Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity Research Articles

Religious infrastructuring in Ghana: the aesthetics and politics of infrastructural augmentation in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity and the Indigenous Religious Tradition

ABSTRACT This contribution explores the ‘infrastructuring’ of religious sites and practices in Ghana’s Ashanti region, particularly in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches and Indigenous Religious Traditions (IRTs). By ‘infrastructuring’, I mean the purposeful complexification and augmentation of infrastructural arrangements encompassing both material (physical) and immaterial (organisational, communicative) dimensions. The first part explores a PCC case study, Prophet Boateng’s Power Chapel Worldwide (PCWW), investigating the aesthetic, economic, and political implications of infrastructuring Pentecostalism. The second part, which is a novel addition to the discourse, focuses on the emergence and expansion of heavily infrastructured IRT shrines and practices through the case of Kↄmfoↄ Oforiwaa’s shrine. I argue that the aesthetic operations performed by religiously configured buildings can help generate assemblages of people, aspirations, and meanings constituting more comprehensive economic and political processes.

Assessing Ghanaian Primal Consciousness: A Key Factor in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity

The article examined the influence of the Ghanaian primal consciousness on Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity. Although the primal religion seems to have lost its physical presence in the Ghanaian religious space, its ideologies and tenets continue to be alive in the lives of many Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians. Relying on the researcher’s pastoral experience, personal observations and by paying attention to some sayings and proverbs of some Pentecostals, the study identified the extent to which primal consciousness affects Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana. It discovered that while some elements of the primal religion are closely related to Christianity and may thus positively affect it, others appear to be in opposition to biblical truth and may thus affect it negatively. The study posits that a good knowledge of the reality of the effect of the primal consciousness by Pentecostal-Charismatic churches would advance the Christian mission in Africa. The article adds to existing literature on the impact of the primal religion on Christianity. Keywords: Primal consciousness, Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, Ghana, religion.

A Theological Critique of the Commodification of Religious Substances in Ghanaian Pentecostal–Charismatic Christianity

Abstract This article presents an empirical case study of the commodification of religious substances in a Ghanaian Pentecostal/charismatic church. The author argues that the primal goal of religion and the penchant for success and good health among Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians help in the easy commodification of religious substances by pastor-prophets. However, the commodification of religion or religious substances, the article argues, eschews godly values, beliefs, and practices that have implications for the faith and commitment of believers, their religious lives, and their commitment to the church and society.

How do Ghanaian Pentecostal Charismatic Christian university students experience well-being? – balancing the needs of self and others

ABSTRACT Conceptualisations of well-being show cultural variations. In Ghana, traditional culture emphasises collectivistic values. However, the growth of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity has dispersed individualistic values, which may be even more pronounced in emerging adults. The aim of the current study was to explore how Ghanaian Pentecostal Charismatic Christian university students conceptualise well-being. Twelve participants belonging to different religious groups within Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity were interviewed. The interviews were then analysed with inductive thematic analysis. The results showed that the participants’ aspirations were situated in a social context with mutual dependence. They experienced well-being by contributing to family, friends, and society at large. However, at times there would be conflicts between their individual strivings and the wishes of others. Collectivistic and individualistic values seemed to have coexisted and interplayed, possibly with a stronger emphasis on traditional collectivistic values than those individualistic values transmitted through Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity.

‘The memory of persecution is in our blood’: documenting loyalties, identities and motivations to political action in the Ugandan Pentecostal Movement

AbstractMuch attention has been paid to the growth of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity in Uganda and the way it has shifted over the past decades from being a minority religion to influencing and shaping the Ugandan public and political spheres. Most of the literature, however, associates the Pentecostal-charismatic dynamic public action with its motivation to promote conservative Christian values, especially around issues of sexuality, HIV/AIDS, reproduction and family values. This article extends this literature by providing a fuller explanation for the reasons behind its public transformation and its relation to power, in particular its loyalty to and support for President Museveni. Drawing on participant observation and interviews conducted over several years, this article argues that along with theological and moral explanations, it is important to understand how local and contextual dynamics interplay. Indeed, the uncertainties and memories of the difficult origins of the Pentecostal-charismatic movement and the lack of legal recognition as fully registered churches, still impact on the present and motivate them to be catalytic socio-political actors in need of forging strong connections with centres of power in Museveni's Uganda.

