'Delivered from the spirit of poverty?' : Pentecostalism, prosperity and modernity in Zimbabwe
TL;DR: In this article, the article etudie les rapports du pentecotisme a la modernite et au progres economique en Afrique au Zimbabwe, and montre comment les Pentecotistes du Zimbabwe ont faconne leur propre version de la prosperite evangelique pour transformer la societe.
Abstract: L'article etudie les rapports du pentecotisme a la modernite et au progres economique en Afrique au Zimbabwe. L'A. montre comment les pentecotistes du Zimbabwe ont faconne leur propre version de la prosperite evangelique pour transformer la societe. Les pentecotistes deviennent autonomes en accomplissant une rupture avec le passe et la tradition impliquant un changement social.
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TL;DR: The authors argues that approaches to Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity (P/c) globalization need to recognize that P/c posesses cultural features that allow it, in most cases, to work in both ways at once.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity (P/c), the form of Christianity in which believers receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, is rapidly spreading and can be counted as one of the great success stories of the current era of cultural globalization. Literature on P/c presents a paradoxical picture of the cultural dynamics accompanying its spread. Many scholars argue that P/c is markedly successful in replicating itself in canonical form everywhere it spreads, whereas others stress its ability to adapt itself to the cultures into which it is introduced. Authors thus use P/c to support both theories that construe globalization as a process of Westernizing homogenization and those that understand it as a process of indigenizing differentiation. This review argues that approaches to P/c globalization need to recognize that P/c posesses cultural features that allow it, in most cases, to work in both ways at once. After considering definitional and historical issues and explanations for P/c's spread, t...
646 citations
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the role of Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches (PCCs) in post-colonization African societies, focusing on African Independent Churches (AICs).
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Taking as a point of departure Fernandez's survey (1978), this review seeks to show how research on African Independent Churches (AICs) has been reconfigured by new approaches to the anthropology of Christianity in Africa, in general, and the recent salient popularity of Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches (PCCs) in particular. If the adjectives “African” and “Independent” were once employed as markers of authentic, indigenous interpretations of Christianity, these terms proved to be increasingly problematic to capture the rise, spread, and phenomenal appeal of PCCs in Africa. Identifying three discursive frames—Christianity and “traditional religion,” Africa and “the wider world,” religion and politics—which organize(d) research on AICs and PCCs in the course of the past 25 years, this chapter critically reviews discussions about “Africanization,” globalization and modernity, and the role of religion in the public sphere in postcolonial African societies.
425 citations
Cites background from "'Delivered from the spirit of pover..."
...However, the Prosperity Gospel also risks becoming subverted by its own appeal, in particular if the promise of wealth on which it thrives fails to materialize among believers (Maxwell 1998, p. 366 and subsequent pages)....
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...Many PCCs represent prosperity as a God-given blessing and resent the mainline churches for legitimizing poverty by referring to Jesus Christ as a poor man (Marshall-Fratani 1998, Maxwell 1998, Meyer 1997)....
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TL;DR: An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity as discussed by the authors is a good starting point for a discussion of the relationship between faith and the Church of Christ, Islam.
Abstract: (2004). An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity. Ars Disputandi: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 206-209.
256 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the elective affinity between Pentecostalism and the vibrant video-film industry that has flourished in the wake of Ghana's adoption of a democratic constitution.
Abstract: In this article I examine the elective affinity between Pentecostalism and the vibrant video-film industry that has flourished in the wake of Ghana's adoption of a democratic constitution. I argue that, as a result of the liberalization and commercialization of the media, a new public sphere has emerged that can no longer be fully controlled by the state but that is increasingly indebted to Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism and video-films come together and articulate alternative, Christian imaginations of modernity. Seeking to grasp the blurring of boundaries between religion and entertainment, I examine the pentecostalite cultural style on which these alternative visions thrive. My main concern is to investigate the specific mode through which Pentecostal expressive forms go public, thereby transforming the public sphere.
212 citations
TL;DR: The authors surveys the literature that constitutes the newly emergent anthropology of Christianity, arguing that demographic and world-historical forces have made it such that anthropology has had to recently come to terms with Christianity as an ethnographic object.
