Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity Research Articles

Practicing the Faith: The Ritual Life of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians by Martin Lindhardt, ed.

Practicing the Faith: The Ritual Life of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians by Martin Lindhardt, ed.

The Emerging Field of World Christianity: A Renewal Reading of the Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity

The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (CDC) is a major publishing event.1 The following highlights its major achievements, assesses its coverage of topics related to Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity, and then explores the implications of this burgeoning global movement for the study of Christianity as a world religious tradition. My thesis is that such a reading of the CDC both highlights the various ways in which it contributes to the establishment of and illuminates world Christianity as a field of study on the one hand, but also puts in relief the shifting dynamics relating the world Christian movement with the new field of renewal studies on the other hand.

Holy Praiseco: Negotiating Sacred and Popular Music and Dance in African Pentecostalism

AbstractIn post-colonial Africa, Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity has slowly emerged as an influential shaper of culture and identity through its use of music, media, and dance. This article gives an overview of the transitions that have occurred in African politics, identity awareness, and culture, especially as it relates to the indigenous village public and it’s interface with the external Western public, and how the emergent cultural public has become the most influential player in shaping the African moral universe. Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity has navigated the shift from a missionary-driven avoidance of indigenous music and dance to the incorporation of indigenous elements, leading in turn to the popularization of Pentecostal music and dance that blends indigenous forms and concepts, Christian symbolism, and popular cultural expressions. The resulting forms have not only shaped Christianity, but also the surrounding culture and its political environment.

Novo nascimento cristão: uma nova identidade? Conversão, etnicidade e cidadania na Indonésia

O rápido crescimento do cristianismo pentecostal-carismático na Ásia e a participação da população etnicamente chinesa nesse crescimento levantam a questão sobre em que medida a adesão a essa crença tem se tornado parte de uma identidade étnica chinesa. No contexto de uma discussão mais ampla sobre o apelo global do cristianismo carismático, o presente artigo foca a situação da Indonésia, um país em que a maioria da população é muçulmana. O objetivo desse estudo é revelar a maneira pela qual os chineses "cristãos nascidos de novo" dão sentido a suas experiências de conversão.

Experiencing Transcendence: Filipino Conversion Narratives and the Localization of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity

In contrast to functionalist explanations for the spread of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, this article discursively analyzes conversion narratives to understand the localization of a global cultural phenomenon. The narratives were drawn from interviews, conducted in 2005, with members of the El Shaddai and Jesus-is-Lord movements. Approached from the perspective of critical realism, the narratives embody a diversity of plots, creative tensions, and distinctively Filipino elements that speak of a reconstituted self and a new engagement with society. They reveal the informants grappling with the question of God’s existence, which finds resolution in individualized experiences of transcendence that generate and infuse local meanings to Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity.

Experiencing Transcendence: Filipino Conversion Narratives and the Localization of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity

In contrast to functionalist explanations for the spread of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, this article discursively analyzes conversion narratives to understand the localization of a global cultural phenomenon. The narratives were drawn from interviews, conducted in 2005, with members of the El Shaddai and Jesus-is-Lord movements. Approached from the perspective of critical realism, the narratives embody a diversity of plots, creative tensions, and distinctively Filipino elements that speak of a reconstituted self and a new engagement with society. They reveal the informants grappling with the question of God’s existence, which finds resolution in individualized experiences of transcendence that generate and infuse local meanings to Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity.

World Bank & Heavenly Bank in Poverty & Prosperity: The Case of Tanzanian Faith Gospel1

This article discusses the articulation of religious rhetoric with neoliberal principles of the market economy in Tanzania, looking specifically at Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity. Religion is interpreted here as a reflection of and model for a lived reality. On the one hand, a lived reality generates and shapes religious beliefs and ideas. On the other, religious beliefs and ideas inform the ways that economic circumstances are perceived, interpreted and acted upon in specific social and historical contexts. This is a discussion of charismatic Christian perceptions and of the perceived spiritual and economic changes in Tanzania ahead of the general election of 2005. These Biblical allegories, as well as the gospel of prosperity, are brought together through an account of the activities of one particular charismatic ministry. The rhetoric and logic of prosperity through giving are discussed within the anthropological notion of gift exchange as well as with some born-again understandings of the significance of offerings to God as a means to prosperity and accumulation. This paper draws upon research that was conducted in Tanzania in 2003 and 2004 and funded by the Nordic Africa Institute. An earlier version was presented in a panel organized by Paul Gifford at the AEGIS conference in London 2005.

Religious Remediations

This article addresses the interface of video-films and Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Ghana. This interface, it is argued, needs to be examined from a position that transcends the confines of film studies and religious studies and leaves behind a secularist perspective on the relationship between religion and film. On the basis of detailed ethnographic research, it is shown that, far from standing apart from the realm of religious beliefs, video-films call upon audio-visual technologies so as to remediate Pentecostal views of the invisible world around which Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity evolves. Video-films invoke a “techno-religious realism” that addresses spectators in such a way that they authorize video representations as authentic. Transcending facile oppositions of technology and belief, media and authenticity, and entertainment and religion, video-films are shown to achieve immediacy and authenticity not at the expense of, but thanks to, media technologies and practices of remediation.

The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity

▪ 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, the review examines how P/c culture at once preserves its distinctness from the cultures into which it comes into contact and engages those cultures on their own terms. Also discussed are the conceptions that allow P/c to establish locally run and supported institutions in a wide range of settings. A final section considers the nature of the culture P/c, in its homogenizing guise, introduces, examining that culture's relation to modernity and its effects on converts' ideas about gender, politics, and economics.