Reception of the Lord’s Prayer in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Ghana

Abstract The liturgical reception of the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9–13 par. Luke 11:2 b–4) is well-attested and still evident in Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox circles. For instance, in reformed worship it is usual to hear varied versions of the statement: “And now as our saviour Christ has taught us, we humbly pray: ‘Our Father who art in heaven (…)’.” It is striking, however, that such a liturgical use of the text is scarce in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian worship. Such is the case in Ghana, where Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity forms the largest and most popular stream of the tradition. It only takes a visit to a Ghanaian Pentecostal-Charismatic church during a worship session to ascertain this fact. This article investigates this liturgical phenomenon in Pentecostal-Charismatic worship by analyzing a selection of popular literature written on the text of the Lord’s Prayer and through personal interviews with some of the leaders of Pentecostal-Charismatic churches. Before engaging in reception analysis, a brief exegetical study of the text is undertaken. The article concludes that the Lord’s Prayer does not appear in Pentecostal-Charismatic liturgy because it does not conform with the Pentecostal-Charismatic understanding of prayer. Instead it is conceived of as a pattern or model and hence chiefly employed as a means of instruction on effective prayer rather than for recitation each Sunday, as manifest in Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox circles.

The politics of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity: Religious language, charismatic authority, and temporality in a Melanesian revival movement

ABSTRACT Through an analysis of a series of revival movements that erupted across the Melanesian island of Malaita in the 1970s, this article articulates a strongly political reading of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity (P/c). A series of charismatic eruptions that swept Malaita in 1970 effected an overhaul of the epistemological, organizational, and eschatological frameworks imposed upon local Christians by foreign missionaries. Such rapid profusions of charismatic activity reveal how P/c experientialism undercuts the laborious textualism of conservative evangelical Christianity, how the democratization of charisma challenges hierarchical mission religious authority and, most broadly, how the dramatic shift to messianic eschatology constructs a qualitatively different metahistorical narrative to that imposed by the colonial project.

Cyber-Christianity in Qatar: “Migrant” and “Expat” Theologies of COVID-19

In the year 2020, COVID-19 wreaked havoc on everyday life in the Persian Gulf. Yet little is known about how non-citizens responded to a virus that inexorably exposed their transience and precarity. This article addresses a much-neglected aspect of local responses to COVID-19, namely, how non-citizens made sense of the virus theologically. Drawing on existing scholarship on cyber religion and migrant religiosity in the Gulf, I examine the theological responses of a distinctive subset of non-citizens –– Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians in Qatar. My approach, rooted in digital ethnographic methods, led me to uncover divergent theological responses to COVID-19 among lower-income “migrants” and higher-income “expats”. Lower-income “migrants” sought spiritual remedies to counter what they deemed to be a man-made virus, whereas higher-income “expats” strove for spiritual perfection during what they believed was a divine trial. Working through these divergent theological responses, I argue that both “migrants” and “expats” built stronger affinities to their host state during the pandemic as they developed new forms of spiritual communitas online.

‘Middle-class’ Africans in Australia: choosing Hillsong as a global home

ABSTRACT Much of the literature on Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity (Pc/C) and African diasporas in the Global North has focused upon African-Majority or -Initiated churches that are either branches of African churches or were created in the diaspora. This focus often frames the appeal of Pc/C to African migrants in terms of: a) its emphasis upon the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ offering a path not only to salvation, but also to earthly riches; b) its opportunities for achieving status among church hierarchies, which is attractive to socially marginalised groups, and; c) the practical assistance it provides to support settlement. However, African diasporas have diverse histories of migration, and settlement experiences. This article considers the appeal of Pc/C to a group of professional African migrants in Australia, who self-identify as ‘middle-class’. It argues that professional African migrants have consciously favoured the Australian megachurch Hillsong over Australia’s African-Initiated churches. They have done so in pursuit of a process of an imagined class-mobility, and as a result, their choice of church can be understood as largely strategic.

