'On the "Mountain" of the Lord' Healing Pilgrimages in Ghanaian Christianity

Abstract

AbstractIn Ghana, as with other African religious and cultural contexts, religion is a survival strategy. It is a dynamic phenomenon, which at every level of appropriation has been experiencing certain innovations informed by existential and supra-mundane needs. Some of these innovative appropriations of religion in contemporary Ghana include pilgrimages to religious sites in search of God's intervention for healing. Roman Catholicism, mainline Protestantism and Pentecostalism, the three main streams of Christian expression in Ghana have all had their members develop penchants for such pilgrimages although patronage is never denomination specific. In this article we examine some of the innovative ways in which healing pilgrimages have developed in the various Christian traditions and what implications these have for understanding religion in a contemporary African religio-cultural context.