Christianity, Islam, and Orisa-Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction

by J.D.Y. Peel

Overview

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s open access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

The Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria are exceptional for the copresence among them of three religious traditions: Islam, Christianity, and the indigenous orisa religion. In this comparative study, at once historical and anthropological, Peel explores the intertwined character of the three religions and the dense imbrication of religion in all aspects of Yoruba history up to the present. For over 400 years, the Yoruba have straddled two geocultural spheres: one reaching north over the Sahara to the world of Islam, the other linking them to the Euro-American world via the Atlantic. These two external spheres were the source of contrasting cultural influences, notably those emanating from the world religions. However, the Yoruba not only imported Islam and Christianity but also exported their own orisa religion to the New World. Before the voluntary modern diaspora that has brought many Yoruba to Europe and the Americas, tens of thousands were sold as slaves in the New World, bringing with them the worship of the orisa.
 
Peel offers deep insight into important contemporary themes such as religious conversion, new religious movements, relations between world religions, the conditions of religious violence, the transnational flows of contemporary religion, and the interplay between tradition and the demands of an ever-changing present. In the process, he makes a major theoretical contribution to the anthropology of world religions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520285859
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	12/09/2015
Series:	The Anthropology of Christianity , #18
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

J.D.Y. Peel (1941-2015) died shortly before this book went to press. He was professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. This is his last major work.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations Appearing in the Text and Notes ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Part I

1 History, Culture, and the Comparative Method: A West African Puzzle 17

2 Two Pastors and Their Histories: Samuel Johnson and C. C. Reindorf 38

3 Ogun in Precolonial Yorubaland: A Comparative Analysis 52

4 Divergent Modes of Religiosity in West Africa 71

5 Postsocialism, Postcolonialism, Pentecostalism 88

Part II

6 Context, Tradition, and the Anthropology of World Religions 105

7 Conversion and Community in Yorubaland 125

8 Yoruba Ethnogenesis and the Trajectory of Islam 150

9 A Century of Interplay Between Islam and Christianity 172

10 Pentecostalism and Salafism in Nigeria: Mirror Images? 192

11 The Three Circles of Yoruba Religion 214

Glossary of Yoruba and Arabic Terms Appearing in the Text and Notes 233

Notes 235

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

"Clearly written, cogently argued, and offering deep insights into the interwoven trajectories of three different religious traditions in one society, this book undoubtedly constitutes required reading for scholars and students of religion, both in Africa and beyond."

Anthropos Reviews

"Stimulating . . . A welcome contribution to our knowledge of Yoruba Islam."

International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Stimulating... a welcome contribution to our knowledge of Yoruba Islam."

The International Journal of African Historical Studies