Future of North American Pentecostalism

Abstract This essay proposes first to chart the future of the pentecostal-charismatic movement in North America in terms of demographers’ projection of the movement’s numerical growth and other factors. Demographic growth is related to the continual arrival, in the near future, of pentecostal-charismatic Christians, other Christians, and potential converts to North America by way of diasporas mostly associated with the Global South. Second, within North America, these diasporas will continue to form transnational pentecostal-charismatic denominations with their international headquarters located in a country of the Global South. Related to these diasporas will be the further development of multiracial denominations led by American and Canadian citizens in North America. Third, the presence of transnational and multiracial denominations could prompt a reconfiguration of the movement, reshaping the religious infrastructure, racial politics, and post-secular engagement of the pentecostal-charismatic movement in North America. These demographic shifts offer the movement an opportunity to re-engage racial politics away from White supremacy with a critical use of the Racial Reconciliation Manifesto of the 1990s. Such a re-engagement could offer a sector within the pentecostal-charismatic movement a way to exit its alliance with the Christian Right, to participate with pentecostal-charismatic Christians of color in reconstituting the movement on the basis of the gospel rather than race, and to partner with secularists in generating post-secular sensibilities animated by post-racist practices that cultivate amicable civic relationships.

Envisioning an alternative: a Pentecostal Charismatic movement and everyday life in postcolonial Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The fragility of the postcolonial Zimbabwean state and concomitant failed governance has opened crevices through which alternative forms of self-organising and social formation are emerging. In the face of state-inspired uncertainties One God Ministry (OGM) members have organised themselves along religious lines to strengthen their livelihoods and wellbeing. This article draws on the findings of an ethnographic study of members of an anonymised Pentecostal Charismatic Christian movement (PCC) that self-organised to push for the attainment of economic democracy through provision of decent housing and income-generating activities for its members. It argues that OGM is filling the void left by the weakening postcolonial state. The Pentecostal movement’s success is derived from its ability to proffer pragmatic solutions to structural challenges that members face. Furthermore, OGM builds its solutions around diversity in membership, transnational relations, and followers’ hopes and aspirations.

Crooked Prophets, Ungodly Politicians and their Publics

Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity (PCC) has had a radical and public impact on African cities, believers and politics. Scholars often describe this impact in terms of the “Pentecostalization” of the public sphere. Looking at Prophet Bushiri and his Enlightened Christian Gathering Church in South Africa, I argue that the ontological situatedness of PCC believers, “unbelievers” and those who shared a spirited world view led to a plurality of public spheres and counter publics. Thus, secular commentators in South Africa did not understand the Pentecostal message or its expression while locals who believed in a spirited world interpreted Prophet Bushiri’s messages and behaviour in terms that dismissed debate in favour of (violent) action. Within PCC circles, which often stretched beyond the local to encompass vast networks of “spiritual kin”, communicative flows were scuppered by an unstable public moved by the Spirit rather than secular political processes.

Religion in Spaces of Transit: African Christian Migrant Churches and Transnational Mobility in Morocco

ABSTRACT This article discusses how religious place-making contributes to the mobility and transnational connection of migrants during their periods of transit and fragmented journeys. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Pentecostal Charismatic Christian churches in Rabat and Casablanca, it describes how the establishment of religious places by West and Central African Christian migrants is an outcome of the blockades and ruptures that many of them experience in the buffer zone that Morocco has become. Moreover, this article demonstrates how the religious and social practices within these migrant spaces contribute to the development of mobility in terms of both the sending and receiving nations, as well as the believer’s integration into transnational Charismatic Christian territories. In this context of forced immobility and limited religious freedom, the transnational and decentralised dimensions of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity have been particularly suitable for stranded Christian African migrants who aim to remain their agency and achieve in a better future, potentially through emigration to Europe.

South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and the Deployment of Christianity in the Public Sphere

Through the dialogue between an emerging pan-Africanist political scholar and a Christian theologian, this study interrogates key aspects of the deployment of Christianity in the public domain under the presidency of Jacob Zuma. After giving an overview of Zuma’s controversial public career, the article focuses on the role of religion and culture in Zuma’s political demagogy, and particularly on his deployment of the Pentecostalized public culture. A “product” of the ANC’s moral absolutism which got out of control, Zuma can be seen—it is argued—as an emblem of the entanglement of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity and politics in South Africa post-1994, and perhaps as a part of a broader global trend toward religious-populist politics.

Chasing Money: Tourist-Induced Labor Migration and Pentecostal Teachings of Success in Zanzibar

Abstract This article explores the role of Pentecostal-Charismatic teachings of growth and success in the context of Christian labor migrants’ efforts to “make it” in the predominantly Muslim society of Zanzibar. The study ethnographically assesses how dreams of making money and accumulating wealth in the islands’ growing tourist economy are addressed in teachings on how to mature spiritually through a combination of classic holiness living and ideas of how to reach and maximize people’s inner potential. Tracing the different theological ideas behind the promise of successfully attaining the good life suggests that the view of how prosperity is communicated within Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Africa needs to be nuanced in light of its diversity as well as in relation to local contextual circumstances. Thus, the case underlines how neo-Pentecostal ideas of realizing potential mingle with classic Pentecostal teachings emphasizing striving and hard work which, in Zanzibar, stress time and endurance in order to become a successful migrant in both material and spiritual terms.

