Religious Innovation

The expansion of transnational African Pentecostal denominations tends to overshadow the dynamics specific to African Prophetism. In an ultra-competitive religious market dominated by revival churches, some emerging movements propose alternatives. For example, the Louzolo-Amour Association, arising out of the Kongo area’s prophetic lineage, stands out in its ability to respond to its followers’ need for solutions – whether therapeutic or meaningful, and in its theological inventiveness and ritual aesthetics. In the varied landscape of African Christian denominations, the Louzolo-Amour Association’s appeal rests on its offer to followers that they can live a religious adventure while incorporating a spiritual universe.

The concept of carrying amulets, regardless of the material used, is a practice derived from the early culture of the kuffar (disbelievers) and mushrikoon (polytheists). Using Qur'anic verses in their physical form as a protection by adopting methods that do not have any basis in Islam is a religious innovation and contradicts some of the principles of the said religion.

A first semester requirement in AQD 101 (Usool al Aqidah).

Islaam is the religion for all of mankind, and Allaah has commanded all the believers to adhere to His religion and to be united, and not to be divided. Allaah says: “And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allaah (i.e. this Qur'an), and be not divided among yourselves. Q3:103. Islaam is not meant for only Nigerians or Americans… but for all mankind. So, the manner of worship or any act of worship practiced in Saudi Arabia should be the same manner it is being practiced in Ghana as well as other parts of the world if authentic narrations or sources of Sharee’ah were been followed correctly.

Here and now, as a result of innovations, many acts of worships have been introduced and some changed in the manner of observing it in some parts of the world to the extent that some will tell you that: “that is the style of prayer of Saudi Arabia and not our style” – SubhanAllaah! What on the earth should have caused the difference in the prayer enjoined by Allaah and practiced by His Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him)?! Then, by trying to correct that notion, arguments follow, and then a division of Muslim Ummah follows as a result of the innovation. Is it a must to innovate in the religion?! Why can’t we drop all innovations and become united and gain strength instead of losing strength? Allaah says: “And obey Allaah and His Messenger, and do not dispute (with one another) lest you lose courage and your strength departs, and be patient. Surely, Allaah is with those who are As-Saabiroon (the patient)” Q8:46. However, the meaning of bid’ah (in religion) is another issue as many misunderstood the concept while classification and rulings on bid’ah are double-folded problems which this note, Al Bid’ah Simplified, seeks to address.

[What was the figure of the "revealing angel" good for?]

Published in: Thomas Römer, Bertrand Dufour, Fabian Pfitzmann, Christoph Uehlinger (eds.), Entre dieux et hommes : anges, démons et autres figures intermédiaires. Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 19 et 20 mai 2014 (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 286), Fribourg: Academic Press & Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017, 293-323.

This paper focuses on a transatlantic ritual collaboration which brought together Nigerian and Cuban Ifá priests in Havana in 2006. For the first time in Cuba, they performed together an initiation in an « African way », an initiative they considered as a « historical » event. As recent ethno-historical research has emphasized, the constitution and expansion of Cuban religious traditions of Yorùbá origin have partially relied on the often neglected self-conscious action of local charismatic leaders. During the 20th century, agents led ritual innovations and reforms driven by sustained reflections on the foundation and the evolution of their practices, which they shaped through a discontinuous dialogue with Africa and the Yorùbá world. However, there is still a lack of data on the practical forms of recent discursive and ritual exchanges directly established between African and Cuban initiates. In an ethnographical and narrative perspective, the study documents this endeavor as an aspect of contemporary micro-history of Ifá in Cuba as well as the personal stories of the Nigerian and Cuban agents who engaged in it. In particular, it stresses the deep reflexive processes in which the latter are involved.

Les religions ne constituent pas des monolithes immuables et inchangés dans le temps. Elles évoluent au fil de l’histoire humaine, changent au gré des transformations culturelles et sociales des communautés dans lesquelles elles s’implantent, négocient avec les instances séculières et religieuses leur pertinence et leur droit d’exister ; bref, elles innovent constamment pour s’assurer une place dans un monde lui aussi en constant changement. Cet article propose deux outils pour analyser les innovations au sein des traditions religieuses : les théories de la réception, inspirées des travaux de Hans Robert Jauss, et l’invention des traditions, inspirée du célèbre ouvrage d’Eric J. Hobsbawm et Terence O. Ranger. L’intérêt de l’utilisation de ces outils en histoire est qu’ils permettent, entre autres choses, de dépasser les oppositions classiques tradition/modernité et authenticité/innovation en analysant les religions du point de vue des ruptures et des transformations à l’intérieur de celles-ci. Ces outils seront appliqués à un cas particulier, celui de la réception et de la réinvention du taoïsme dans les sociétés occidentales au XXe siècle. Cette tradition religieuse chinoise vieille de plusieurs siècles a en effet été réinventée en Occident et transformée en une tradition spirituelle universelle répondant aux attentes des Occidentaux en matière de spiritualité contemporaine.

This paper focuses on a ritual 'innovation' - the initiation, in 2004, of a woman in Cuban male Ifá priesthood (or iyanifá initiation) - and on the conflict it implies among practitioners of Ifá religion in Cuba. Based on detailed empirical data collected between 2004 and 2006 among the main group involved, called Ifá Iranlowó, but also its main rival (Asociación Yoruba) and other ordinary religious groups, the article argues that the current expansion of Cuban religions of Yoruba origin and that of the West-African religions they originated from are actually a key element in our understanding of such ritual innovations and discurses, apparently anchored at a local level. The strategies of legitimization and delegitimization at stake in this conflict can only be understood if we consider their resonnance in a global context, the connections Cuban priests maintain today with foreign practitionners as well as the complex relationship to the notion of “tradition” they result in. Recently, these elements and the changes they amount to have had a tremendous impact on the Afro-Cuban religious field especially in its constant tendency of fragmentation.

Since the 1990s, Afro-Cuban religion such as santería and Ifá have been undergoing a significant expansion. A growing number of American and European foreigners visit the island for initiatory or ritual purposes. Based on a detailed ethnography stemming from a field study conducted during the 2000s (mostly in Havana), this paper offers an extensive overview of this phenomenon, focusing on its effects on the ritual and discursive practices of Cuban santeros and babalaos (santería and Ifá priests). After considering the internal logic involved in the construction of a priest’s career, it examines how the integration of foreigners influences the interactional construction of religious statuses and the development of specific relationships to oneself and to others in connection with local ‘empowerment’ rationales. Two levels of analysis are distinguished: that of the ‘common’ initiates and that of erudite and/or politicized ‘elite’ groups. Both highlight not only the rivalries at play in the Afro-Cuban religious field, but also the intense critical and reflexive attitude that santeros and babalaos maintain towards their own practice, as well as some of the innovative logic inherent to this world but intensified by this new situation. In particular, the paper argues that the bonds Cuban priests establish with foreigners—through ritual kinship or through increasingly numerous ceremonial collaborations with initiates from abroad—constitute an additional component in the micro-conflicts that ordinarily pervade religious practice and can, on a larger scale, have an influence on the power relations that create oppositions between different ‘elite’ groups (some of them deeply committed to projects of ritual ‘reform’). While adopting a predominantly micro-political interpretation, the paper also considers the ritual implications of these dynamics, in particular through reflecting on the innovative and reflexive rationale which are a constituent part of these practices.