Pentecostal Charismatic Churches Research Articles

Glossolalia and Church Identity: The Role of Sound in the Making of a Chinese Pentecostal-charismatic Church

靈言與教會認同：聲音在塑造一個中國五旬節-靈恩基督教派 中所扮演的角色 摘要 靈言或說靈言是五旬節-靈恩基督教的主要特徵之一。有些語言學者卻認為靈言在音韻學上不符合邏輯，在語意學上也無意義，因此無法成為有效的溝通媒介。正統基督教則因為說靈言在儀式上有失莊重或根本打亂教會秩序而嗤之以鼻。本文不同意這樣的觀點，主張說靈言在形塑一個五旬節-靈恩基督教會的認同上，扮演相當關鍵的角色。靈言的聲音對於圈外人可能聽覺上感到刺耳，但對於信仰者而言聽來卻具撫慰與和諧特質，功能在賦予說靈言者一種特別的存在模式，也將他們整合成一個同質性的群體。為論證此一觀點，本文在理論方面擷取 Lawrence E. Sullivan 有關「聲音」與「語言」互為對比的說法，也採用 Alfred Schütz 所提「調入」與「內在時間」的見解。為說明起見，本文以真耶穌教會的靈言現象作為具體實例。

Charismatic and Pentecostal Social Orientations in Nigeria

This article identifies two responses to social challenge by charismatic Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. I argue that churches taking a centripetal position are either socially passive or they collude with corrupt leaders and groups who undermine efforts toward political, social and human improvement; yet, in their engagement with society they offer spiritual solutions to myriad social and political problems. Conversely, churches taking a centrifugal approach try to confront political and social problems, but these churches are relatively few and located primarily in Lagos, although they are growing in influence. I conclude that charismatic Pentecostalism in Nigeria currently is shifting from strictly spiritual solutions to sociopolitical problems to an emphasis on meeting social needs in practical ways.

Modern/charismatic Pentecostalism as a form of 'religious' secularisation in Africa

This paper argues that although Pentecostalism seems to be reviving Christianity in Africa, judging by the number of people attracted to this brand of Christianity, there is an extent to which its practices and beliefs are secular. Perhaps it is this ‘secularisation’ that remains a pull factor of this kind of Christianity. To do so, the paper begins with a brief review of the secularisation theory, reaching a conclusion that secularisation involves people’s concern with proximate (this worldly) issues rather than ultimate (post-mortem) issues. With this understanding of secularisation, the paper then discusses beliefs and practices of charismatic Pentecostal churches that this author believes make Pentecostalism a form of ‘religious’ secularisation. The focus will specifically be on Zimbabwean charismatic Pentecostal leaders’ discourses of wealth and health.

A “religious revolution”? Print media, sexuality, and religious discourse in Uganda

Recently, Uganda has made international headlines for the controversial Anti-homosexuality Bill and for a set of tight measures that have limited the freedom of sexual minorities. This article argues that Uganda's growth of Pentecostal-charismatic churches (PCCs) is playing a major role in influencing and defining the Ugandan public sphere, including (but not limited to) the ways in which sex and sexuality are conceptualized by and within Uganda's print media. This article suggests that the socially conservative nature of PCCs is highly influential in shaping the way print media write about sex and sexuality. This is because Pentecostal-charismatic (PC) constituencies constitute a considerable numerical market that print media cannot ignore. Second, PCs actively work toward influencing and shaping public policies, politics, and public spaces, like newspapers, that discuss and address public morality and decency in the country. As this article will show, within a highly “Pentecostalized” public sphere, alternative public discourses on sexuality are not allowed.

Sociogenèse des Églises pentecôtistes africaines en France

Despite the growing interest in Pentecostalism in a migratory context, studies on Charismatic Pentecostal Churches in France remain minimal. However, on account of sub-Saharan migrations, notably of Congolese, these Churches have grown significantly over the last three decades. This growth forms part of the restructuring of French Protestantism and, more generally, of the globalization of the contemporary world. This article adopts a historiographic and sociographic rather than ethnographic perspective. The author reviews the processes that led to the formation of these Churches in France during the 1980s by means of a joint analysis of the roles played by the Congolese migrations, which served as a crucible for the identity politics of these Churches, and by an Indian minister, whose influence and connection to the faith gospel networks have contributed to the internationalization of the French migrant context.

