Women, religion and medicine in Johannesburg between the wars

Abstract

In explaining the growth of independent churches among the Shona since the 1930s, Daneel lays great stress on the attraction for ordinary members of the curative powers offered by the church. Many joined because they personally or close relatives were cured in faith healing sessions. Unlike churches of outside origin, the African churches took evil forces seriously and combated them in a way appealing to the patient's mind. Diagnostic sessions grappling with the spiritual causes of misfortune seemed to be the key to success. Daneel, like other modern commentators, takes a much more positive view of prophetic therapeutic treatment, seeing it as essentially Christian in character.(1)