'Pillaging Jesus': Healing churches and the villagisation of Kinshasa
In Kinshasa thousands of prophetical churches of the Holy Spirit, particularly those in the Koongo area, fill in the ethical gap left, according to the people, by the marginalisation of traditional authority in the city, as well as the failure of civilisationist 'white' models, such as the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1996
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| In: |
Africa
Year: 1996, Volume: 66, Issue: 4, Pages: 555-586 |
| Further subjects: | B
Church
B Religious practice B Sect B Religion B Religious organization B Syncretism |
| Summary: | In Kinshasa thousands of prophetical churches of the Holy Spirit, particularly those in the Koongo area, fill in the ethical gap left, according to the people, by the marginalisation of traditional authority in the city, as well as the failure of civilisationist 'white' models, such as the collapse of public health and education sectors, and the dissolution of the State party. Confronted with economic collapse and miserable conditions in urban areas, these charismatic healing churches deconstruct the colonial and missionary heritage that 'invented Africa' in a white mirror, and the evolutionist utopia relating to modern progress. Here, in the daily request for survival, people reassert their sense of criticism and community in the face of the fragments of state and tribal structures as well as their desire for moral integrity and sharing. And, above all, in this process of villagisation, healing churches recycle as symbolic capital the so-called forces of western imperialism, and particularly those which come from written material and electronics: the Bible, money, television, and satellite communication. (Africa/DÜI, gekürzt) |
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| ISSN: | 0001-9720 |
| Contains: | In: Africa
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