African Pentecostalism Research Articles

Missional Church and the Healing of Memories: A Missiological Construction of African Pentecostal Praxis

Abstract This article explores the role of the church in addressing the emotional and spiritual needs of individuals and communities, particularly in the context of African Pentecostalism. The article argues that the church is called to actively engage with its surrounding culture and to bring healing and restoration to those who have experienced trauma or pain. In the African Pentecostal context, this often involves addressing issues related to cultural identity, historical injustice, and social inequality. Through its emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit and the importance of community, African Pentecostalism offers a unique perspective on how the church can facilitate the healing of memories and promote reconciliation and restoration. The use of “African Pentecostals” in this article refers to the Pentecostal churches whose doctrines align with the mainline Pentecostal theology and praxis (the classical Pentecostal Churches and the Neo-Pentecostal Churches).

Many Tongues, Many Economic Practices: Socio-Economic Opportunities and Challenges for African Pentecostal Christianity

This article focuses on Pentecostalism and its real and possible contributions to socio-economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. First, we provide an overall historical and theological introduction to Pentecostalism in sub-Saharan Africa, especially as these relate to socio-economic wellbeing. The heart of our research is a review of the literature on African Pentecostalism focused on economic development. We conclude with an exploration of the challenges and opportunities the movement faces in contributing to development across the continent. The question we seek to pursue is as follows: what theological and missiological resources might pentecostal–charismatic communities contribute to improve the socio-economic circumstances of the people of sub-Saharan Africa?

‘Minding the pentecostal paradox’: Currents and cross‐currents in pentecostal studies in Africa (PenteSA)

AbstractEmploying the pentecostal paradox motif, this survey engages the literature on African Pentecostalism across a spectrum of disciplines in both humanities and social sciences. Utilising a thematic cluster as analytical approach, the study posits that African Pentecostalism represents a decolonial shift from an era of mere beliefs to the era of the dispensation of the Spirit. African Pentecostalism emphasises post‐indigenous and transrational appropriations of the gospel, situated within specific historical and cultural contexts. The study concludes by zooming in on the imperative for scholars on Pentecostal studies in Africa (PenteSA) to be mindful of 'the pentecostal paradox', urging them to recognise their roles as a prophetic vocation.

African Pentecostalism and Ecological Spirituality: Liturgy and Supplication from a Pneumatology Perspective

The article substantiates to highlight the importance of Pentecostal hermeneutic reference to liturgy, pneumatology, and ecclesiology. African Pentecostals worship in a manner that embodies the Holy Spirit in all aspect of worship, bearing in mind interactive acts which connects the worshipping community together with the living God and not a faraway saviour of humanity, but God all of creation. All of creation responds to the creator in worship and adoration. This brings to the fore the pervasiveness of the Spirit as the spring of life, on which the interrelated, interconnectedness and full participation of all of creation hinges. Communities are bound together by their charismatic Pentecostal experiences and common acquaintance particularly with alienation and biased judgement based on ecclesiological views and radical spirituality. While Pentecostal hermeneutics fueled by works of the Holy Spirit is distinct from other hermeneutics, the danger is when Scriptures are mis-interpreted and used out of context. Spirituality conveys an amalgamated integral or component analysis regarding its historical background, interpretation, and practice. African spirituality is therefore, understood ‘as a collective entity’ It is expressed within the connectedness of individuals, groups of people which forms the community. Therefore, individual spirituality within an African context is practised in a way that ensures the wellbeing of the entire community. In practicality it involves one’s immersion into the livelihoods within the shared space through participation in one’s community (Magesa, 2010:71). African spirituality is basically a moral obligation related to African lifeworlds and religiosity within the community at large. Ecological spirituality from the African context becomes the unifying power between humanity and the natural world by enhancing relations and accountability towards the earth community. Ecological spiritually brings forth the depth of ethics exhibiting highlighting environmental concerns intrinsically and inextricably are intertwined (Ngwena, 2021:56).

