Christianity Wealth And Spiritual Power In Ghana

Author : Karen Lauterbach
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319334948
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christianity, Wealth, and Spiritual Power in Ghana written by Karen Lauterbach and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-25 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book centers around mid-level charismatic pastors in Ghana. Karen Lauterbach analyzes pastorship as a pathway to becoming small “big men” and achieving status, wealth, and power in the country. The volume investigates both the social processes of becoming a pastor and the spiritual dimensions of how power and wealth are conceptualized, achieved, and legitimized in the particular context of Asante in Ghana. Lauterbach integrates her analysis of charismatic Christianity with a historically informed examination of social mobility—how people in subordinate positions seek to join up with power. She explores how the ideas and experiences surrounding the achievement of wealth and performance of power are shaped and re-shaped. In this way, the book historicizes current expressions of charismatic Christianity in Ghana while also bringing the role of religion and belief to bear on our understanding of wealth and power as they function more broadly in African societies.

Author : Paul Gifford
Publisher : C. Hurst & Co. Publishers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ghana's New Christianity written by Paul Gifford and published by C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. This book was released on 2004 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In sub-Saharan Africa over the last two decades there has been an explosion of Christianity. This book sets out to identify its particular character, focusing on a particular place: Greater Accra, the capital of Ghana. Paul Gifford examines a wide range of Accra's new churches, giving priority to mega-churches. Every dimension -- discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, conventions, finances, clientele -- is analysed. Gifford argues that this Christianity is not otherworldly: its emphasis is on success, achievement, wealth here and now. Yet within this general orientation there is diversity. At one end of the spectrum are churches that, building on the traditional religious imagination, see demonic forces everywhere blocking personal success. In the churches the key factor is the special 'man of God' who is understood to have the 'anointing' to conquer these forces, to 'reverse the curse' that is holding the believer back. At the other end is a strain of this new Christianity that discounts spiritual forces and sees victory resulting from the believer's own education and skills, and from transforming culture.The book also joins the debate over the role of this Christianity in modernizing economic and political structures. It sets the scene by describing Ghana's political and economic situation in the decades when these churches were proliferating, and outlines the current debate on the reasons for Africa's economic plight. It is argued that although focusing on success and wealth can provide motivation in circumstances where it is so easy to despair, the pervasive emphasis on miracles militates against any natural fostering of a new work ethic. As for their political role, some churches are easily co-opted; others challenge the government, but for 'spiritual' reasons that provide little incentive to grapple with issues of governance; by contrast, Gifford finds one important church encouraging change of the entire political culture. No other book has set forth the complex nature of Africa's new Christianity with such clarity, or offered such a searching analysis of its power to tackle Africa's predicament.

Author : Jane E. Soothill
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004157891
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gender, Social Change and Spiritual Power written by Jane E. Soothill and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against a backdrop of debate concerning the role of Pentecostalism as a mediator of 'modernity', this book examines the interaction between charismatic Christianity, spiritual power and gendered social change in contemporary Ghana.

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004412255
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Faith in African Lived Christianity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-09-16 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith in African Lived Christianity – Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives offers a comprehensive, empirically rich and interdisciplinary approach to the study of faith in African Christianity. The book brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people’s faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality.

Author : Andrew Eugene Barnes
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031482700
Total Pages : 694 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Christianity in Africa from Apostolic Times to the Present written by Andrew Eugene Barnes and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 694 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Charles Prempeh
Publisher : African Books Collective
ISBN 13 : 9956553905
Total Pages : 472 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana written by Charles Prempeh and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2023-09-30 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 2017, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufu announced his intention to build a national cathedral to the people of Ghana. The announcement elicited watertight counter arguments that morphed into two a priori re-litigated assumptions: First, Ghana is a secular country and second, religion and state formation are incompatible. Informed by a frustrating paradox of an overwhelming religious presence and concurrent pervasive corruption in the country, public conversation reached a cul-de-sac of “conviction without compromising.” In The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana, Charles Prempeh deploys the national cathedral as an entry point to provide both interdisciplinary and autoethnographic understanding of religion and politics. The book shows the capacity of religion, when properly cultivated and curated as a worldview to answer the why questions of life, will foster personal, moral, collective and ontological responsibility. All this is needed to stem the tide against corruption, commodity fetishism, environmental degradation (illegal mining—galamsey), heritage destruction and religious exploitation. Prempeh recuperates a historical fact about the mutual inclusivity between religion and politics—politics helping to manage differences, while religion provides a transcendental reason for unity to be forged for human flourishing. Separating the two is, therefore, ahistorical and an obvious threat to the intangible virtues that answers, “why and how” questions for public governance.

