Noel draws parallels between African spirit possession and Christian doctrine of Holy Spirit

African-American Christian spirituality ― especially in relation to the Holy Spirit ― cannot be understood without understanding the phenomenon of “spirit possession” that was predominant in native African religion before the slave trade brought blacks to North America, a leading scholar said here recently.

“Christians have not discounted the reality of spirits but theologically evaluated them as evil or, at best, impediments to full conversion…” said the Rev. James Noel, speaking at the annual T.V. Moore Lectures sponsored by San Francisco Theological Seminary. Noel is professor of American religion and African-American spirituality at the seminary.

“This evaluation forecloses any comparison between the religious phenomenon of spirit possession and the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit or pneumatology,” Noel said. “However, because this was the mode through which many West Africans encountered the unseen prior to enslavement and conversion to Christianity … it behooves anyone attempting to construct a pneumatology from a perspective of Black Theology to acquire some sort of comparative analysis and understanding of spirit possession.”
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