Revealing the secrets of others (on YouTube)

In the midst of the proliferation of Christianity and Islam, traditional religious movements struggle for recognition all over Africa. In order to reach nationwide and diasporic audiences, traditionalist movements have sought to assume a visible role in modern mass media. In Ghana, West Africa, the traditionalists have been at pains to challenge the dominance of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity in the public sphere. Analysts have pointed out that traditional religion’s public role has been constrained by its emphasis on secrecy and limited access to spiritual powers, while Christianity’s public performances of revelations have been better suited for mass media. One of the major themes in the public representations of Pentecostalism has been the revealing of satanic influences working underneath the secrecy of traditional religion. By using examples from Ghana the article shows how the traditionalists have recently developed their own revelatory discourse, in which the dualism godly/satanic has been subverted. By publicly exposing Christian pastors as frauds in social media the traditionalists reemploy and redirect an age-old accusation of charlatanism previously targeted at themselves by both Christian and secularist commentators. More importantly, however, these statements should be understood as attempts to redefine Christianity from a non-Christian perspective.

Dynamics and Stability in Globally Expanding Charismatic Religions: The Case of the Vineyard Movement in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

This article examines processes of religious transfer taking place in the neo-Charismatic Vineyard movement by analyzing the development of the German-speaking branch, Vineyard Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz (DACH), in comparison to its American sister association. By drawing from first-hand interviews with congregational leaders and analyses of websites and other digital and print material, the article shows that Vineyard DACH is pursuing an unusually collaborative strategy to integrate into the German-speaking Christian landscape by forging close ties to both the Christian mainstream and its periphery. At the same time, it accentuates its identity as part of the international Vineyard network as a global charismatic movement. In this way, it negotiates the tension between the dynamics of expansion and the stability of a coherent self-identity, which is a distinguishing trait of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity. This development may be indicative of broader changes occurring in the religious landscape of German-speaking Europe in the early twenty-first century.

The Perfect and Complete Gospel of Both Comings of Jesus Christ: Reclaiming Eschatology in Pentecostal Proclaimation of the Gospel

Th is article is written to encourage a return to a position fi rmly entrenched in traditional Pentecostal and Charismatic eschatology that includes both comings of Jesus Christ in the proclamation of the Gospel. It develops the concept of the “Perfect/Complete Gospel of Both Comings of Jesus Christ,” identifying it as an emphasis in both historic Christianity in general and Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in particular. And in light of Oral Roberts’ vision received in August 2004, the article concludes with an exhortation to reconsider this proclamation in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

The emergence of prophetic ministries in Botswana: self-positioning and appropriation of new media

ABSTRACTIn the past two decades or so, Botswana has witnessed a spectacular growth of prophetic Christianity and experienced a media revolution through the emerging use of new media. While studies have generally focused on either the growth of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity or the new media revolution, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of emerging prophetic ministries, entailing the appropriation of new media and how this has accelerated the development of religious practices in Botswana. In light of positioning and mediatisation theories, this paper examines the ways in which prophetic ministries position themselves and shape the religious landscape of Botswana and how prophetic ministries have adopted and appropriated the use of new media technologies. It argues that the synergy between prophetic ministries and technological developments of new media opens a new space for cultural production of religious practices and experiences as well as religious imagination, experience and identity.

Impossible Subjects: LGBTIQ Experiences in Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches

This paper is the product of in-depth interviews with 20 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ) people who identify, or formerly identified, as members of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches. Interviewees typically found themselves confronted with a number of choices (not necessarily mutually exclusive): remain closeted, come out but commit to remaining celibate, undergo “SOCE” (Sexual Orientation Conversion Efforts) therapy, or leave. Most left their churches, often after agonising attempts to reconcile their faith and their sexuality. Several of the practices adopted by Australian PCC churches exclude LGBTIQ people from full participation in their own congregations, rendering them “impossible subjects.” Australian Pentecostalism’s surprisingly egalitarian history, wherein the spiritually authorised ministry of women was both recognised and celebrated, suggests another, more inclusive way forward in regard to this vexed issue.