Spirit-Filled World: Religious Dis/Continuity in African Pentecostalism

ISBN-13: 9783319737294 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 274 str.

Allan Heaton Anderson

Opis

This book is about African Pentecostalism and its relationship to religious beliefs about a pervading spirit world.

Recenzje

"Spirit-Filled World brings an in-depth understanding of African Pentecostalism and its starting point is to appreciate the African spirit world. ... Anderson succeeds in demonstrating why Africans are attracted to Pentecostalism. While global classical Pentecostalism claims total breaking with the past, Anderson is balanced to accept that the points of continuity and discontinuity are polarized, but only affirmed through the use of the Spirit to deal with the problems related to the spirit world." (Nomatter Sande, Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association, July 29, 2020)

"Anderson produces yet another important contribution to the growing body of scholarship by and about Pentecostals; his work deserves wide readership among theologians, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians of Pentecostalism." (Martin W. Mittelstadt, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 45 (2), June, 2019)

Spis treści

PART 1: AFRICAN PENTECOSTALISM IN CONTEXT                                                                             

1.            The Spirit of Dis/continuity                                                                                                                         

Pentecostalism and the Continuity Debate

Terminology and Presuppositions

Spiritual Power and Spirituality

The Argument of this Book

2.            Pentecostalism in the Sub-Sahara                                                                                                           

Africa in the Twenty-First Century

Reasons for the Growth of African Pentecostalism

Globalization and the Religious Context

South Africa and its Pentecostalism

3.            Pentecostalism in a South African Township                                                                                       

Soshanguve and the Research Project

Pentecostalism in Soshanguve

African Popular Religion and Christian Responses

Methodological Issues and Challenges

 

PART 2: A SPIRIT-FILLED WORLD                                                                                                                               

4.            The Ambiguity of Ancestors                                                                                                                       

The Traditional Role of Ancestors

Urban Burial Rituals

Indifference or Accommodation

Confrontation with Evil Spirits

5.            Witchcraft, Spirits, and Misfortune                                                                                                          Witchcraft and Manipulation of Power

Familiars, Evil Spirits, and Demons

Witchcraft a Cause of Sickness

Christian Responses to Misfortune

                Concepts of Prosperity and Success

6.            Divination, Healing and Deliverance                                                                                                        

                Healers, Diviners, and Witchdoctors

                Christian Responses to Divination

                Symbolic Healing and Rituals of Power

                Exorcism and Deliverance

 

 

PART 3: THE SPIRIT IN A SPIRIT WORLD                                                                                                  

7.            Translating the Spirit World                                                                                                                        

African Spirits and Christianity

The Significance of Deliverance

The Southern African Debate

Responsible Syncretism

Intercultural Theology

8.            The Power of the Spirit                                                                                                                                

Power, Life-Force, and the Spirit

The Spirit’s Power in a Spirit World

Biblical Perspectives on Spirit Manifestations

Biblical Concepts of Power and the Spirit

Conclusions                                                                                                                        

O autorze

Allan Heaton Anderson is Professor of Mission and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham, England. He is author of many articles and books, including An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2014), To the Ends of the Earth (2013), and Spreading Fires (2007).

Blurb

This book is about African Pentecostalism and its relationship to religious beliefs about a pervading spirit world. It argues that Pentecostalism keeps both a continuous and a discontinuous relationship in tension. Based on field research in a South African township, including qualitative interviews and focus group discussions, the study explores the context of African Pentecostalism as a whole and how it interacts with the concepts of ancestors, divination, and various types of spirit. Themes discussed include the reasons for the popularity of healing, exorcism, the “prosperity gospel,” the experience of the Holy Spirit, Spirit manifestations and practices resembling both traditional and biblical precedents, as well as scholarly discussions on African Pentecostalism from theological and social scientific disciplines. The book suggests that the focus on a spirit-filled world affects all kinds of events and explains the rapid growth of Pentecostalism outside the western world.