THE ROLE OF PROPHECY IN THE GROWTH AND EXPANSION OF THE SYNAGOGUE CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS

This article examines the role of prophecy in the growth and expansion of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Nigeria. The article argues that the Church in Africa is growing in leaps and bounds – unprecedented in the history of Christianity since its introduction in the 19 th century. This growth and development, however, is taking place mainly in the New Religious Movements particularly the Pentecostal-charismatic Churches because of their emphasis on the prophetic ministry of the Church characterised by performance of healing miracles and predicting the future. A good example is the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) of Prophet TB Joshua. Taking this as a case study, the article argues that Prophet Joshua’s success and that of his church is found in the fact that they have taken the message of the prophets very seriously and that the modus operandi and modus vivendi of Joshua and SCOAN are reminiscent of the prophetic traditions of Elijah and Elisha in ancient Israel.

Singleness, Sexuality, and the Dream of Marriage

Abstract In contemporary South Africa the nuclear family, made up of a husband and wife with two or three children living in a suburban area, is considered a social ideal and symbol of social and economic success. In Pentecostal Charismatic Churches the nuclear family is also held up as a symbol of success and as a sign of spiritual favour and blessing. Yet many young professional women who are members of Pentecostal Charismatic Churches struggle to find suitable husbands and marry. This paper examines why these women encounter these difficulties and how the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches in this study are opening up new social spaces in which singleness is an acceptable social state. In so doing the paper shows the complex relationship between weddings, sexuality, and economics in the life of young upwardly mobile Pentecostal Charismatic Christians.

Professional Women in South African Pentecostal Charismatic Churches

Professional Women in South African Pentecostal Charismatic Churches

Lip-synch gospel: Christian music and the ethnopoetics of identity in Kenya

In recent years there has been an outpouring of Kenyan scholarship on the ways popular musicians engage with politics in the public sphere. With respect to the rise in the 1990s and 2000s of gospel music – whose politics are more pietistic than activist – this article challenges how to ‘understand’ the politics of gospel music taken from a small speech community, in this case the Meru. In observing street performances of a new style of preaching, ‘lip-synch’ gospel, I offer ethnographic readings of song lyrics to show that Meru's gospel singers can address moral debates not readily aired in mainline and Pentecostal-Charismatic churches. Critical of hypocrisy in the church and engaging with a wider politics of belonging and identity, Meru gospel singers weave localized ethnopoetics into their Christian music, with the effect that their politics effectively remain concealed within Meru and invisible to the national public sphere. While contesting the perceived corruption, sin and hypocrisy in everyday sociality, such Meru gospel singer groups cannot rightly be considered a local ‘counter-public’ because they still work their politics in the shadows of the churches.

Lip-synch Gospel: Christian Music and the Ethnopoetics of Identity in Kenya

In recent years there has been an outpouring of Kenyan scholarship on the ways popular musicians engage with politics in the public sphere. With respect to the rise in the 1990s and 2000s of gospel music – whose politics are more pietistic than activist – this article challenges how to ‘understand’ the politics of gospel music taken from a small speech community, in this case the Meru. In observing street performances of a new style of preaching, ‘lip-synch’ gospel, I offer ethnographic readings of song lyrics to show that Meru's gospel singers can address moral debates not readily aired in mainline and Pentecostal-Charismatic churches. Critical of hypocrisy in the church and engaging with a wider politics of belonging and identity, Meru gospel singers weave localized ethnopoetics into their Christian music, with the effect that their politics effectively remain concealed within Meru and invisible to the national public sphere. While contesting the perceived corruption, sin and hypocrisy in everyday sociality, such Meru gospel singer groups cannot rightly be considered a local ‘counter-public’ because they still work their politics in the shadows of the churches.

The Missionary Self-Perception of Pentecostal Charismatic Church Leaders from the Global South in Europe

The Missionary Self-Perception of Pentecostal Charismatic Church Leaders from the Global South in Europe

“There Is a Spirit in that Image”: Mass-Produced Jesus Pictures and Protestant-Pentecostal Animation in Ghana

In southern Ghana, where I have been conducting research on the genesis of popular Christianity for almost twenty years, Christian imagery is everywhere. The Ghanaian state re-adopted a democratic constitution in 1992, and this was followed by a liberalization and commercialization of mass media, which in turn facilitated the spread of Pentecostalism in the public sphere (see De Witte 2008; Gifford 2004; Meyer 2004a). Within this process, Christian pictures have become ubiquitous. Pentecostal-charismatic churches assert their public presence and power via television, radio, posters, and stickers, and there has also emerged a new public culture rife with Christian imagery. This visual and aural expansion of Christianity and its particular aesthetic severely challenges what is being called African Traditional religion, and clashes with initiatives developed by the state and intellectuals to secure a national heritage.

Pentecostalism and Neo-Liberal Capitalism: Faith, Prosperity and Vision in African Pentecostal- Charismatic Churches

Focusing on the phenomenal popularity of Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches (PCCs) in Africa, this article addresses the apparent consonance between the rise of this type of Christianity and the spread of neo-liberal capitalism. It is argued that Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic can serve as a source of inspiration for grasping this phenomenon, but should not be employed as a blue print because this would blind us to certain aspects of PCCs that markedly digress from Weber’s model. A plea is made for investigating central features of PCCs—the emphasis on Born Again faith in miracles, the promise of Prosperity, and the entanglement of media with the message—so as to gain insight in their enmeshment with capitalism, as well as into the internal limitations and contradictions implied by this.

We need to open up the country: development and the Christian key scenario in the social space of Kinshasa's teleserials

This article discusses discourses on development in the social space of Kinshasa's post-Mobutu teleserials. The producers (dramatic artists and born-again Christian leaders; some are both) contend that their work will transform society, counter the social and political crisis and improve the nation in various ways. Pentecostalist Christianity meets the genre of the melodrama in the way the teleserials focus on the individual's spiritual development. This article argues that the fictive representation of witchcraft relates to a Pentecostalist diagnosis of the crisis and that the narrative unfolding of the teleserials points towards the cultural key scenario asserted by Pentecostal-charismatic churches.

We need to open up the country: development and the Christian key scenario in the social space of Kinshasa's teleserials

This article discusses discourses on development in the social space of Kinshasa's post-Mobutu teleserials. The producers (dramatic artists and born-again Christian leaders; some are both) contend that their work will transform society, counter the social and political crisis and improve the nation in various ways. Pentecostalist Christianity meets the genre of the melodrama in the way the teleserials focus on the individual's spiritual development. This article argues that the fictive representation of witchcraft relates to a Pentecostalist diagnosis of the crisis and that the narrative unfolding of the teleserials points towards the cultural key scenario asserted by Pentecostal-charismatic churches.

Accra's Sounds and Sacred Spaces

AbstractThis article explores the sonic sacralization of urban space in the multicultural city of Accra. In Ghanaian cities today religious groups increasingly vie for public presence. It is especially the religious manifestation in the urban soundscape, most forcefully by charismatic‐Pentecostal churches and preachers, that has of late generated controversy. While charismatic‐Pentecostal ‘noisemaking’ leads to conflicts all year round, it is especially during the annual traditional ‘ban on drumming and noisemaking’ that the religious confrontation over sound and silence in the city comes to full and violent expression. Approaching the articulation between religiosity and urban space through the aural, this article examines how religious sound practices create, occupy and compete for urban space. Comparing the nexus of religion, urban space and aurality in charismatic Pentecostalism and Ga traditional religion, it seeks to establish two points. First, that behind the apparent opposition between Pentecostalism and traditional religion is a difference in religious spatiality, but a remarkable similarity in the place of sound in relation to the spiritual. Second, it argues that the religious clash over sonic sacralization of urban space should not only be understood as a competition for symbolic control of spaces, but also as a spiritual struggle over the invisible, but all the more affective powers felt to be present in the city.RésuméCet article s’intéresse à la sacralisation sonore de l’espace urbain dans la cité multiculturelle d’Accra. Dans les villes ghanéennes, les groupes religieux rivalisent aujourd’hui de plus en plus pour gagner en présence publique. La dimension sonore des manifestations religieuses, particulièrement énergique de la part des églises et pasteurs pentecôtistes charismatiques, a récemment suscité une controverse. Alors que la “génération de bruit” pentecôtiste charismatique crée des différends tout au long de l’année, c’est surtout pendant l’interdiction annuelle traditionnelle sur les tambours et le bruit que l’affrontement religieux relatif au “son et silence” s’exprime pleinement et violemment dans la ville. Abordant l’articulation entre religiosité et espace urbain à travers la dimension auditive, cet article examine comment les pratiques sonores religieuses créent, occupent et luttent pour l’espace urbain. Deux points sont dégagés en comparant le lien entre religion, espace urbain et nature auditive dans le Pentecôtisme charismatique et la religion traditionnelle Ga : en premier lieu, derrière l’apparente opposition entre le Pentecôtisme et la religion traditionnelle, on trouve une différence de spatialité religieuse, mais une étonnante similitude dans l’importance du son par rapport au spirituel en second lieu, le désaccord religieux concernant la sacralisation sonore de l’espace urbain ne devrait pas être appréhendé uniquement comme une rivalité en vue d’un contrôle symbolique des espaces, mais aussi comme une lutte spirituelle contre les puissances invisibles, et d’autant plus affectives, perçues dans la ville.

Powerful Pictures: Popular Christian Aesthetics in Southern Ghana

If images are life-forms, and objects are the body they animate, then media are the habitats or ecosystems in which pictures become alive. (Mitchell 2005: 198) Situated in an approach of religion in Africa that stresses the need to move beyond essentializing oppositions of Africa and the West, this article focuses on the Christian popular culture that has emerged in Ghana in the aftermath of democratization, enabling the unprecedented public presence of Christianity, in particular Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches, in the public sphere. Analysis of this Christian popular culture compels us to acknowledge the relevance of the material dimension of the Christian imagination, and, in so doing, to address the genesis of a Christian environment with powerful pictures that involve people into a particular religious aesthetics. My key concern is to show how Christian pictures, though thriving through modern possibilities of reproduction, ultimately refuse to appear as mere representations and tend to retain the somewhat excessive potential to partially merge with the divine—and above all satanic—power which they depict, calling for adequate action.

Religious revelation, secrecy and the limits of visual representation

This article seeks to contribute to a more adequate understanding of the adoption of modern audiovisual mass media by contemporary religious groups. It does so by examining Pentecostal-charismatic churches as well as the Christian mass culture instigated by its popularity, and so-called traditional religion in Ghana, which develop markedly different attitudes towards audiovisual mass media and assume different positions in the public sphere. Taking into account the complicated entanglement of traditional religion and Pentecostalism, approaching both religions from a perspective of mediation which regards media as intrinsic to religion, and seeking to avoid the pitfall of overestimating the power of modern mass media to determine the world, this article seeks to move beyond an unproductive recurrence to oppositions such as tradition and modernity, or religion and technology. It is argued that instead of taking as a point of departure more or less set ideas about the nexus of vision and modernity, the adoption of new mass media by religious groups needs to be analyzed by a detailed ethnographic investigation of how these new media transform existing practices of religious mediation. Special emphasis is placed on the tension between the possibilities of gaining public presence through new media, and the difficulty in authorizing these media, and the experiences they induce, as authentic.

Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches

▪ 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.

ALTAR MEDIA'S LIVING WORD : TELEVISED CHARISMATIC CHRISTIANITY IN GHANA

AbstractIn many parts of Africa, charismatic-Pentecostal churches are increasingly and effectively making use of mass media and entering the public sphere. This article presents a case study of a popular charismatic church in Ghana and its media ministry. Building on the notion of charisma as intrinsically linking religion and media, the aim is to examine the dynamics between the supposedly fluid nature of charisma and the creation of religious subjects through a fixed format. The process of making, broadcasting and watching Living Word shows how the format of televisualisation of religious practice creates charisma, informs ways of perception, and produces new kinds of religious subjectivity and spiritual experience. Through the mass mediation of religion a new religious format emerges, which, although originating from the charismatic-Pentecostal churches, spreads far beyond and is widely appropriated as a style of worship and of being religious.