenge Mnangagwa’s use of forgetting as a psychological game to torture the victims of his violent campaign in Zimbabwe? This chapter is a theological-ethical critique of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s plea to let bygones be bygones. The chapter argues that Mnangagwa uses forgetting as a psy...

How does a regime, whose members have been actively involved in the previous one, appropriate and deploy religious ideas and rhetoric to cast itself as ‘born-again’ and attractive? Exploring intersections between politics, religion and economics, this book examines invention of Zimbabwe’s ‘New Dispensation,’ the regime of Emmerson D. Mnangagwa, and...

From a public theological perspective of the Church as a representative of the kingdom of God on earth, how can we evaluate the propagation of the uncritical patriotism in relation to Zanu-PF by some Zimbabwean churches? This chapter examines the implications of the Christian embrace and propagation of Zanu-PF patriotism for the mission of the chur...

Many Africans rely on the spiritualistic solutions offered by the African neo-Pentecostal prophets (ANPPs) to navigate their socioeconomic realities. This article critically evaluates the efficacy of the ANPPs’ spiritual approach within the economic landscape of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The essay delves into the extent to which these...

African neo-Pentecostal prophets (ANPPs) address the issue of economic powerlessness in un(der)developed regions of Africa by reviving elements of the premodern African magical economy. They use anointed objects, such as anointed water, for economic purposes, while African Traditional Religions (ATR) use magical charms in their economic life. There...

This chapter analyses the role of money in the commercialisation of religion among African neo-Pentecostal (ANP) prophets, by critiquing the quasi-divine status they assign to money. Considering Jesus’s warning that no one can serve both God and Mammon (Matt 6:24), the chapter calls on ANP prophets to guard against a religiosity obsessed with money...

Robert Vosloo’s theological-ethical notion of just memory, derived from Paul Ricoeur, is used to critique President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s call to wounded Zimbabweans to let bygones be bygones. The question answered by the article is, in the light of Vosloo’s notion of just memory, what should Zimbabweans who have been wounded by Zimbabwe African Nat...

How can the Zimbabwean Evangelicals’ engagement in politics be analysed and described? This chapter will use a public theological approach to analyse and describe the way Zimbabwean Evangelicals as represented by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe participate and engage in politics to transform undemocratic rule in the country. EFZ is often acc...

African neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) use their prophetic rituals like deliverance services and anointed objects such as anointed oil, to bring God’s presence to people to empower their human agency (power to act) and transcendence (power to overcome). This use of prophetic systems prompts the question: What does the NPPs’ teaching that Africans...

Many poor black South Africans rely on neo-Pentecostal prophetism to overcome their poverty. Therefore, a black liberation structural view of poverty is employed to analyse the strength of neo-Pentecostal prophets to promote human flourishing in unequal South Africa. The main research question answered in the chapter is: How can the capacity of neo...

This article is a Christian theological evaluation of African neo-Pentecostal prophets’ (ANPPs) projection of God as a servant of prophetic rituals in their solutions to poor human agency (power to act) and transcendence (power to overcome) in Africa. Instead of propagating a personal relational God who transforms the poor and empowers their agency...

This book provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the challenges faced by pastoral ministry in South African Pentecostalism as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as some interventions being made to manage these challenges. Contributors present descriptive approaches to churches' reactions to lockdown measures, and especially the adapta...

This article is a public systematic theological analysis of the power of the anointed objects of African neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) on human agency and transcendence in the African context of enduring poverty and human brokenness. It analysed the public role played by anointed objects from a systematic theological perspective. The article argu...

From a decolonial perspective, the chapter identifies and evaluates a number of critical aspects regarding the operational theological framework of controversial South African neo-Pentecostal (SANP) churches, which leads them to involvement in arguably unorthodox practices. The chapter argues that their resistance to Westernised Christianity makes...

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa justified his unconstitutional ascendency to power after a military coup that dethroned former President Robert Mugabe in 2017 by claiming that ‘the voice of the people is the voice of God’. He repeated the claim in 2018 when Nelson Chamisa refused to recognise him as the legitimately elected president of the...

The controversial activities of the neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) in South Africa raise many theological questions. From a systematic theological perspective that affirms the importance of Christian doctrines in regulating church worship and practice, this article uses God’s holiness to evaluate the theological authenticity of the NPPs’ controver...

This book explores recent developments in South African Pentecostalism, focusing on new prophetic churches. The chapters engage with a number of paradigm shifts in Christology, identified as complementing Christ, competing with Christ, removing Christ and replacing Christ. What are the implications of these shifts? Does it mean that believers no lo...

This research article uses the theoretical framework of doctrine as believer’s security to critique the theological framework behind the controversial activities reported amongst some South African neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs), which include feeding congregants with grass, spraying them with insecticides and sexual violation of women congregants...

