PERSONHOOD AND SELF IN CATHOLIC FORMATION IN ZAMBIA

Abstract

AbstractThe article describes and analyses the recruitment and training of young Zambians in the 1990s for Catholic religious Brotherhood. The consequences of the missionary employment of Euro-American concepts of personhood and self that involve particular understandings of narrative and the use of psychological testing are explored. The author argues that Zambian understandings of personhood and of individual experience of evil and suffering are silenced in the process of religious formation. This discussion raises salient issues about training for Catholic religious or priestly life in Africa because similar techniques have been commonly employed throughout the continent.