Re‐Thinking Weber and Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical (Pce) Churches in South Africa

Abstract

Over the last twenty years Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical Christianity has been one of the fastest growing religious movements in Africa. For years these churches have been studied using a Weberian lens that supported the argument that this form of Christianity engendered a new type of entrepreneurial capitalism amongst believers. Scholars like Meyer (1999), Martin (2002) and van Dijk (1992) argued that this type of Christianity was something like an African form of Puritan Christianity that promoted the importance individuals working hard to improve their lives and helped them negotiate a break with their families in order to embrace a capitalist ethic. Yet over the last few years various new forms of Prosperity Theology have been taught in these churches many of which promote the idea of wealth but not always with a Puritan ethic of hard work. This study draws on field work done with 100 PCE churches in Johannesburg during 2016. It argues that by reading PCE Christianity through a Weberian lens, problematic Eurocentric theories have been imposed on African people and their religious practices and/ beliefs. The paper will use a decolonial lens – working primarily with the theories of Mignolo (2011) and Maldonado-Torres (2013) - to examine what PCE theologies of prosperity mean for African members of PCE churches in the Johannesburg area.