The Theory of Syncretism Applied

The encounter of religions and its by-product of mutual borrowing, synthesis or mixture of elements from different religious origins has remained a discourse in religious organizations and among scholars of religion. This is viewed from two major perspectives: normative and descriptive. Normative category of syncretism implies that there is a pre-existing religion and its original elements and that combining two different religions or incorporating contrary, contradicting elements from other religions to create a new religious tradition is a deviation;

and that the borrowed elements are impure, inferior and bad. The descriptive category explains syncretism as the normal outcome of encounter of different traditions. Every human society is dynamic and religion is a product of human society. This implies that every religion is a composite. The encounter of people and cultures through migration and communication is bound to result in some borrowing, mixing, and even domesticating elements drawn from different and contradicting origins.

The introduction of elements drawn from conscious experiences and acclaimed divine instructions have combined to transform Aladura spirituality to its present form. The hydrotherapy that was revealed to Sophia Odunlami²² eventually became a marked feature of healing practice in Aladura churches. However, much dynamism has been introduced into ritual use of water, worship and healing practice in Aladura churches. The theory of syncretism is here employed to inquire into African, particularly Yoruba cultural elements in Aladura beliefs and practices. A review of literature revealed human tendency to combine two or more independent but different ideas to form a new tradition. This abounds in religious and non-religious systems. This tendency has been variously conceptualised as syncretism, hybridity, mixing, enculturation and adaptation.

Jorgensen²³ (2013) uses a mathematical set theory of boundedness to probe into the nature of Christianity, whether it has bounded or unbounded quality. In mathematical set theory, a distinction is made between individual elements and sets of elements. If similar characteristics exist between individual elements and members of a set, they are bounded by their shared traits, but if they do not share characteristics they are not bounded together. The author’s analysis is that if the historic Christianity is taken to be a unified and integrated set, various

22 She was a young Primary school female teacher when she revealed that rain water should be collected, blessed and used to wash body and sprinkle around the home. Cf Robert Mitchell 1970:101-102.

23 A Danish theologian.

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Christian formations and denominations can be regarded as subsets within the main set. This does not foreclose the fact that each subset might have evolved its independent elements such as rituals, texts, doctrine and members. Christianity is bounded if it is defined by its

‘membership’ in relation to its historical, cultural and social context, but if it is unbounded it means that it has boundaries in relation to other boundaries. The author says that the use of syncretism as a normative or descriptive category will depend on whether one sees change as a retrogression or a decline in belief or a sign of “creativity and vitality” (p.101). Jorgensen suggests that simultaneous hybridization or amalgamation of two or more cultural traditions would suffice to explain syncretism and also sees this trend in the simultaneous Christianisation and indigenisation as that which results in the formation of new religious movements within Christianity.

Jorgensen concludes that analysing boundaries of Christianity throws more light on the nature of Christianity: that Christianity is unbounded because of its integration into historical, social, and cultural contexts, having the same confessions, denominations, believers, and doctrines across subsets. He says that “throughout its globalisation, Christianity has absorbed elements, thoughts, and truths through syncretistic processes thereby manifesting itself anew in various contexts” (p.109). Non-members have regarded Aladura incorporation of various non-Christian principles into its hydrotherapy as syncretism in normative sense and also as a theological mismatch. For the liberalists, the position of the dialectical or post-colonial/postmodern group on syncretism is short of the meaning that members derive from such faith tradition. To the liberalists, it is a process of creativity and reformulation for the domestication of Christianity.

Shaw and Stewart (1994) examine the concept of syncretism from both contentious and liberal perspectives: impurity versus purity, incompatible versus compatible, and negative versus positive. But the authors ascribe neutrality or positivity to syncretism on the ground that humans invent traditions or cultures and that no culture is static because, daily, humans interact through migration and communication and also try to transform the old or local to meet current and global standard. By this, purity cannot be ascribed to traditions. The authors trace the origin of the usage of syncretism to Plutarch who first used it to describe the coming together of the warring and different Cretans against common enemies; a moral and political unity, in spite of differences that abound among them. According to the authors, “all religions have composite origins and are continually reconstructed through on-going processes of synthesis and erasure” (p.7).

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Shaw and Stewart associate syncretism with power relation where, in the process of interaction or contact the seemingly dominant culture tries to impose itself on the weak, and where the latter attempts not to lose out completely but tries to domesticate the former to make it its own. The Aladura churches are a typical example. Aladura Christianity is a domestication of the historic Christianity among the Yoruba. In this case, the reception of Christianity was not total. Yoruba cultural elements have been introduced in order that meaning could be made out of the Christian religion. This power relation in most instances lead to fundamentalism as observed in most trouble spots in the Middle East notably Iraq, Afghanistan; and Nigeria, Mali and Somalia in African sub regions. Such identity and hegemonic negotiations are not only associated with religions, but also with marriage, migration and political ideologies. Therefore syncretism is the process of defining meanings out of a combination of multiple but distinct traditions.

