https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats <p>ERATS is peer-reviewed and operates an open access policy aimed at Advancing Religous and Theological Studies throughout Africa. ERATS focuses on theoretical and empirical research in Religious and Theological studies. The journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts with the theoretical or empirical aspects from the following categories: African Traditional Religion, Biblical Interpretation, Biblical Translation Studies, Christian Education, Church History, Church and Society, Comparative Study of Religions, Ecocriticism, Ethics, History and Mission, Inter-religious Dialogue, New Testament, Old Testament, Pentecostal Studies, Theology, Wisdom Literature. We however accept manuscripts relating to other areas not stated above pertaining to religious and theological research.</p> <p>You can view this journal's website <a href="https://noyam.org/journals/erats/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> Noyam Journals en-US E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies 2821-8957 <p>All research papers published in ERATS are open access. This means that they are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication for free download on the journal website. With open access, authors can easily share the content of their research work with a much wider audience, the global research community can have access to all articles, there is no need to have any kind of membership or pay any fees in order to use, or download published journal articles. Any user can read, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.<br /><br />The copyright holder – author(s) of all published articles grants usage rights to others using an open license (CC BY license). All Research articles in this journal are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/293188 <p>This paper juxtaposed with the unresolved Gukurahundi which affected people from Matabeleland and Midlands between 1982 and 1987. While various attempts have been sought to address the ambivalence faced by the victims, healing and reconciliation have not materialised prompting a need to find alternatives to address the issue. In this case, the paper discussed the various programs by the Anglican Diocese of Matabeleland to contribute the healing and reconciliation. The paper is couched in Juan Luis Segundo’s hermeneutics of suspicion. This theory gives a critical framework for examining religious texts and practices to uncover hidden power structures and biases that perpetuate oppression. The paper was guided by the transformative paradigm where qualitative research design was used. Data was collected through interviews and group discussions. The argument of the paper is premised on the notion that Gukurahundi while seems to be an isolated and painful period for the people in Matabeleland and Midlands, has the potential to escalate to other parts of the country as an act of revenge, hence a need to bring all possible mitigation strategies to ensure a healed and reconciled nation and the Anglican Diocese of Matabeleland has a critical role to play in positioning itself as a relevant, responsible and caring institute. &nbsp;The paper contributes to knowledge and practices of addressing Gukurahundi by unpacking the Anglican Diocese of Matabeleland approach to healing through various church social services.</p> Albert Mvundla Ncube Copyright (c) 2025 Albert Mvundla Ncube https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2025-04-07 2025-04-07 11 4 117 127 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/erats/article/view/294476 <p>The nature of the relations between European imperialists and European Christian missionaries in Africa has resulted in various perceptions, opinions, and interpretations about their roles on the continent. While some scholars argue that the missionaries are forerunners of colonialism, thereby paving the way for Europeans to colonise Africa, some are of the opinion that, it was the European imperialists who made it possible for the missionaries to spread Christianity in Africa. Still, others opine that the missionaries were genuine men of God seeking to spread the word without any political inclinations. The findings of some case studies have been used as generalisation for the whole continent, but the issue requires a holistic approach to achieve a more balanced assessment. This paper therefore undertook a study of Ghana to examine the specific role of the early European Christian missionaries in the country. Were they agents of colonialism in disguise or genuine men of God? The paper explored the intersections, conflicts, and collaborations between the European Christian missionaries and the imperialists within the region of modern-day Ghana, tracing from the arrival of the first Europeans up to the period of colonial rule. The evidence from this study revealed that, in the case of Ghana, the Christian missionaries were genuine and not forerunners for the European imperialists. Their interactions and the resultant consequences were accidental and not deliberately orchestrated. This paper contributes to the history of Christianity in Ghana with emphasis on the specific role of early European Christian missionaries.</p> Mariama Marciana Kuusaana Ali Yakubu Nyaaba Fredrick Ofosuhene Wendy Hayford Adade Copyright (c) 2025 Mariama Marciana Kuusaana, Ali Yakubu Nyaaba, Fredrick Ofosuhene, Wendy Hayford Adade https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2025-04-28 2025-04-28 11 4 128 137