Introduction Christianity and Social Change in Contemporary Africa
Main Article Content
Keywords
Christianity and: Contemporary Africa, Gender, Health and Healing, Social Media, Entrepreneurship, Inter-Religious Borrowing and Accommodation
Abstract
This introductory essay lays out the main themes of a special issue of the Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and its Diaspora. It brings together seven empirically grounded papers by African social scientists of different disciplinary backgrounds. These works explore the social impact of religious innovation and competition in present day Africa. They represent a selection from an interdisciplinary initiative that made 23 research grants for theologians and social scientists to study Christianity and social change in contemporary Africa. These articles focus on a variety of dynamics in contemporary African religion (mostly Christianity), including gender, health and healing, social media, entrepreneurship, and inter-religious borrowing and accommodation. The editors suggest that the research and learning reflected in this volume may enhance understanding of religion’s vital presence and power in contemporary Africa. The articles reveal problems as well as possibilities, notably some ethical concerns and psychological maladies that arise in some of these new movements, notably neo-Pentecostal and militant fundamentalist groups. Yet the articles do not fixate on African problems and victimization. Instead they explore sources of African creativity, resiliency and agency. Scholars of religion and religiosity in Africa, the authors argue, need to invest new conceptual and methodological energy in understanding what it means to be actively
religious in Africa today.
Article Metrics Graph
References
Bongmba, E. K., ed. (2012). The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to African Religions. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118255513
Boulaga, F. E. (1984[1981]). Christianity without Fetishes: An African Critique and Recapture of Christianity. New York: Orbis.
Carpenter, J., ed. (2012). Walking Together: Christian Thinking and Public Life in South Africa. Abilene: Abilene Christian University Press.https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv310vm6n.6
Carpenter, J. and Kooistra, N. (2014). Engaging Africa: Prospects for Project Funding in Selected Fields. Grand Rapids: Nagel Institute of Calvin College. https://calvin.edu/centersinstitutes/nagel-institute/files/Engaging%20Africa%202014.pdf Accessed 19 August 2019.
Devisch, R., (1996). '"Pillaging Jesus": Healing Churches and the Villagisation of Kinshasa.' Africa 66:4: 555-585.https://doi.org/10.2307/1160937
Echtler, M. and Ukah, A., eds. (2015). Bourdieu in Africa: Exploring the Dynamics of Religious Fields. Leiden: Brill.https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004307568
Ela, J.-M. (1986[1980]). African Cry. New York: Orbis.
Geschiere, P. and Nyamnjoh, F.B. (2000). 'Capitalism and autochthony: The seesaw of mobility and belonging'. Public Culture 12:2: 423-452.https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-12-2-423
Gifford, P. (2015). Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa. London: Hurst.https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190495732.001.0001
Gifford, P. (2009). Christianity, Politics and Public Life in Kenya. London: Hurst & Co.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230100510_8
Gifford, P. (2004). Ghana's New Christianity. Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy. London: Hurst & Company.
Hackett, R. I. J. and Soares, B. F., eds. (2015). New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University.
Hay, P. L. (2014). Negotiating Conviviality: The Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Migrant Members of the Bay Community Church in Cape Town. Bamenda: Langaa.
Haynes, N. (2017). Moving by the Spirit: Pentecostal Social Life on the Zambian Copperbelt. Oakland: California University Press.https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520294240.001.0001
Janson, M. and Meyer, B. (2016). 'Introduction: towards a framework for the study of Christian-Muslim encounters in Africa'. Africa 86:4: 615-619. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972016000553
Kalu, O. (2008). African Pentecostalism: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340006.001.0001
Kaunda, C. J. (2018). The Nation That Fears God Prospers: A Critique of Zambian Pentecostal Theopolitical Imaginations. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv47w30c
Maxwell, D. (2006). African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism and the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement. Athens: Ohio University Press / Oxford: James Currey.
Meyer, B. (2015). Sensational Movies: Video, Vision, and Christianity in Ghana. Oakland: University of California Press.
Meyer, B. and Moors, A., eds. (2006). Religion, Media and the Public Sphere. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2017). 'Incompleteness and Conviviality: A Reflection on International Research Collaboration from an African Perspective'. In African Virtues in the Pursuit of Conviviality: Exploring Local Solutions in Light of Global Prescriptions, pp. 339-378. Edited by Yntiso Gebre, Itaru Ohta and Motoji Matsuda. Bamenda: Langaa. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh9vwxv.14
Obadare, E. (2016). 'The Muslim response to the Pentecostal surge in Nigeria: Prayer and the rise of charismatic Islam'. Journal of Religious and Political Practice 2:1: Special Issue: Prayers and Politics, 75-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/20566093.2016.1085240
Olupona, J. K., ed. (2004). Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity. New York: Routledge.https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203634509
Peel, J.D.Y. (2015). Christianity, Islam, and Orisa-Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction. Oakland: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.8
Taylor, C. (2007). A Secular Age. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674044289-fm
van der Veer, P. (2016). 'Introduction', Journal of Religious and Political Practice 2:1, Special Issue: Prayers and Politics, 1-5.https://doi.org/10.1080/20566093.2016.1085233
van Wyk, I. (2014). The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Church of Strangers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107298606
Vaughan, O., (2016). Religion and the Making of Nigeria. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822373872
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.