A decolonial analysis of religious medicalisation of same-sex practices in South African Pentecostalism

Same-sex practices are commonly medicalised in various global spaces. Some societies view same-sex practices as some form of disease that needs to be cured. In Africa, the influence of Christianity has prompted many communities to conclude that there are spiritual forces behind same-sex orientations and practices. Therefore, same-sex practices are demonised, and those identifying with these sexualities and gender identities are viewed as sick, or as having some form of mental illness. As a fast-growing and influential movement in South Africa, Christianity plays a critical role in this narrative. Against this backdrop, this article examined how some Pentecostal pastors in South Africa use God-talk to propel the narrative that medicalises same-sex practices and how these pastors claim to have miraculous powers to heal these practices. Consequently, the gender and sexuality commonly accepted within African religiosity and spirituality are pushed to the peripheries. Therefore, it is argued in this article that the colonial-missionary discourses regarding African sexualities and genders are at play within the religious medicalisation of same-sex narratives. Thus, there is a need to problematise and transform this narrative. This act can contribute to delinking African genders and sexualities from Western repressions and subjugation agendas. The discussion moved from the premise of decoloniality while adopting a multidisciplinary approach that incorporated theology, gender and sexuality studies, psychology, health, and socio-political sciences. Again, the article used secondary literature analysis to examine this phenomenon and to gain a thorough understanding of how African Pentecostalism continues to use God-talk to medicalise same-sex practices in contemporary South Africa and the repercussions thereof.Contribution: The study contributed to the existing knowledge that addresses religious challenges faced by people identifying with non-normative sexualities and genders in Africa. This can contribute to the transformation of religious medicalisation of same-sex practices in South Africa, and elsewhere.

Reconciliation in South Africa: Recent Contributions and the Part African Pentecostalism Can Play

Reconciliation in South Africa: Recent Contributions and the Part African Pentecostalism Can Play

Inaugurated Eschatology within South African Pentecostalism

Abstract Pentecostal eschatology differs from one sub-tradition of Pentecostalism to the other in a South African context. Sub-traditions such as classical Pentecostalism and the New Prophetic Churches (npc s) have been engaged in more than one form of eschatology. The differences are explored here to understand their implications for Pentecostal eschatology. The Pentecostal prophets in npc s do not exclusively focus on a futuristic eschatological approach as opposed to classical Pentecostalism. Pentecostal prophets in npc s embrace a realised eschatology of the kingdom in the here and the now. The challenge is that this approach presents some form of abuse in these churches. How do we address these abuses emanating from an overemphasised realised eschatology? How do we deal with the tensions between realised eschatology and futuristic eschatology? What could be the relevant eschatology that balances both extremes of a futuristic eschatology and realised eschatology? These questions are addressed here through an inaugurated eschatology.

‘When Faith Is Not Enough’: Encounters between African Indigenous Religious Practices and Prophetic Pentecostal Movements in Zimbabwe

African Pentecostalism remains the fastest growing form of Christianity on the African continent. Scholarship on Zimbabwean Pentecostalism has noted how the emergence of New Pentecostal Movements (NPMs), specifically Prophetic Pentecostalism (PP), has increased this growth. Apart from other attracting factors, such as the Holy Spirit, claims of faith healing, deliverance and prophecy, among others, African Pentecostalism is known for its emphasis on faith as a major anchor of any Pentecostal Christian. Hebrews 11, with its emphasis on faith, is, therefore, a central scripture in this Christian tradition. However, the emergence of NPMs at the height of the Zimbabwean crisis from the year 2008 to the present, has challenged Zimbabwean Pentecostal Christians from their sole dependency on faith. The crisis called for much more than faith could stand on its own. Hence, NPMs responded to this need by infusing indigenous religious practices with biblical ones as a way of strengthening believers through the crisis. Prophetic Pentecostal Movements (PPMs) in Zimbabwe introduced touchable objects such as anointed towels, handkerchiefs, wrist bands, stickers, oils and even condoms. While this appears to be sophisticated syncretism, a critical analysis of the practices shows how steeped they are in the African indigenous religious worldview. This article, therefore, seeks to examine the religious encounters between indigenous African religious practices and Pentecostal practices as practiced in the NPMs in Zimbabwe. The focus of this paper is to establish the resilience of indigenous religious practices within a Christian tradition that claims to have totally broken from the past. It further argues that the fast growth of PPMs depends on the ‘Christianization’ of indigenous religious practices, which are presented to believers as ‘purely biblical’. This is largely a desktop research project in which secondary sources were used as sources of data.

