Review Essay

Abstract

Despite the disparate and, at times, contradictory approaches of the books I will review in this essay, the four taken together elucidate the complex, fluid nature of African religious beliefs and practices. J. D. Y. Peel’s historical anthropology Christianity, Islam, and Oriṣa Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction, published posthumously, champions and masterfully models the comparative method in reflecting on Yoruba history, thereby revealing the incredible diversity that has characterized the religious lives of the Yoruba people over time. The collected volume Ifá Divination, Knowledge, Power, and Performance, edited by Jacob K. Olupona and Rowland O. Abiodun, is dedicated to the preservation of Yoruba religion in its many iterations throughout the world and encourages the partnership between ancient traditions and twenty-first century technology to accomplish this purpose. Paul Gifford in Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa, prescribes African Christianity’s abandonment of its “enchanted dimension,” namely, those beliefs and practices that are rooted in the belief in the pervasiveness of the spiritual realm. In What is Not Sacred?: African Spirituality, Laurenti Magesa argues precisely the opposite point, pressing for an increased and unapologetic incorporation of African traditional worldviews, including an acute spiritual awareness, into African Christianity.