Christian independency and global membership: Pentecostal extraversions in Malawi
Recent scholarship on Pentecostalism in Africa has debated issues of transnationalism, globalisation and localisation. Building on Bayart's notion of extraversion, this scholarship has highlighted Pentecostals' far-flung networks as resources in the growth and consolidation of particular m...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Print Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
2003
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In: |
Journal of religion in Africa
Year: 2003, Volume: 33, Issue: 1, Pages: 83-111 |
Further subjects: | B
Religiöse Lehre
B Malawi Religion Christliche Kirche Sect Religious organization Pentecostal churches Religiöse Praxis Identity B Church B Religious practice B Sect B Malawi B Religion B Pentecostal churches B Religious organization B Identity |
Parallel Edition: | Electronic
Non-electronic |
Summary: | Recent scholarship on Pentecostalism in Africa has debated issues of transnationalism, globalisation and localisation. Building on Bayart's notion of extraversion, this scholarship has highlighted Pentecostals' far-flung networks as resources in the growth and consolidation of particular movements and leaders. This article examines strategies of extraversion among independent Pentecostal churches. The aim is less to assess the historical validity of claims to independency than to account for its appeal as a popular idiom. The findings from fieldwork in a Malawian township show that half of the Pentecostal churches there regard themselves as "independent". Although claims to independency arise from betrayals of the Pentecostal promise of radical equality in the Holy Spirit, independency does sustain Pentecostal' desire for membership in a global community of belivers. Pentecostal independency thus provides a perspective on African engagements with the apparent marginalisation of the sub-continent in the contemporary world. (...) (J of Religion Afr/DÜI) |
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ISSN: | 0022-4200 |
Contains: | In: Journal of religion in Africa
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