Sickness and Healing: a Case Study on the Dialectic of Culture and Personality

This book deals with a subject rarely chosen for study in either Missiology or Anthropology. By combining new research methods from cognitive anthropology with older methods of the culture-and-personality school, it describes and analyzes the life history of an African individual. Thus, it finally draws conclusions of a more missiological character. What Robert Badenberg has successfully brought to light is one important aspect of the dialectic between culture and the individual. His argumentation is consistent and easy to follow. It begins with the general concept of body and sickness. The second part of his writing begins with the quest for healing, focusing on personal and cultural concepts. It ends with missiological conclusions about the individual in his cultural context: communication, conversion, counseling. In his thesis the author is breaking new ground. To missionaries and anthropologists alike the book provides a wealth of information and models to be used in follow-up research. Robert Badenberg, born 1961. 1976-1979 training in Mechanical Engineering. From 1982-1987 theological studies at the Seminary of Liebenzell Mission International. Missionary to Zambia/Southern Africa from 1989 to 2003. 1999 he earned a M. A. in Missiology from the external study center of Columbia International University in Germany with a thesis that investigated Bemba anthropology, a tribal group in the northern part of Zambia. Doctoral Studies at the University of South Africa (UNISA) which culminated in this dissertation that earned him a Doctor of Theology degree in Missiology in 2001.