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Addressing the implications of the introduction of the concept of religion to Africa in the colonial era, this essay approaches religion from a relational angle that takes into account the connections between Africa and Europe. Much can be learned about the complexity and power dynamics of these connections by studying religion not simply in but also from Africa. Referring to historical and current materials from my research in Ghana by way of example, my concern is to show how a focus on religion can serve as a productive entry point into the longstanding relational dynamics through which Africa and Europe are entangled. This is a necessary step in decolonizing scholarly knowledge production about religion in Africa, and in religious studies at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses sermons, Christianity, and preaching.

An understanding of religion as a practice of mediation has great potential to open up new methods and theories for a critical study of religion. Leading beyond the privileged medium of the text, this understanding approaches religion as a multi-media phenomenon that mobilizes the full sensorium. The central point of this article is that forms of visual culture are a prime medium of religion, and studying them offers deep insights into the genesis of worlds of lived experience. Pictorial media streamline and sustain religious notions of the visible and the invisible and involve embodied practices of seeing that shape what and how people see. Discussing the implications of the "pictorial turn" for the study of religion, I argue that a more synthesized approach is needed that draws these fields together. The methodological and theoretical implications of this approach are exemplified by turning to my research on video and representations of the "spiritual" in Southern Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an overview of articles featured in the May 2003 issue of the "Journal of Religion in Africa." Relationship between spirituality and technology; Appeal of Haidara in a situation marked by the weakening of traditional institutional foundations of religious authority; Exploration of how the televisualization of Otabil's sermons entails tensions between the allegedly spontaneous, fluid notion of charisma as a gift from the Holy Spirit and the fixity of the television program.

Discusses the encounters between missionaries of the Norddeutsche Missiongessellschaft and Ewe mission workers in Ghana and Southern Togo in the second part of the nineteenth century and the role of the mission society to the emergence of Ewe nationhood. Brief background on the political situation of the Ewe from pre-missionary times until 1918; Attitude of the mission society toward the German nation and nationalism; Position on the Ewe language and the Ewe mission workers; Conclusion.