In recent years the rapid growth of Christian charismatic movements throughout sub-Saharan Africa has drastically reconfigured the region’s religious landscape. As a result, charismatic factions play an increasingly public role throughout Africa, far beyond the religious sphere. This book uses a multi-disciplinary approach to consider the complex relationship between Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity and the socio-political transformation taking place throughout this region.
Each of this text’s three main sections helps in understanding how discourses of moral regeneration emanating from these diverse Christian communities, largely charismatic, extend beyond religious bounds. Part 1 covers politics, political elites and elections, Part 2 explores society, economies and the public sphere, and Part 3 discusses values, public beliefs and morality. These sections also highlight how these discourses contribute to the transformation of three specific social milieus to reinforce visions of the Christian citizen.
Examining contemporary examples with high quality scholarly insight, this book is vital reading for academics and students with an interest in the relationship between religion, politics and development in Africa.
Edited by:
Barbara Bompani,
Caroline Valois
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780367885038
ISBN 10: 0367885034
Pages: 204
Publication Date: 12 December 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: Christian Citizens and the Moral Regeneration of the African State, Barbara Bompani and Caroline Valois; Part 1: Regenerating Politics: Nationhood, Political Elites and the Elections; 1 ‘Good Christians, Good Citizens’. Pentecostal-charismatic narratives of citizenship, public action and national belonging in contemporary Uganda, Barbara Bompani; 2 Vox Dei, Vox Populi: Pentecostal Citizenship and Political Participation in Nigeria since 1999, Asonzeh Ukah; 3 Election Prophecies and Political Stability in Ghana, Emmanuel Sackey; 4 Democratic Backsliding, Religious Institutions and the Constitution of Citizenship in sub-Saharan Africa, Elizabeth Sheridan Sperber; Part 2: Regenerating Society: Economies and the Public Sphere; 5 Heavenly Commonwealth and Earthly Good: Contemporary African Pentecostal-charismatic Discourses on Responsible Citizenship, J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu; 6 Forging Economic Citizens: Financial Integrity and National Transformation at Watoto Church in Uganda, Caroline Valois; 7 Pentecostals and developmental citizenship in Ethiopia, Emanuele Fantini; Part 3: Regenerating Morality: Values, Public Beliefs and Morality; 8 Sexual Citizenship in Postcolonial Zambia: From Zambian Humanism to Christian Nationalism, Adriaan van Klinken; 9 ‘I will make you into a Great Nation, and I will Bless you’: Citizens, Traitors and Christianity in Kenya, Gregory Deacon; 10 Citizenship beyond the State: Pentecostal Ethics and Political Subjectivity in South African Modernity, Marian Burchardt; 11 Moral models, self-control and the production of the moral citizen in the Ugandan Pentecostal movement, Alessandro Gusman
Barbara Bompani is a Reader in Africa and International Development at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her work focuses on the intersection between religion, politics and development in Sub-Saharan Africa. For many years her research has investigated the relationship between religious organisations and their activities and socio-political action in post-apartheid South Africa. Since 2012 she has been involved in a research project that investigates the role of Pentecostal-charismatic churches in framing the public and political discourse around morality, sexuality and nationhood in Uganda. She published (with Maria Frahm-Arp) Development and Politics from Below. Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State and several peer-reviewed articles and chapters in edited volumes. Caroline Valois is a postdoctoral fellow at Stellenbosch University in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. With a PhD from the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh her research focuses on Christianity, namely Pentecostal or Charismatic movements, sexuality and public health. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals like the Journal of Eastern African Studies and Critical African Studies as well as edited volumes including Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Africa edited by Ezra Chitando and Adriaan van Klinken.