African Pentecostalism and politics: Reading Luke-Acts in its political, sociological and religious contexts

This article seeks to bring out the functionalities of the promise of the Holy Spirit by Jesus, the risen Lord, to his new community in Luke-Acts. It queries the need for such promise within the religious, sociological, and political environment of the 1st century Palestine as against the dominant power of the empire. The article carefully acknowledges that the fulfilment of the promise in Luke-Acts marked the creation of a different kingdom whose aim was to subvert the empire’s existing political, religious, and sociological power. By implication, it is believed that such a subversive phenomenon displayed in Luke-Acts could have both direct and indirect consequences on African Pentecostalism as it engages in its articulation of the same promise in the modern political world.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article falls within the biblical and sociological context of the early church and proposes that African Pentecostalism reads the meaning of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts holistically. It will enable the African church to engage in evangelism, politics, and social issues to change the world positively in a subversive manner.

Spirit-Filled World: Religious Dis/Continuity in African Pentecostalism

African Pentecostalism is in continuity with popular religion in linking African challenges and problems to the spirit world. However, Allan Anderson, a leading Pentecostal theologian, argues that this continuity should be studied simultaneously with the discontinuity between African Pentecostalism and certain popular religions. Based on this argument, there exists a tension between continuity with certain popular religions in African Pentecostalism on the one hand, and discontinuity with certain aspects of it on the other hand—hence the concept “dis/continuity.” Seeking a balance, this review article explores Anderson’s text in regards to both the context of African Pentecostalism’s continuity with popular religion, where there is connection between people’s challenges and the spirit world, and the context of discontinuity, where African Pentecostalism is delinked from certain aspects of popular religion based on the very different ways in which African Pentecostalism addresses people’s various problems. In summary, while African traditional religions as an expression of popular religion use different mediums to find solutions, African Pentecostalism uses the power of the Holy Spirit for the same.

Syncretism Narrative and the Use of Material Objects within Some Neo-Pentecostal Circles in Contemporary South Africa

African Pentecostal Christianity presents interconnectedness with African cultures, spiritualities, and religiosity in many ways. Among many other practices that demonstrate this interconnectedness is the use of material objects common within some African Pentecostal Christian spaces, African cultures, spiritualities, and religions. The advent of neo-Pentecostalism in South Africa has brought some controversies in the use of material objects within the broader African Pentecostalism. This has led to the outright demonization and to the conclusion that this practice was fundamentally syncretistic. This article investigated the syncretism narrative given the use of material objects within some neo-Pentecostal spaces in contemporary South Africa. It scrutinized the syncretism narrative and problematized it as the continuation of the missionary-colonial project that demonized African religious and cultural practices. It was argued that this constitutes coloniality that uses a “cultural bomb” that seeks to eradicate African customs, cultures, religions, and practices including the use of material objects. The study was conducted through the desktop research methodology focusing on secondary literature on African Pentecostalism, African neo-Pentecostalism, and syncretism. The findings indicated that the syncretism narrative is often applied to African Pentecostalism and seldom used with other Christian traditions, especially those of Western descent. Again, when the term is used, non-syncretistic elements are often not acknowledged. Thus, the need to transform the current narrative was highlighted.

