This book examines how the modernization of African ethnomedicine through Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Herbal Medicine program is reshaping longstanding debates about safety, efficacy, and the association of traditional healing with magic and witchcraft. Focusing on the Church of Pentecost (CoP), it explores how Pentecostal healing theology and medical mission practice might engage scientifically validated herbal medicine within contemporary healthcare systems. Drawing on missiology, medical anthropology, Pentecostal studies, and development studies, the book argues that Pentecostal spirituality can embrace both divine healing and the healing potential embedded in God’s creation. Through the lens of “eschatological sacramentalism,” it proposes a theological framework for integrating herbal medicine into Christian healthcare mission without recourse to magical worldviews. In doing so, it offers one of the first sustained interdisciplinary studies linking the scientific development of ethnomedicine with church healing theology and mission practice in Africa. It is an excellent read for scholars of Health and Religion, Theology, and the Social Scientific Studies of Christianity.

David Nyansah Hayfron is currently a member of the 15-member global Executive Council of the Church of Pentecost, which has presence in over 185 nations globally. He is also the Regional Co-ordinator for the CoP in Ghana’s Western and Western-North Regions as well as the Area Head for CoP Tarkwa (having 253 local congregations and a membership of 63,500).
He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) degree (2002) and a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Analysis and Quality Control (2006) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Apostle Hayfron also holds a Certificate in theology from the Pentecost University (2006) and a Master of Art in Theology, Mission and Culture from the Akrofi Christaller Institute, Akropong Akuapem (2010). He also holds MAT (2019) and PhD Intercultural Studies (2024) from Fuller Theological Seminary, USA.
He was called into the full-time ministry of the CoP in 2004 and has served in several stations, including serving as the National Youth Director for the CoP in Ghana for 8 years and the National Head of the CoP in Tanzania for three years.
He has also served on various church and para-church committees at regional, national and international levels.
David Nyansah Hayfron is a co-editor of Fuller Seminary’s publication from the 2021 Missiology Lectures titled: Re-visioning the Mission of Health—a Global Invitation to Heal and Thrive in Crisis (2025). He has also authored four books, one book chapter and some journal articles, and co-authored one book chapter. He has been an adjunct lecturer at the Pentecost University from 2013 to 2019, and from 2024 to date.