Religious Experience: The Perspective of African Traditional Religion

Abstract

The question of religious experience constitutes one of the most topical issues in contemporary philosophical reflections on religion. The multiplicity and diversity of beliefs and religious phenomena have rendered any attempt at arriving at a consensus on the meaning of spiritual experience and on what experiences legitimately fall within its purview an arduous task. This essay explores the nature of religious experience in African Traditional Religion. The African finds himself in a sacred universe where he is inextricably immersed in a network of relationships. He constantly relates with spiritual, animate, and inanimate beings which overtly or covertly affect his life and well-being in the world. Since each being in the hierarchy has some religious significance, his spiritual experience may broadly be construed in terms of the experience he makes of all these beings, which together make up his sacred universe. In the more strict sense, it is the religious subject’s experience of the spiritual beings in his religious world, and this takes multiple dimensions. Beginning with a clarification of the meaning of African Traditional Religion, the essay presents theAfrican traditional religious pantheon, enunciates what constitutes spiritual experience in African Traditional Religion, its understanding, and its multifaceted expressions.