Religious Entanglements: Central African Pentecostalism, the Creation of Cultural Knowledge, and the Making of the Luba Katanga, written by Maxwell, David

Religious Entanglements: Central African Pentecostalism, the Creation of Cultural Knowledge, and the Making of the Luba Katanga, written by Maxwell, David

Battling with the baton: (Dis)connecting today and tomorrow’s leaders in African Pentecostalism

Leadership praxis, development and succession can become a bloody battlefield in Africa, mainly because of economic, cultural, theological and political factors. Just like some secular leaders who fail to serve their mandate paradoxically fight for further conquest and retention of power at all costs, certain spiritual leaders miscarry Christian leadership, struggle to deliver their missionary service and tragically battle to stay in power, instead of passing the baton. Church leadership ought to be successional, transformational and intergenerational enough to disciple and develop leaders to sustain and promote other-centred missio Dei and missio Ecclesiae. Yet, the majority of Pentecostal church founders and leaders are neo-patrimonial, authoritarian and serving themselves at the expense of God’s mission. That way, they deface the missionary identity of the Church. Engaging with available literature and observing multifarious leadership trends in Africa, this article unravels problematic Christian leadership development and succession in view of Jesus Christ’s servant leadership model. It disconnects self-centred incumbents and connects the few who are Christ-like with tomorrow’s leaders.Contribution: This article advances Christian leadership development and succession in view of Jesus Christ’s intergenerational servant leadership model.

Looking Back: Theological Reflections on the Intersection between Pentecostalism and Ubuntu within the African Section of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa

Syncretism in the African section of South African Pentecostalism followed the emergence of the Ethiopian movement. The latter took the lead in promoting the syncretising of Christianity and African culture and practice (hereinafter referred to as Ubuntu). A similar syncretism emerged in the Christian Catholic Church in Zion in Wakkerstroom, the “black section of the Apostolic Faith Mission”, soon after the departure of Reverend Pieter Le Roux, who was appointed to lead the Apostolic Faith Mission in Johannesburg since John G. Lake was returning to the USA. This article intends to show that such syncretism did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, it was influenced by the interpretation of some portions of Scripture, the influence of John Alexander Dowie’s praxis and some dreams and visions of a leader of the Christian Catholic Church in Zion in Wakkerstroom. This form of syncretism later permeated subsequent sections of African Pentecostalism in the Apostolic Faith Mission, resulting in the emergence of two categories of African Pentecostalism in the church: namely, those who accept this phenomenon and those who abandon it. These past developments position the Apostolic Faith Mission as a prime example to use in analysing syncretism in Pentecostalism and how it could be addressed by taking cognisance of Ubuntu without committing syncretism. Hence, the following question arises: How can theological reflections on the past experiences of the black section of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa contribute to promoting a biblical approach that takes cognisance of Ubuntu without committing syncretism? This article applies the Magadi research method conceptualised for practical theology to answer this question. It further demonstrates that it is possible to promote a biblical approach that embraces Ubuntu without committing syncretism.

The Use of Science and Technology Among Afro-Pentecostals: A Theo-Historical Perspective from the Kenyan Context

This research article sets out to explore the extent to which Afro-Pentecostalism, as an African Pentecostal movement, relies heavily on science and technology. It sets out on the premise that African Pentecostalism, as with the mainline churches (referring to the Roman Catholics, the Methodists, the Anglicans, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans, and the Reformed churches among others), has historically relied on science and technology since Kenya’s colonial era (1895-1963) to the present moment. The 21st century has however witnessed a scientific explosion in a manner akin to the effects of the industrial revolution of 18th century Europe—that eventually spread over to the rest of the world. Through a theo-historical design, this research article has methodologically sampled some key areas that demonstrate Afro-Pentecostals’ use of science and technology. Such samplings include the modern infrastructures that are by-products of the latter, industrially urbanised areas, televangelism, technological gadgets, biotechnology and environmental concerns among other areas. The findings in this research article are gathered through participant observation and an extensive review of relevant literature. Overall, it establishes that Afro-Pentecostals, like the mainline churches/missionaries, engage science and technology as a critical missiological tool, even though the former is largely mistaken with the New Religious Movements (NRMs)—whose wayward sections employ cultic and occultist trends that lead to religious dysfunctions, some of which shuns hospitals, schools and other forms of modern science and technology, and instead embrace mysticism.

