Search

This article examines how Pentecostal churches in Nigeria use online media to target the youth. Nigeria is now a major player in the commercialization of religion due to the sheer number of websites that promote add-on spiritual services. The promotion of Internet conversion is a major strategy in attracting the youth who are more active and comfortable on the Internet. Pentecostal consumerism became an avenue for the proliferation of religious programs and the consumption of different spiritual products on the Internet. At the same time, the lure of the global mission has also attracted the youth who have the idea (Japa syndrome) of emigrating from Nigeria to spread the gospel for economic reasons. This article intends to fill that gap in the literature by exploring how Pentecostal churches use the online media as a form of e-evangelism or e-vangelism for the youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing appropriation by Charismatic Evangelicals of Jewish narratives, rituals, and even Zionist anxieties is now evident in many parts of the globe. Drawing on two cases, one based on a Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal church and another based on an ethnographic investigation of a 'Judaizing Evangelical' community in Brazil this study interrogates to what extent we can comprehend this emerging tendency within Brazilian Charismatic Evangelicalism as a result of the spread of Anglo-American Christian Zionism. The article contends that while there are significant overlaps between Anglo-American Christian Zionism and the Zionist and Judaizing tendencies within Brazilian Charismatic Evangelicalism, it is reductionist to comprehend the Brazilian case exclusively through Anglo-American frameworks. Given the particularities of the Brazilian Charismatic evangelical context, the article points to the unique ways in which Christian Zionist tendencies are being 'glocalized' in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) is a Brazilian neo-Pentecostal megachurch. Over the past 40 years, it has established branches in over 100 countries among the economically and socially marginalised. This holds true in Australia, where congregants are disenfranchised migrants from diverse ethnic backgrounds and (former) refugees. Drawing on 2 years of ethnographic research in the UCKG's Australian headquarters, this article explores why a Brazilian church, with a seemingly disagreeable character, attracts a multicultural migrant congregation in Australia. I argue that the UCKG is attractive to these congregants because it provides a space where its followers' ethnicity is accepted; its cosmovision is easily translated to its congregation's diverse spiritual sensibilities; and it offers 'pioneering techniques' to overcome life obstacles for those on the margins of Australian society. This work contributes to scholarly literature concerning Brazilian religiosity outside of Brazil, and the role religion plays in migrant settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technologies have been accepted as one of the most significant forces of modernization. Studies have looked at the role information and communication technologies play in religion and their application in religious environments. However, the majority of these studies focused on the developed world. Few empirical studies focused on Nigeria. This study investigated the adoption and use of information and communication technologies by Pentecostal churches in Ibadan, Nigeria. The results revealed that the majority of Pentecostal churches in Ibadan have adopted and are using information and communication technologies, the main reason being to propagate the gospel. This research has been able to contribute to knowledge by bringing out their role and impact on church growth, spiritual upliftment of members and its concomitant effect on society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on over four years of ethnographic research in an Afro-Caribbean Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, this article focuses on the process of becoming a religious seeker, or what I call a God hunter, towards conversion to a Pentecostal tongue-speaking church. Becoming a God hunter requires knowing the causes that explain religious seekership, the invariable sequence of interrelated events that are part of the process. It also requires gaining insight into motives at each stage in the process where potential converts arrive at their final decision to search for a religious group. This requires moving beyond a single set of essential variables, like crisis, or providing normative explanations to the motivation to become a religious seeker. Rather, this work explains the series of steps in a sequence of events that have a long and complex story in which individuals arrive at a point of convergence and decide to embark on a religious search. This article challenges the concept of crisis, used in both old and new scholarly models, to explain why someone decides to become a religious seeker. Final attention is given to the relevancy of continued academic debates on whether active or passive forces drive these individual decisions towards seekership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the rise of faith-based emergency relief by examining the US President’s Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS (PEPFAR), a public health intervention focused on the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that the theological turn in humanitarian aid serves to amplify ongoing dynamics in the domestic politics of sub-Saharan African states, where social services have assumed the form of chronic emergency relief and religious organizations have come to play an increasingly prominent role in the provision of such services. In the context of an ongoing public health crisis, PEPFAR has institutionalized the social authority of the Pentecostal and charismatic churches, leading to a semantic confluence between the postcolonial politics of emergency and the Pentecostal/Pauline theology of kairos or event. Far from being confined to the space of foreign aid, however, the faith-based turn in humanitarianism is in keeping with ongoing reforms in domestic social policy in the United States. While on the one hand the sustained welfare programmes of the New Deal and Great Society have been dismantled in favour of a system of emergency relief, on the other hand the federal government has intensified its moral, pedagogical and punitive interventions into the lives of the poor. The wilful transfer of welfare services to overtly religious service providers has played a decisive role in this process. The article concludes with a critical appraisal of the links between African and North American Pentecostal-evangelical churches and questions the revolutionary mission ascribed to Pauline political theology in recent political theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in the person and work of the Holy Spirit in academic circles. It is even common now to find that the Holy Spirit has been elevated to a primary position in theological discussion. One of the main reasons for this move in academic circles is, I believe, the burgeoning Pentecostal Church and the spread