The article uses the motif of salvation as adoption as God’s children to critique the African neo-Pentecostal (ANP) belief that generational curses remain on Christians after conversion. A prominent mark that distinguishes ANP churches from classical Pentecostal churches is the prophet-pastors and prophet-apostles whose prophetic stature is foundat...

Public theology has a deep concern about the state of a airs in socioeconomic and political life. us it must be concerned about poverty and seek viable ways to address it. is is especially true in Africa, where poverty is so endemic that Africa and poverty are sometimes regarded as synonyms. We may sometimes assume that this is just the way things...

From a communal perspective of the church, this article analyses critically the controversial practices reported in some South African neo-Pentecostal (SANP) churches, such as feeding congregants with grass. The article examines the effect of the controversial practices on the meaning of the church. The main question answered in this article is as...

The African neo-Pentecostal (ANP) teaching that Christians continue to suffer from generational curses or bloodline curses is analysed from the perspective of Christian salvation as spiritual recreation. The main question considered in this article is: Soteriologically, how may we evaluate the ANP view that ‘born again’ Christians remain vulnerable...

This article uses the perichoretic nature of the Trinity to evaluate the reliance on anointed objects as instruments of connecting with God amongst African neo-Pentecostal Christians. The article answers the question: from a perspective of the relationality of God, how can we evaluate the African neo-Pentecostal reliance on anointed objects to conn...

From a Christian anthropological perspective, the article seeks to answer the question: what does ubuntu mean when analysed from the anthropocentric nature of African traditional religions (ATR)? This leads to another question: how does the ATR informed meaning of ubuntu challenge Christian anthropology in Africa in the light of the prevailing cont...

The use of anointed objects among African Pentecostal prophets as instruments of taping the power of the Holy Spirit is analysed from a perspective of the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit and the use of magical charms in African traditional religions (ATRs). The main question answered in this article is the following: what does the use o...

This article critically reflects on how writing centres can address the notion that their primary role is to deal with students struggling with their writing. This critical reflection focuses on the following question: how can writing centres challenge the view that they exist primarily to assist students struggling with or lacking the academic wri...

This article uses the African communal concept of ubuntu to reflect on the ministry of Mashoko Christian Hospital (MCH), Zimbabwe, to people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS (PLWHA) during the early days since the discovery of the disease. The main question this article seeks to answer is: from a perspective of the Africa...

What do the recommendations of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) to regulate religion in South Africa reflect about the commission’s understanding of religion in the country? From a Christian theological perspective, the article critically engages...

Modern technology has significantly improved human life. However, its serious negative element in Africa is fostering human self-sufficiency and independence that ultimately subvert human solidarity and interdependence that are highly valued by ubuntu philosophy. The main question of this article is: From the perspective of the African communal ten...

The essay considers how the communal and empowering nature of the African kraal can be a metaphor of a liberating and empowering church in a context of urban poverty in Zimbabwe. Africans generally experience urban centres as foreign and hostile places where they ideally only live temporarily during seasons of urban employment. In Zimbabwe, poverty...

To what extent does the anointing of the Pentecostal prophets provide a meaningful way of responding to poverty in an unjust economic context? Using Zimbabwe as a case study, this article critically evaluates the growing reliance on the anointing of the Pentecostal prophets by many poor people as a way of responding to their economic poverty. The p...

How can we make theological sense of the resilience of the fear of witchcraft among indigenous Zimbabwean Christians? From the perspective of the transcendence and immanence of God, this article analyses the resilience of the fear of witchcraft among African Christians in Zimbabwe. The article uses results of a case study conducted in Zimbabwe in a...

The essay considers how the communal and empowering nature of the African kraal can be a metaphor of a liberating and empowering church in a context of urban poverty in Zimbabwe. Africans generally experience urban centres as foreign and hostile places where they ideally only live temporarily during seasons of urban employment. In Zimbabwe, poverty...

There is a conflict over whether Christian ministry and theological education should be pursued with an expectation for economic survival. The rise of Christian ministry practice emphasising wealth and prosperity has heightened commodification of the Christian ministry. Church ministry and theological education are being used as instruments for eco...

How can we make Christological sense of the Zimbabwean Pentecostal prophets’ mediatory role? This article analyses the domineering and mediatory role of the Pentecostal prophets from a Christological perspective. The mediatory role of the Pentecostal prophets is riddled with competition against the mediatory role of Christ between God and humanity...

The reigning scandal in Zimbabwe is the simultaneous growth of Christianity and political repression, begging one to wonder why increased Christian presence has not resulted in social and political transformation. The answer can be found in the Christian sacralization of human authority and the uncritical interpretation of Romans 13:1-5 common in s...