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African Charismatics: Current Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana

01 Jan 2007-Mission Studies (Brill)-Vol. 24, Iss: 1, pp 136-137
About: This article is published in Mission Studies.The article was published on 2007-01-01. It has received 100 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Indigenous & History of religions.
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that Pentecostalism is itself an alternative form of witchcraft discourse, and that it falls prey to the same ambivalent relationship between power, success and social obligation that witchdoctors and politicians must face.
Abstract: While Pentecostal churches derive their growing popularity in large part from their ability to combat witchcraft in society, I argue here that Pentecostalism is itself an alternative form of witchcraft discourse. As such, it falls prey to the same ambivalent relationship between power, success and social obligation that witchdoctors and politicians must face. I discuss Pentecostalism and witchcraft in terms of their relationship to neoliberal understandings of individual agency and economy in contrast to the moral economy of social obligations. At the same time I draw parallels between the ritual techniques of Pentecostalism and witchcraft cosmology, demonstrating that, despite Pentecostal churches' efforts to transcend the power of witchcraft, they in many cases become encompassed by witchcraft discourse, often taking on the appearance of witchcraft itself.

77 citations

Dissertation
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, Nel et al. explored how Ghanaian Pentecostal spirituality informs their leadership paradigms towards addressing poverty in their societal contexts, and they proposed the concept of spiritual leadership capital (SLC).
Abstract: The title of the study is ‘Spiritual Leadership Capital: A Theology of Poverty in Congregational Development’. It is a study which tried to understand how Ghanaian Pentecostal spirituality informs their leadership paradigms towards addressing poverty in their contexts. The basic assumption of this study is, Pentecostal congregations can be a force to help Ghana address poverty if they are missionally built-up and have cultivated spiritual leadership capital (SLC). The research problem is, do leadership in Ghanaian Pentecostal congregations have spiritual leadership capital (SLC)? (Chapter three outlines SLC). What has been the Pentecostal understanding of poverty, have they a sustainable missional (practical) theology of poverty? (Chapter 4 outlined this). To what extent could their having or the lack of SLC, help or prevent them from developing missional congregations which are able to theologically address the problem of poverty? (Chapter two addressed missional theology). In what ways might the adoption of SLC in congregational development by Pentecostals contribute to the addressing of poverty in Ghana? The study is in the broad disciplinary area of practical theology, and specifically under the subdiscipline of congregational development (ecclesiology). The Researcher advances ‘spiritual leadership capital’ (SLC) theory, which he argues provides inner virtues which spirituality affords people, shaping them with resilient leadership paradigms that contribute to the formation of social capital for the sustainable addressing of social problems such as poverty. It comes to enrich earlier theories on social capital. With the main concern of this project being missional theology as regards leadership in congregational development within the context of Ghanaian Pentecostalism, researcher contests that, SLC can be used to address questions posed to the church and the world by the problem of poverty. The word ‘missional’ has been understood within the missional conversation to have a bigger scope than missionary activity. Leadership’s understanding of mission must determine the structures and systems of a missional congregation. Using Osmer’s (2008) four task practical theology approach to research, SLC comes as a practical theology of poverty in congregational development. Using SLC in view of the backdrop of Nel’s (2015:273-278) congregational analysis, contextual analysis and diagnosis; the empirically the study looked at the Church of Pentecost, Assemblies of God Church, Ghana, and Global Evangelical Church. Its aim was to understand their concept of being missional and how they see poverty within the scope of their ecclesiology and how SLC can improve their praxis in this direction. The researcher draws on historical lessons from the spiritualities of historic pneumatic Christian movements, such as Quakers, Moravians, Huguenots, and Puritans in overcoming poverty. And as part of SLC, argues transformational diaconia, as a missional response to poverty beyond existing social…

68 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the sonic sacralization of urban space in the multicultural city of Accra by comparing the nexus of religion, urban space and aurality in charismatic Pentecostalism and Ga traditional religion, and they argued that the religious clash over sound and silence should not only be understood as a competition for symbolic control of spaces, but also as a spiritual struggle over the invisible, but all the more affective powers felt to be present in the city.
Abstract: This article explores the sonic sacralization of urban space in the multicultural city of Accra. In Ghanaian cities today religious groups increasingly vie for public presence. It is especially the religious manifestation in the urban soundscape, most forcefully by charismatic-Pentecostal churches and preachers, that has of late generated controversy. While charismatic-Pentecostal ‘noisemaking’ leads to conflicts all year round, it is especially during the annual traditional ‘ban on drumming and noisemaking’ that the religious confrontation over sound and silence in the city comes to full and violent expression. Approaching the articulation between religiosity and urban space through the aural, this article examines how religious sound practices create, occupy and compete for urban space. Comparing the nexus of religion, urban space and aurality in charismatic Pentecostalism and Ga traditional religion, it seeks to establish two points. First, that behind the apparent opposition between Pentecostalism and traditional religion is a difference in religious spatiality, but a remarkable similarity in the place of sound in relation to the spiritual. Second, it argues that the religious clash over sonic sacralization of urban space should not only be understood as a competition for symbolic control of spaces, but also as a spiritual struggle over the invisible, but all the more affective powers felt to be present in the city.

58 citations


Cites background from "African Charismatics: Current Devel..."

  • ...Charismatics’ predilection for marketing churches and pastors accounts for their marked visual presence in Accra’s imagescape (Asamoah-Gyadu, 2005b)....

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  • ...They do so with impressive buildings and mass gatherings, visual markers such as huge billboards, banners and posters (Asamoah-Gyadu, 2005b), technologically amplified sounds of music, preaching and prayer, and audio-visual representation in the mass media (De Witte, 2003; 2005a)....

    [...]

  • ...…Christianity and traditional religions, should be understood not as ‘systems of symbols’, but as ‘systems of powers’ (Meyer, 1999; Ellis and ter Haar, 2004; Asamoah-Gyadu, 2005a) and living religiously as ‘being in touch with the source and channels of power in the universe’ (Bediako, 1995: 106)....

    [...]

  • ...The power of seeing and vision in this respect has been well theorized, especially in relation to Pentecostalism (e.g. Asamoah-Gyadu, 2005c; De Witte, 2005a; Gordon and Hancock, 2005; Meyer, 2005), but the importance of sound has been largely ignored (but see Hirschkind, 2001; Van Dijk, 2005;…...

    [...]

  • ...High-pitched screams are generally interpreted as manifestations of ‘witchcraft power’ (Asamoah-Gyadu, 2005a: 187)....

    [...]

01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In view of the fact that the Kikuyu people are a Kenyan community and, as will be demonstrated later in this paper, the largest community in the country as mentioned in this paper, it is critical to take cognisance of this fact.
Abstract: This chapter sets out to demonstrate that like the proverbial Kikuyu leopard, which would come in the dark of night to kill livestock and attack human beings and was therefore fought collectively by everyone in the community , HIV and AIDS in Africa has reached a level where a Mundurume (Kikuyu man) cannot just watch as the pandemic wipes out whole communities. In view of this, this chapter endeavours to revisit the traditional Kikuyu 3 man (read African Man, hereafter , Mundurume) and suggest how ______________________________________ The term Mundurume refers to a traditional Kikuyu man who was perceived as a warrior who set out to shield and protect his community in the event of danger from any outside attack. This chapter was published in the Journal of Constructive Theology 13, 1, 2007. It is published here with permission. At this stage, it is critical to take cognisance of the fact that the Kikuyu people are a Kenyan community and, as will be demonstrated later in this paper , the largest community in the country .

52 citations