of the Charismatic movement worldwide and across the denominations. The ‘experience’ of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians is acting as a catalyst and foundation for theological reflection, and influencing the theological agenda. In addition to this, the study of pneumatology (a theology of the Holy Spirit) is being viewed as a potentially fruitful point of departure for a theology of religions and interreligious dialogue; a topic that has increasing relevance for people of all faiths as we learn to live in pluralist societies. Moreover, there is a growing interest in many academic disciplines in the notion of ‘spirit’ as a category, which has contributed to the contemporary discussions on what it means to consider the question of the S/spirit in the theological world. A theology of the Spirit in relation to Christology yields a great number of generative ideas both for systematic theology and for church life and practice, which this article begins to explore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Christianity today is quite different from what it was a century ago. Roman Catholics, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will shape the twenty-first-century theological agenda. A new agenda needs to be scripturally based, open to vibrant, Spirit-led experience, engaged with non-Christian religions, and ecumenically fruitful. Surprising as it may sound, the writings of eighteenth-century thinker Jonathan Edwards offer an excellent point of departure. He functions as a bridge figure in four ways—between Catholics and Protestants, the Christian East and West, Charismatics and non-Charismatics, and liberals and conservatives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By limiting Gypsy Travellers' mobility, the state has restricted their subjectivities and their mobile lifestyles. In this context, Pentecostalism, an egalitarian doctrine based on the privatization of relations with God, creates new spaces for Gypsy Travellers' self-expression, and further premises for their ethnic and cultural revivalism. Through a symbolic interactionist approach, this paper argues that Gypsy Travellers obtain individual authority through religious reflexivity and performativity. It examines ethnographically the inter- and intra-personal religious conversations among believers in a Gypsy Pentecostal church in Edinburgh, UK. It shows the ways in which Gypsy Travellers use internal dialogues with God and symbolic interactions with significant others in the church as means of self-expression. God is the relational conversational partner and facilitates the believer's self-mediation. It is the symbolic interface and signifier who can delegate authority to believers or preachers. Through the process of self-mastery, the practitioners of religious reflexivity gain control over themselves and perform authority in front of others. Thus, internal dialogues and symbolic interactions become the important experiential domains of a complex dramaturgy of Gypsy believers' struggles for individual and collective authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay maintains that women within the Pentecostal tradition are being socialized to languish rather than flourish. Through an examination of the parallel stories of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Catherine Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, the study explores the "call narrative" of the Pentecostal female minister and the accompanying need for affirmation from the community. The essay explores this narrative within the context of the ecclesial community and its failure to create an environment where women may flourish. This failure on the Church's part has contributed to its own languishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the Pentecostal movement emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, its emphasis on the restoration of apostolic Christianity, including Spirit-inspired prophecy, provided a rationale for women ministers. Yet this position did not change the common belief that women and men are ontologically different, and thus have different ministerial functions. This article uses the testimony of a female evangelist in the Church of God to explore these positions and the particular ways the Church of God discussed women ministers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every day more believers leave the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, covered with shame and debts. The “theology of prosperity” is not infallible and the most fervent faithful can end up broke without God having, as promised, rewarded their generous donations. For these disillusioned believers, there is nothing left. There is no social security or institution to turn to for compensation. Their financial contributions, which were supposed to be “spontaneous”, have long since left Brazil to feed the accounts of the Mother-Church or to fund other opaque investments. In the micro-world of Cape Verde, these numerous deserters quickly make the tour of the islands and find no shortage of listeners. It is thus not surprising that this “demand” saw the development, three years ago, of a Church that specifically aims to “restore” the faith of these so-called “victims” of the Neo-Pentecostal and, by extension, Evangelical system: the “Restoration Temple”. To this end, the American-based Church bases its discourse on similarity and opposition: the cult is identical to the Universal Church in its emotionalism and theatricality and its striving towards “liberation”, but it is built on a virulent criticism of its theology of prosperity and its exclusiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article takes up the topic of culpability by asking why so many religious converts today are opting for morally strict faiths that are centered around lists of well-defined rules to be followed and that dwell on the consequences of failing to follow them. It answers this question by first reviewing the canonical Western philosophical distinction between deontological and consequentialist approaches to ethics. It then goes on to argue that these types of ethical system thrive in different kinds of social settings. Consequentialism only works as a guide to action in settings in which stability makes outcomes predictable. Deontological ethics, by contrast, is particularly suited to situations in which the future is unpredictable. I argue that globalization has led many people in the world to find themselves living in this latter kind of situation at present. This is why they find religions focused on deontological ethical ideas appealing. I support this argument with material both on Pentecostal and Islamic religious movements. In the conclusion, I suggest that anthropology has also in recent years taken on a deontological cast, and I question whether this is the best way forward for the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southwest Uganda, many people who suffer from devastating war experiences become born-again Christians. This article describes the therapeutic functions of the churches and the experiential transformations associated with becoming born-again. The discourse of the born-again churches gives people another orientation toward the future, based on the Bible, that also provides them with a different perception of the past. 