The relationship between negative theology and positive theology, approached here through love that contemplates in silence and reflects on what is contemplated, experienced a spring during the first half of the twentieth century that has not fully opened into the summer of complete understanding. The article returns to this topic and proposes, in the first part, a critique of the method used by academic studies on Christian spirituality conducted after the Second Vatican Council, both in the Latin-European and Anglophone spheres.
Religious experience, though deeply personal, is shaped by socially acquired beliefs and symbols from one's religious tradition. This article argues that in Igbo society, the indigenous religious tradition's emphasis on spirits and spirit possession has been creatively reworked within prophetic, Charismatic, and Pentecostal Christian movements into experiences of the Holy Spirit, used for healing and community edification. The dominance of spirit phenomena in Igbo indigenous religion thus influences how Christian faith is translated and experienced locally.