Emmanuel Y. Lartey
--Candler School of Theology, Emory University
"In this thoughtful, carefully researched, and much-needed book Esther Acolatse enters into critical engagement with African Christian pastoral practices, especially 'deliverance' ministries. . . . Her robust theoretical and practical approach, illustrated with actual contextual cases, avoids the dangers of over-spiritualization, under-psychologizing, and cultural irrelevance, which have marred effective care of souls in contemporary African cultures. For Freedom or Bondage? scratches exactly where African Christians currently itch. It should be required reading for all who have pastoral and educational responsibilities for persons influenced by African cultures."
Andrew F. Walls
--Liverpool Hope University, Akrofi-Christaller Institute, Ghana
"This is an important book. With the increasing significance of Africa within contemporary Christianity, new and urgent theological issues are arising for pastoral practice as African understandings of the spirit world interact with the biblical materials and traditional Christian practice. Acolatse is beginning a much-needed conversation between African and Western theologians, with huge pastoral implications."
Amos Yong
--Regent University School of Divinity
"Acolatse's proposals provide a holistic and dialogical model for pastoral care, one that engages with the ecumenical tradition and is informed by interdisciplinary analyses, while also expertly reappropriating global South perspectives, sensibilities, and cosmologies. May an increasingly Pentecostal and charismatic world Christianity take heed."
-- Peter J. Paris in Theology Today
“Acolatse has written a very important book for both teachers and practitioners of pastoral care who work primarily in her native Ghana as well as throughout Africa. . . . Acolatse's methodology of interviewing 50 pastors is impressive to say the least, as is the clarity with which she describes the African worldview. . . . In brief, this book will enrich the thinking of all who read it.”
Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
“This book will stand as a milestone in pastoral theology in Africa. . . . A major resource to scholars, pastors and Christian counselors not only within evangelical charismatic churches but also to those studying and practicing charismatic healing in mainstream traditional churches in Africa.”
Theology Today
“Professor Esther Acolatse has written a very important book for both teachers and practitioners of pastoral care who work primarily in her native Chana as well as throughout Africa. . . . Acolatse’s methodology of interviewing 50 pastors is impressive to say the least, as is the clarity with which she describes the African worldview. . . . In brief, this book will enrich the thinking of all who read it.”