'Whereas people remain silent about their war experiences in everday life, the churches offer their members a public space to express their suffering. In these churches, feelings of trust and solidarity are restored. Many aspects of the churches' activities can also be found in western trauma therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author deals with the following thesis: salvation goods are governed not only by the exchange economy, but also by the gift economy. They have less to do with the logic of social action aimed at profitable returns and more to do with the non-utilitarian aspects of behaviour. The salvation goods have features that cast serious doubts on the hypothesis that they are basically governed by market forces. On the basis of these considerations, the author attempts to verify whether a sociological approach to liturgy of a charismatic performance might be able to discover how salvation gift or goods work. Two case studies have been selected: the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the Catholic Neo-Pentecostal movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostalism placed miracles at the centre of its theology as a key element of its evangelization activities. Catholicism, on the other hand, has always tried to control all declarations of divine demonstrations. Miraculous appearances and recoveries have been more and more systematically subjected to slow and rigorous procedures of verification. The Pentecostals see God as an external force which manifests itself on earth to drive out the evil which invades it. All believers have the right to be free from evil, and nobody should have to accept pain meekly. But the Catholic pilgrims we studied do not share these Pentecostal convictions. God acts from inside, not by delivering them but by supporting them in their daily tests. Physical recovery is rare and not very sought after so it takes second place to spiritual recovery which is accessible to everyone. It seems to us that these two types of representation place believers in very divergent frames of mind giving rise, in one group or the other, to hopes that correspond to the group's capacity to produce miracles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now nearly 90 years old, Latin American Pentecostalism has become a mass phenomenon. Academic interest in religion, previously focused on progressive Catholicism, has turned to the Pentecostals. Pentecostalism has become a new form of popular religiosity and has an uneasy relationship with parts of academia, which is reflected in academic work. After presenting its main characteristics, the author surveys some key controversies: the extent of foreign influence; explanations for growth; the contrasting fortunes of Pentecostal churches and base communities; the role of the media; implications for women and for indigenous peoples; economic effects; and the aptness of characterizing Latin American Pentecostalism as "Protestant". He reminds readers of the importance of including Brazil in research because of its richness in autochthonous processes which may emerge later in other parts of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to shed light on the linguistic techniques at work in accounts of divine healing in a Brazilian Pentecostal Church of the "third wave": the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. The principal part of the text is devoted to speech analysis. Based upon a study of these techniques, it is possible to formulate the hypothesis that the discourse of "divine healing" constructs a universe of verisimilitude inaugurated in a pre-accomplished rupture. This rupture results from a mirroring relationship between conversion and healing, a relationship proper to the functioning of theological discourse. But the discourse of divine healing is also a discursive machine succeeding through the incessant repetition of the same transformational account, as well as by its mode of absorption of scientific (biomedical) language. One may conclude that in adopting a singular syntax based on simplification, "phagocytation" and sudden rupture, the Pentecostal believer participates in the construction of a universe which will demand his obedience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our contemporary socio-religious context, where Christian and non-Christian religions offer a wide and varied range of options, newly founded Pentecostal churches--like "Universal Kingdom", "God Is Love" and others--occupy a prominent position. The continued growth in their membership arouses feelings of astonishment and concern among Catholics and Protestants alike. In contrast, not so long ago, joy and enthusiasm seized "Universal Kingdom" members, when called upon to fill the great Maracana Stadium in Rio. The sociological interpretation of these churches (mostly younger but one older), that we carry out here is merely an attempt to respond to the following question: how is one to understand a capitalistic society, tending towards socioeconomic expansion, based on technical-scientific rationality, but comfortably accommodating magico-religious expressions whose world view distances that society radically from capitalistic rationality? Clarification of this problem pivots on the central concept of world visions. Initially, we are dealing with a notion taken from Max Weber, but displaced to the level of relations between classes and the positions they occupy in the structure of capitalist society. These steps have led us to see the interaction between the pentecostal and the profane vision of society, that is, the ideology of the dominant class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which examined the social attitudes of liberal and conservative Catholic Pentecostals. Dissimilarity in social attitudes does not correlate with dissimilarity in the traditional beliefs and practices of Catholicism. Both liberals and conservatives are genuinely and equally charismatic in those religious elements that are said to be characteristic of Catholic Pentecostals. At this level of religiosity we find that every body in both categories has experienced the initial step of repentance for sins and a feeling of divine forgiveness. All of them also read and meditate upon the sacred scriptures regularly. All report the privilege of having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. One unimportant difference is that the liberals appear to have closer relations with their pastor and parish than is the case with the conservatives. For whatever reason, the liberals are more likely than the conservatives to say that they are currently active in parochial groups other than the Pentecostal prayer meetings. The liberals are also more likely than the conservatives to belong to a prayer group that holds its meetings in their home parish. There are certain notions prevalent among Catholic Pentecostals that are generally not held by conventional Catholics. One is unwilling to suggest that these beliefs represent heretical tendencies in the renewal movement, but one finds such beliefs common to lower-class Protestant Pentecostals.