CPCS

SPIRIT IN THE WORLD: Research Themes in African Pentecostalism

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:47:46 +0000

I will concentrate on research themes in African Pentecostalism. As happened with the study of African Instituted Churches, theory has outstripped and stunned historical data. Discourses on modernity and globalism based on limited data from urban manifestations of the movement have skewed the representation of African Pentecostalism. Tourist scholars have drawn large conclusions and profiles from minimal data-the type of scholarship and research method that could hardly pass muster in the western world. The first focus of research will be a call for a ceasefire so as to catalyze ground-zero retrieval of historical data. This could be done by broad regions: West, East, Southern, Central, Maghrib and Horn of Africa. Second, language has been a barrier. The charismatic flares in non-Anglophone contexts have received less attention. In each region, a fuller coverage should be encouraged.

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Africa’s Inculturation Theology: Observations of an Outsider

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:46:45 +0000

Abstract: The existence of ‘African theology’ is no longer a subject of debate. This article reviews the content and perspectives of African theologians, particularly those from East Africa. It examines the positions of these theologians on issues of culture, modernity and the public sphere. On the whole, it recognises a certain romanticisation of the African past and an unconvincing dismissal of some positive contributions of modernity to the African civilisation.

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New Research Project

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:45:13 +0000

A monumental work, which inter alia, looks at the origins, development, and impact of the Church of Pentecost (the largest Protestant Church in Ghana with a membership of over 1 million) with particular reference to the Ghanaian scene. Aspects of the study will include the examination of the first, second, third and fourth generation leaders, to the development of the Church with particular reference to the Church’s theology, liturgy, and etheos, exploring continuity and discontinuity, if any. A related interest will be the examination of the contribution of the Church to the Ghanaian/African Christianity.

A project commissioned by the 1998-2008 Executive of the Church.

Ongoing Research

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:43:16 +0000

Book Title: KEPT BY THE POWER OF CHRIST

Colossians, Pentecostalism and the Deliverance Discourse in African Christianity.

Preamble

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the global Christian demography indicated that eighty-three percent of the world’s Christians were located in Europe (including Russia) and North America. Africa accounted for less that two percent.1 Today, however, available data indicated that the center of gravity of Christianity has shifted in favor of

the continents located in the Southern Hemisphere (Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific). If contemporary demographic trends will continue, African Christians will indeed overturn the table and transform Christianity permanently into a primarily non-Western religion.2 This means that African Christianity, According to Andrew Walls,

must be regarded as potentially the representative Christianity of the twenty-first century. The Christianity typical of this century will thus, be shaped by the events and processes that take place in the Southern continents, particularly Africa. The things by which people will recognize and judge the Christian faith, for ill or for good, will

therefore, increasingly be those prominent in Africa.3

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SELECTED AFRICAN PENTECOSTAL BIBLIOGRAPH

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:35:32 +0000

- ACHUNIKE, Hilary, “Catholic Charismatic Movement in Igboland,1970-1995” PhD Thesis, Department of

Religion, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2001

- ADEOGUN,Ebenezer O., A Transplant of the Vine: Forty Years of Foursquare History in Nigeria (Lagos:

Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, 1999).

- ADOGAME,Afe, “Locating Religion in the Context of African Migration” Religion in the Context of

African Migration eds. Afe Adogame and Cordula Weisskoeppel (Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies

Series,no.752005)

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Selected Publications on Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, AICs and related topics

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:25:53 +0000

· 2008 Afe Adogame, Roswith Gerloff and Klaus Hock (eds.) Christianity in Africa

and the Africa Diaspora: The Appropriation of a Scattered Heritage. London and

New York: Continuum (354pp.)

· 2008 Afe Adogame, Magnus Echtler and Ulf Vierke (eds.), Unpacking the New:

Critical Perspectives on Cultural Syncretization in African and Beyond. Wien and

Berlin Münster: Lit Verlag (384pp.)

· 2008. “Globalization and African New Religious Movements in Europe” in Ogbu

Kalu & Alaine Low (eds) Interpreting Contemporary Christianity: Global Processes

and Local Identities, Grand Rapids, Michigan & Cambridge: Eerdmans, pp. 296-

316.

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