Do persons with disability need healing? An African Pentecostal perspective within the selected African Pentecostal Churches in Zimbabwe

Sande, N. and Ringson, J. (2021) Do persons with disability need healing? An African Pentecostal perspective within the selected African Pentecostal Churches in Zimbabwe. Journal of Pentecostal Theology, 30(1), pp. 162-180. (doi: 10.1163/17455251-bja10016)

Abstract

Much has been written on disability care and support from human rights, cultural, and religious perspectives around the world. However, there is still a paucity of information on the experiences of Persons with Disability (PWD) in their divine healing and deliverance encounter with the African Pentecostal Churches (APC) in Zimbabwe. This qualitative phenomenological study seeks to establish the lived experiences of 28 PWD s within the selected four APC s operating in the Harare province of Zimbabwe. The central questions underpinning this study were whether PWD need divine healing, and are they getting healed? The study used the religious model of disability and the Pentecostal ‘hermeneutic of healing’ as theoretical frameworks. While healing is essential to physical life, the findings show that PWD need dignity, recognition, and compassion more than the uncertain promises of divine healing. In the premises of the preceding, the study concludes and recommends that PWD receive holistic material and psychosocial support and that they stop endlessly chasing after a physical healing.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Disability, African Pentecostalism, healing, Apostolic Faith Mission, Zimbabwe.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sande, Dr Nomatter
• Authors: Sande, N., and Ringson, J.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Journal of Pentecostal Theology
• Publisher: Brill
• ISSN: 0966-7369
• ISSN (Online): 1745-5251
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021
• First Published: First published in Journal of Pentecostal Theology 30(1):162-130
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy