Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity in Postcolonial Societies

by Brill

Overview

Within recent decades Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity has moved from an initially peripheral position to become a force to be reckoned with within Africa’s religious landscape. Bringing together prominent Africanist scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this book offers a comprehensive and multifaceted treatment of the ways in which Pentecostal-Charismatic movements have shaped the orientations of African Christianity and extended their influence into other spheres of post-colonial societies such as politics, developmental work and popular entertainment. Among other things, the chapters of the book show how Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity responds to social and cultural concerns of Africans, and how its growth and increasingly assertive presence in public life have facilitated new kinds of social positioning and claims to political power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004281868
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/30/2014
Series:	Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies Series , #15
Pages:	390
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Martin Lindhardt, Ph.D. (2004) is an associate professor of cultural sociology at the University of Southern Denmark. He is the author of “Power in Powerlessness. A Study of Pentecostal Life-Worlds in Urban Chile” (Brill 2012).

Table of Contents

Contributors are Allan Anderson, Richard Burgess, Jean Comaroff, Dave Garrard, Paul Gifford, Andreas Heuser, Ben Jones, William Kay, J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu , Martin Lindhardt, John F. McCauley, Katrien Pype, Jane Soothill, Ilana van Wyk.

Editorial Reviews

"(...) many contributions to this volume succeed in offering state-of-the-art surveys of particular fields in African Pentecostal studies, presenting original research, and/or opening up new analytical and conceptual perspectives." Adriaan van Klinken, University of Leeds, in: Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 46 (2016).

"Ingesammt vermitteln sie [die Autoren und Autorinnen] einen guten Überblick über gravierende Veränderungen in Afrikas christliche Szene.(...) Ingesamt gesehen illustrieren die 14 Kapitel unterschiedliche Facetten des, konfessionell gesehen, pfingst-charismatischen sowie des pfingtlichens Christentums." Moritz Fischer, in: Theologische Literaturzeitung Vol. 141 (2016).

From the Publisher