Berner (2001), a German historian of religion, in his contribution to the debate on syncretism asks whether the concept should be used or discarded. The question arose against the backdrop of the different negative meanings that syncretism has assumed after Plutarch used it to describe the coming together of the warring different Cretans against their common enemies. Berner suggests a reconsideration of the heuristic model of syncretism; that syncretism is better defined from two distinct levels: the levels of ‘element’ and ‘system’. The former refers to elements drawn from different religious traditions to form a new religious tradition. In spite of the mixing, there is strong condemnation of contrary religious elements and emphasis on boundaries between religious traditions. Empirical data revealed that the C&S, TCLA, and CCC integrate Yoruba cultural elements and biblical traditions to form their faith tradition. The use of natural objects such as coconut, chicken egg, honey, water from the spring, rain, well, and river for ritual healing in Aladura churches is a common practice in traditional religions. Syncretism from the perspective of a system is a de-emphasis of boundaries between religions through incorporation of different religions to form a new religious system. Chrislam²⁴, Global Church of Christ, Hallelujah Movement²⁵, and One Love Family²⁶ are syncretistic religions that incorporate different religions. Although the author acknowledges the limit of the model on the ground that it was originally constructed for understanding the historical development, structure and relationship between languages, the

24 A Nigerian religion and a mixture of Christianity and Islam emerged in Lagos in the 1970s.

25 After harrowing experience, Ademola Onibonokuta incorporates Islam, Christianity and Yoruba traditional religion to form his religion.

26 A Nigerian, Mohammed Shuaib Ajirobatan, a former staffer of the Nigeria Airways incorporates Christianity and Islam in his religion.

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author suggests that the mixing that abounds in religious traditions should be regarded as

“survival” category. He sees the hydrotherapy method of healing in the CCC particularly the use of the “green water” and other non-biblical elements in the belief and practice of the church as a mark of survival even as the church condemns traditional religion and other contrary traditions.

Pye²⁷ (2004), drawing on Kamstra’s exposition on syncretism, attributes the emerging normative meanings of syncretism to Christian theologians. He explains that syncretism is the coexistence of different and alien elements from different cultures in a religion; that syncretism is a natural concept and that humans are naturally syncretistic. The author states that “Even a prophet-however filled he may be with the divine-simply needs the speech and the situation of his audience in order to be comprehensible at all” (60). He explains that religions change over time; the meanings of some elements borrowed from different religions change according to context even as they continue to coexist with each other while others may lose their original meanings; and that since religion is naturally syncretistic and that humans are naturally syncretistic as well, traditions will ever be reconstructed in time and space, as such, syncretism should be given a phenomenological approach. The belief and practice of the Aladura have changed over the years: from the simplest hydrotherapy of sanctified rain water to complex ritual use of assorted waters mixed with solid and liquid substances for curative and prophylactic purposes.

Empirical data obtained from the field work for this study revealed that the sources of synthesis in the C&S, TCLA, and CCC beliefs and practices can be classified into three. The first source is the Yoruba traditional religion and culture. Through conversion from traditional religious worship to Christianity, pioneer members came into Aladura churches with their baggage of Yoruba beliefs and cultural orientation. The second source is the use of mystical literature by prophets. The use of mystical books such as the sixth and seventh books of Moses, the seven keys to power, and Solomon’s book of palmistry by prophets is a discourse that has lingered over the years in the churches. The third source is revelation. Prophetic messages, which are ritual recipes that involve the use of Yoruba cultural elements, angelic names and the recitation of the psalters, are believed by members to be divine messages. The three sources are premised on the desire for spiritual power, which some individuals believe can be harnessed to solve life crises that confront humans. In this study, the first two sources of mixing are classified as conscious sources of mixing. The prophecy through trance, dream

27 A historian of religion.

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and clairvoyance is the semi-conscious category. During some of the researcher’s participant observations, it was a common thing to hear persons praying in the C&S, TCLA and CCC and acknowledging some natural laws, for example, “river does not reverse its course; the mountainous problems that God has surmounted on your behalf will never re-emerge” (omi kii san k’o b’oju wehin; oke isoro ti olorun ba o se koni gbe’ri mo). The attributes of God are often mentioned in prayers. Members also believe that certain phenomena work in their natural ways and do not reverse themselves. These are typical of Yoruba beliefs in the potency of natural law as can be seen in their coded words, potent speeches or incantations (ayajo, ofo and ogede), and in the potentials of praise names of people (oriki). Spiritual incubation where individual goes through ritual cleansing and fortification for a number of hours or days while residing in the church on mercy ground (Abe abo); females as pollutants and ritual neutralizers; the ascription of both masculine and feminine genders to God; and the ritual use of nature are fashioned after Yoruba religious beliefs and practices.

Although syncretism has attracted derogatory meaning to itself, this study employed the theoretical concept as a frame for understanding the transformation in the beliefs and practices of Aladura churches over time and to describe same. The realitiy of this transformation is what Ulf Hannzern (1992) says is made possible by globalisation and cultura diffusion due to increasing direct contact between different cultures. Aside syncretism, hybridity, creolization, bricolage and synthesis are alternative concepts that seem to convey a meaning that is similar to syncretism. Hybridity is a concept in the biological sciences, which explains the fusion of two animals or plants of different species to create new species, while creolization is a linguistic term that refers to the mixing of people of African and European descents, which produced creole cultures. Bricolage in the practical and creative arts is the use of diverse range of materials to create an art work. Synthesis is a word that does not belong to the biological sciences, linguistics or practical and creative arts. It is the combination of different things to form a new. Syncretism is used in this study not as a theological concept that explains the coming together of different religious traditions as a negative development, but in a descriptive sense. None of the alternative terms best provides a frame through which the faith tradition of the Aladura can be understood.

The theory provides a lens through which a descriptive analysis of the faith tradition of Aladura churches can be made. The theory focuses on the encounter of pioneer members of Aladura with different religio-cultural ideas and how such encounter has produced an integrated religious tradition of Aladura churches. The theory has helped to explain the human

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side of the religio-cultural borrowings that have continued to shape the faith tradition of Aladura churches.