Abstract: This article surveys the literature that constitutes the newly emergent anthropology of Christianity. Arguing that the development of this sub-discipline was impeded until recently by anthropology's theoretical framing and empirical interests, this article explains that demographic and world-historical forces have made it such that anthropology has had to recently come to terms with Christianity as an ethnographic object. In doing so, anthropology also has had to address its problematic relationship with Christianity, either in the religion's direct effect on the formation of the discipline, or as reflected by Christianity's influence on modernity itself, which has been vital for anthropology as both a category and as a style of cognition. In addition to these meta-theoretical questions, the anthropology of Christianity has become a space in which anthropology has been able to re-examine issues of social and cultural continuity and discontinuity in light of conversion to Christianity. Specifically, the issue of social change (often thought through or against the issue of ‘modernity’) has involved specific ethnographic examinations of fields, such as the relation between linguistic ideology and language use, economic practice, changing formations of gender and race, and the modes through which the person is culturally structured, and how that category of the person stands in relation to the social. Rather than presenting an overarching theoretical narrative, however, this review notes that these issues play out in divergent ways in differently situated communities, especially where Christianity's individuating effect may be muted where is it functions as an anti- or counter-modern force; this dynamic and contingent nature of Christianity underscores that Christianity itself is a heterogeneous object, and thus promises to be an area of rich empirical research and theoretical focus that should be beneficial not only for this sub-discipline, but also for the field of anthropology as a whole.
202 citations
Cites background from "'Delivered from the spirit of pover..."
...…more contemporary market participation in the way it inculcates particular behaviors that are useful in the flexible labor conditions of the postFordist economy (Martin 1995, 1998), and generates “redemptive uplift” by promoting literacy and leading believers to shun credit (Maxwell 1998, p. 354)....
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...They also embrace the role of male breadwinner, and “put the family back together as an effective unit of economic co-operation” (Martin 1995, p. 107, cf. Maxwell 1998, p. 353)....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 1963
TL;DR: Fifty years since first publication, E P Thompson's revolutionary account of working-class culture and ideals is published in Penguin Modern Classics, with a new introduction by historian Michael Kenny as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Fifty years since first publication, E P Thompson's revolutionary account of working-class culture and ideals is published in Penguin Modern Classics, with a new introduction by historian Michael Kenny This classic and imaginative account of working-class society in its formative years, 1780 to 1832, revolutionized our understanding of English social history E P Thompson shows how the working class took part in its own making and re-creates the whole-life experience of people who suffered loss of status and freedom, who underwent degradation, and who yet created a cultured and political consciousness of great vitality Reviews: "A dazzling vindication of the lives and aspirations of the then - and now once again - neglected culture of working-class England" (Martin Kettle, Observer) "Superbly readable a moving account of the culture of the self-taught in an age of social and intellectual deprivation" (Asa Briggs, Financial Times) "Thompson's work combines passion and intellect, the gifts of the poet, the narrator and the analyst" (E J Hobsbawm, Independent) "An event not merely in the writing of English history but in the politics of our century" (Michael Foot, Times Literary Supplement) "The greatest of our socialist historians" (Terry Eagleton, New Statesman) About the author: E P Thompson was born in 1924 and read history at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, graduating in 1946 An academic, writer and acclaimed historian, his first major work was a biography of William Morris The Making of the English Working Class was instantly recognized as a classic on its publication in 1963 and secured his position as one of the leading social historians of his time Thompson was also an active campaigner and key figure in the ending of the Cold War He died in 1993, survived by his wife and two sons
4,558 citations
802 citations
Book•
01 Sep 1990
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a historical genealogies and theoretical background of Anglo and Latin - rival civilizations, alternative patterns the Methodist model - Anglo-American cultural production reproduced in Latin America.
Abstract: Part 1 Historical genealogies and theoretical background: Anglo and Latin - rival civilizations, alternative patterns the Methodist model - Anglo-American cultural production reproduced in Latin America. Part 2 Latin America - history and contemporary situation: profiles of evangelical advance in Latin America Brazil - largest society and most dramatic instance the Southern cone - Chile and the Argentine contrasted smaller contrasting societies - Ecuador, El Salvador, Gautemala and Mexico. Part 3 Comparisons and parallels: Carribean comparisons - Jamaica and Trinidad, Puerto Rico and Haiti instructive parallels - South Korea and South Africa. Part 4 Re-formations: new spiritual communications - healings and tongues, songs and stories conversions - transformations and turning points Protestantism and economic culture - evidence reviewed the body politic and the spirit - evidence reviewed. Part 5 Conclusions: the argument summarized and extended.
505 citations
468 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: In this article, a sociological description and explanation of the changes in the religious life of Western society that have accompanied modernization is given, starting with the Reformation and ending with New Age spirituality.
Abstract: The people of the Middle Ages did what the Church told them God required. The sovereign consumers of the modern world pick and mix' their own religions, Starting with the Reformation and ending with New Age spirituality, this book offers a comprehensive sociological description and explanation of the changes in the religious life of Western society that have accompanied modernization. This major new book from a leading sociologist of religion tracks the Church's changing role from monolith to Sect, to Denomination, and at the end of the twentieth century, to the Cult. What were the forces that brought about this change? What is the real role for the Church in the modern world? Professor Steve Bruce answers these questions in a clearly argued and accessible way. Including substantial chapters on religion in the USA, religion and ethnicity, and the New Age, Religion in the Modern World is an invaluable resource for students of sociology, religion or history and anyone with a real interest in looking behind the headlines for the place of religion in today's society
363 citations