An assessment of challenges facing Christians in the chieftaincy institution: a case study of the church of Pentecost
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Date
2023-06
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KNUST
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Chieftaincy has been an integral part of the Akan Community even before the advent
of Christianity. The Akan have developed their own leadership hierarchy which exists
alongside the democratic structure of Ghana. Arguments raised by religious scholars
suggest that there are areas of interest that the Church and the Chieftaincy Institution
disagree with each other. Some Churches in Ghana for example forbid its members to
be Chiefs, more so skin or stool functionaries leading to alienation of Christians from
Chieftaincy issues to the extent that some Christian Royals do not accept the
responsibility of leading their communities as Chiefs. In spite of the seeming
contention between the Church and the Chieftaincy Institution, some Christians are
Chiefs. This research therefore sought to find out whether Christians who are Chiefs
have any challenges discharging their duties as chiefs and Christians at the same time
or not. The study has shown that Christian Chiefs have some challenges in functioning
as Chiefs and as Christians. It was discovered that Christian chiefs and royals are
constantly in a dilemma as their obligations include pouring of libation, veneration of
the black stool, animal sacrifices, observance of taboos and sacred days, appeasement
of the smaller deities, polygamous marriages etc. which run counter to the doctrines,
injunctions, and standard of conduct set by Christian faith. The results of the study
obtained through interviews with the selected participants who were chiefs, royals and
the clergy, show that in reality, the situation of chiefs and royals who are Christians in
general and in particular worshiping as Christians in The Church of Pentecost in Ghana
confirm the observations of Role Conflict theorists who identified a conflict between
role and personality. As observed by Role Conflict theorists, the effect of role conflict
is that the actor who is in the middle of conflicting demands fails in reality to fully be
in conformity with the expectations from the various roles or statuses they hold. The
situation that emerges is that, the individual may be compelled either to ignore or
abandon one of the conflicting roles while accepting the other or he or she may be
under the compulsion to compromise between the roles or actually do a physical or
psychological withdrawal from the roles in contention. The methodological approach
to the study was qualitative case study. The study used secondary and primary data.
The secondary data includes analyses of both published and unpublished books. The
primary data were acquired from fieldwork through the use of interviews. The research
is relevant because the findings of the research would serve as a reference point or
academic material for those who would want to research into the Chieftaincy
Institution.
Description
A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Religious Studies