J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu’s scientific contributions

Slogans on commercial vehicles are a common sight in Ghana. These material artefacts can provide insight into beliefs and values about the sociocultural, spiritual, and political experiences of life in the contemporary Ghanaian context. In this study, we collected and analysed a total of 438 commercial vehicles' slogans from 5 main transportation terminals in the Accra metropolitan area. Our thematic analysis of these slogans shows a major emphasis on religious and spiritual values to the extent that most of the recorded slogans serve as positive affirmations of religious values and sources of spiritual encouragement. The dominance of religious references in such slogans highlights the importance of religiosity as a cultural value in everyday life in Ghana. ARTICLE HISTORY

Ghanaian values have formed part of important social conversations at the national level in recent times. We set out to explore perceptions of values by conducting 24 focus group discussions within the Accra and Tema metropolitan areas in four Ghanaian languages. Participants (Ga = 36; Akan = 35; Ewe = 23; and Dagbani = 18) aged between 20 and 79 (average age: 45.2 years) responding in the context of focus group discussions elaborated on quintessential Ghanaian values with references to examples that point to a consciousness of concepts of traditional and contemporary values. We analysed the data thematically and observed three themes: (1) Traditional Ghanaian values; (2) Lost values and values in transition; and (3) Contemporary Ghanaian values/preferences. Traditional values replicate things done by ancestors, are typical to African customs and practices, and have long been in place. Lost values or values in transition are those once cherished but have been lost or modified in response to social change. Contemporary values were recently developed or introduced. Our findings are important for policy on national values amidst growing concerns for one. They also make contributions to studies on contemporary African values and the global literature on values.

The major heartlands of Christianity have, since the middle of the 20th century, shifted gradually from the West to the global South and East. This shift has resulted not only in Christianity becoming the dominant religion of Africa, but also in its transformation into a primarily non‐Western faith. This article contends that in line with that development, Africa has become one of Christianity’s most dynamic and vibrant hubs, with independent indigenous and Pentecostal/charismatic churches, movements, and ministries leading the way in this dominance. In their spirituality, these are waves and streams of Christianity that emphasize the importance of the biblical Pentecost, the deployment of spiritual gifts in worship, and a general experience of the Holy Spirit as normative to the expression of Christianity. Thus, we can no longer talk about World Christianity, either in practice or in relation to the ecumenical movements of the 21st century, without accounting for the presence of Pentecostal/charismatic believers.

How have African Christians responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out at the beginning of 2020 and has affected every aspect of human life? Globally, the responses to the pandemic have ranged from the scientific to the religious. Many believe that it is simply a conspiracy wreaked on the world by a satanic medical scientist or that it is an apocalyptic signal. In Africa, the religious responses to the pandemic have been fascinating. This article discusses six such responses, considering what they reveal about the intersections between Christianity, faith, and the ubiquitous presence of evil.

Despite the popularity of religion in African settings such as Ghana, reports of moral decline abound. This article reviews traditional, mission, and Christian theological perspectives of morality in Ghana. Using interviews, surveys, and content analysis of vehicle slogans, it examines what Ghanaians today consider to be values in terms of virtues and vices. It explores implications for Christian mission involvement in shaping morality in education and the public sphere.

The development of Christianity as a non-Western religion since the middle of the 20th century has generated changes that distinguish it from the expressions of faith inherited from the West. Christian religious innovation and new ways of expressing the faith have become the hallmarks of African Christianity. One way in which these religious changes are discernible is the use of “signs and tokens”, that is, physical substances that in the hands of religious functionaries acquire a sacramental value and that for example serves as support to the sorts of interventionist ministries associated with Pentecostal/charismatic ministries. A classic example of the new sacramental substances is the widespread use of the anointing oil. The anointing oil has become an important “point of contact” in African Christian rituals of healing and supernatural interventions. The use of oil for anointing is not necessarily new in the historic Christian traditions. However, in contemporary African Christianity, it has been reinvented and instituted in healing and deliverance and exorcism rituals that go beyond what was familiar in the older religious traditions. In this essay, we reflect on new sacraments also re-designated as signs and tokens such as the reinvention of the anointing oil as a therapeutic substance in contemporary forms of African Christianity. The new ritual order and the perception of sacraments as therapeutic substances helps us to understand what non-Western Christians, through popular religious innovations, consider important in a faith whose liturgical standards were originally set by Western missionaries.