Author : Michael Wilkinson
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000871223
Total Pages : 743 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pentecostal World written by Michael Wilkinson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-04-01 with total page 743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pentecostal World provides a comprehensive and critical introduction to one of the most vibrant and diverse expressions of contemporary Christianity. Unlike many books on Pentecostalism, this collection of essays from all continents does not attempt to synthesize and simplify the movement’s inherent diversity and fragmented dispersion. Instead, the global flows of Pentecostalism are firmly grounded in local histories and expressions, as well as the various modes of their worldwide reproduction. The book thus argues for a new understanding of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements that accounts for the simultaneous processes of pluralization and homogenization in contemporary World Christianity. Written by a distinguished team of international contributors across various disciplines, the volume is comprised of six parts, with each offering a critical perspective on classical themes in the study of Pentecostalism. Led by a programmatic introduction, the thirty-six chapters within these parts explore a variety of themes: history and historiography, conversion, spirit beliefs and exorcism, prosperity, politics, gender relations, sexual identities, racism, development, migration, pilgrimage, interreligious relations, media, ecumenism, and academic research. The Pentecostal World is essential reading for students and researchers in anthropology, history, political science, religious studies, sociology, and theology. The book will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as culture studies, black studies, ethnic studies, and gender studies.

Author : Itohan Mercy Idumwonyi
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004545700
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Crashed Realities? Gender Dynamics in Nigerian Pentecostalism written by Itohan Mercy Idumwonyi and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-12-18 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crashed Realities? explores the lived realities women Pentecostals encounter in male-founded Pentecostal churches. Idumwonyi demonstrates the gender dynamics at play in Nigerian Pentecostalism by exploring the ‘drama’ that played out in the wake of the nomination of the first woman Pentecostal archbishop in Nigeria and the subsequent attempt to 'erase' her from a significant leadership position and the pages of history. This case underscores how Pentecostalism, which presents as egalitarian, engages in and perpetuates gender disparity, revealing the realities that are crashed every day. This book further explores the profound ambiguities that result from an underlying commitment to patriarchy, making the calls to inclusivity illogical. In contrast, she proposes the advantages of the Pentecost Experience as favorable background to gender inclusivity and, in turn, human flourishing.

Author : Mikael Stenhammar
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0567703479
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Worldview of the Word of Faith Movement: Eden Redeemed written by Mikael Stenhammar and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume approaches the Word of Faith as a worldview, and analyses the movement through N. T. Wright's model for worldview-analysis in order to provide necessary nuance and complexity to scholarly interpretations of the Word of Faith. The reader receives insights into the movement's narrative, semiotic, practical and propositional dimensions, which cumulatively offer a multifaceted understanding of how the Word of Faith interprets reality and engages with the world. The analysis shows that there is a narrative core to Word of Faith beliefs in the form of a unique theological story with focus set on the present restoration of Eden's authority and blessings. This study demonstrates how the Word of Faith operates as a distinct worldview that parses the world through the lens of faith's causative power to affect a direct correspondence between present reality and Eden's perfection. The findings advance a critical and therapeutic approach that acknowledges how the worldview both strengthens and subverts Pentecostalism.

Author : Harvey Kwiyani
Publisher : Missio Africanus
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wash and Pray: African Theological Discourse on COVID-19 written by Harvey Kwiyani and published by Missio Africanus. This book was released on with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Africa faced a unique set of challenges that sparked a profound spiritual response among its people. Wash and Pray: African Theological Discourse on COVID-19 delves into the heart of this response, exploring the intersections of faith, culture, history, and the pandemic that gripped the world from 2019 to 2022. The book demonstrates that for many Africans, the pandemic was not just a medical crisis but also a spiritual battle. As such, the book invites the reader to witness the historicising of the pandemic in Africa through this landmark resource for current and future generations, ensuring that the narratives of African Christianity in the face of COVID-19 and other pandemics are not lost. The chapter contributions offer diverse perspectives from Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and the UK, each contextualising the African Christian response to the pandemic. In essence, this monograph paints a rich tapestry of African theological discourse during a global crisis, ultimately affirming that faith and science, when harmonised, can lead to a resilient and thriving community.