ABSTRACT
There is an abounding plurality and diversity of cultures and religions in the contemporary world. Globalisation has created a widespread awareness of this fact. Founders of African Independent Churches (AICs) realised this fact and embraced the cultural and religious appreciation of their followers for the establishment and survival of their church organisations. This suggests that interreligious and cultural harmony can be achieved by developing an understanding of other cultural and religious traditions while appreciating the values inherent within them. We advance the religious diversity of AICs in accommodating their members’ cultural beliefs. Focus was on the Guta Ra Jehova (GRJ) Church as we explored its theological deportment with respect to appeasing avenging spirits as a religious and cultural belief among the Shona. Through unstructured interviews and participant observation, we gathered data sufficient to demonstrate that some AICs such as the GRJ Church practise acculturation by accommodating and blending African cultural and religious beliefs with Christian principles. Our findings demonstrated that some AICs did not move much away from their followers’ cultural beliefs with respect to the way they relate with the dead. In this regard, the GRJ Church developed ways of dealing with social problems associated with avenging spirits in ways which its members culturally understand.
