Pentecostal Churches and Capitalism in a South African Township: Towards a Communism of the Market?

With reference to two Pentecostal churches in the Kayamandi suburb of Stellenbosch, South Africa, we consider the ways in which capitalism and the Pentecostal spirit interrelate in a contemporary South Africa. We start off by acknowledging that many forms of Pentecostalism now tend to follow the par...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the study of religion
Main Author: Dubarry, Thibaut (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: ASRSA 2021
In: Journal for the study of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Stellenbosch / Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa / Pentecostal churches / Capitalism / Revival Fire Ministries Church / Market economy / Secularism / Religious ethnology
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
CB Christian life; spirituality
CH Christianity and Society
KBN Sub-Saharan Africa
KDG Free church
NBK Soteriology
Further subjects:B Apostolic Faith Mission
B Pentecostalism
B Revival Fire Ministries
B Communism
B South Africa
B Capitalism
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Summary:With reference to two Pentecostal churches in the Kayamandi suburb of Stellenbosch, South Africa, we consider the ways in which capitalism and the Pentecostal spirit interrelate in a contemporary South Africa. We start off by acknowledging that many forms of Pentecostalism now tend to follow the paradigm set by neo-Pentecostalism, and that the same might be true of our two church communities, Revival Fire Ministries, and the Apostolic Faith Mission, even if the latter is more typically regarded as part of the classical Pentecostal movement in South Africa. Then we discuss Pentecostalism and its relationship to the secular domain. We show how Pentecostalism, in contrast to traditional forms of Christianity, is par excellence involved in the immanent/horizontal affairs of believers' lives. Indeed, the market itself appears to be sacralized, implying a transfer of holiness into the secular domain. We conclude with the idea that we have observed a fourth wave of Pentecostalism, anticipating that the golden age of Gesara/Nesara may be considered as a secular faith, forming a Hegelian synthesis of the two so-called secular religions of the 20th century, capitalism and communism. We have analyzed it as an apocatastasis, meaning restoration to the original or primordial condition¹.
ISSN:2413-3027
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n2a6