Religious Entanglements: Central African Pentecostalism and the Creation of Cultural Knowledge and the Making of the Luba Katanga

Religious Entanglements: Central African Pentecostalism and the Creation of Cultural Knowledge and the Making of the Luba Katanga

Global and Local Pentecostal Histories: Reframing Pentecostal Historiography in Africa

Arguably, Pentecostalism’s multifaceted and global nature continues to be marred by historiographical contentions and contestations. Diverse historiographical perspectives continue to shape the understanding of contemporary Pentecostal Christianity globally. Undoubtedly, the chaotic context of the socio-economic crisis in Africa has offered Pentecostal Christianity an opportunity to become a public force worthy of critical studies. Recent historical studies indicate enormous Pentecostal success, especially among the disadvantaged in African societies. Even as a prominent feature on the world’s religious stage, Pentecostal history is unsettled, especially in Africa. Histories of Pentecostalism continue to receive a barrage of blame and accusation for historiographical biases. Scholars from the West are to blame for neglecting or completely ignoring the vital and often more significant work from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latino regarding the history, growth, and expansion of Pentecostal Christianity. This article raises the question of whether African Pentecostalism and its global significance locate within the accounts of global Pentecostal historiographies. It broadly explores issues in the international Pentecostal historiography, arguing that African Pentecostalism is a complex phenomenon originating from indigenous prophetic figures and their antecedents. Therefore, it challenges the North American Azusa Street revival trajectory; Pentecostalism in Africa sprung up in response to contextual challenges faced by the Africans, which mission Christianity could not adequately address. The historiography of African Pentecostalism is steeped in polygenesis, yet within the global context of Pentecostal history.

The Gospel beyond the West: The Sanneh–Walls Legacy and Emerging Conversation Partners in World Christianity Studies

The core disciplines within World Christianity studies derived from the legacy of Lamin Sanneh and Andrew Walls. Their extensive research and dedicated teaching from their historical and missiological roots provided a body of work upon which past and present World Christianity scholars continue to build. In their work, Walls and Sanneh modelled an openness to other perspectives which would provide insights into Christianity in the non-Western world. Though they operated from within their disciplines, the paradigm of translation that Walls and Sanneh championed consistently harboured the prospect of other disciplinary conversation partners. These aspects of the Walls and Sanneh legacy invite us to consider broader research frameworks to help make sense of Christian expansion in the non-Western world today. Though theology, missiology and history are vital disciplines, these in themselves are insufficient to investigate the wider spectrum of issues required to grasp current developments. This essay examines the research issues that World Christianity raises. Through the case study of African Pentecostalism, the essay demonstrates how multidisciplinary approaches might be used to address the questions. In this way, World Christianity studies can reliably draw from, and contribute to, other fields during its investigation of Christian faith as a global religion. This multidisciplinary approach to World Christianity studies also enables researchers to dignify the experience of those, previously marginal, expressions they study. In this way, researchers will carry forward the legacy received from the pioneers.

Religious Entanglements: Central African Pentecostalism, the Creation of Cultural Knowledge, and the Making of the Luba Katanga. By David Maxwell. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2022. xix + 327 pp. $79.95 cloth.

Religious Entanglements: Central African Pentecostalism, the Creation of Cultural Knowledge, and the Making of the Luba Katanga. By David Maxwell. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2022. xix + 327 pp. $79.95 cloth.

‘The Christic Models’

Abstract The task of this article is to interrogate and reconstruct Fabien Eboussi Boulaga’s theory of the Christic model as a pragmatic response to negative messianisms among African Pentecostals. Taking the hint from the two-natures messianic metaphoricity, the article argues that the messianic structure of Christ as an eternal myth is infinitely culturally demythologized into different historical and cultural contexts. It concludes by demonstrating that the two-natures messianicity captures a dialectic connection between divine infinity and human finitude. A pragmatic reconceptualization of the two-natures messianicity serves as a structuring principle or functional messianic model in the search for a balance of power and accountability in the struggle against menacing dominant hegemonies. It is critical because African Pentecostalism functions with the power-over as a structuring principle which makes congregants vulnerable to abuse of spiritual power and objectification, sexualization, and exploitation of a mystified mass.