Historical Epistemology and Pentecostal Origins: History and Historiography in Ethiopian Pentecostalism

This article revisits the issue of historiography in Pentecostal studies, seeking to connect this debate to recent theories of history coming from postcolonial and poststructuralist thought. I argue that the historian of Pentecostalism should seek not only to reconstruct past events, but, more than that, to offer a historical analysis of Pentecostal historiography. By drawing on four related theoretical insights into history and applying them to a concrete example from Ethiopian Pentecostalism, I aim to contribute to the epistemological reflection of Pentecostal historiography

Theorizing Pentecostal Historiography: Persecution and Historical Memory in Ethiopia

Historians of Pentecostalism are often faced with a number of problems specific to the movement, most importantly its fragmented diversity and its providential outlook. The sources they encounter therefore contain many conflicting claims to the past and miraculous assertions, which are difficult to integrate into an academic history. Creating a factual historical account from these sources, however, not only proves to be difficult or impossible in many cases, it also fails to really analyze their narrative abundance. Newer theories of history, inspired by post-colonial and post-structuralist thought, may help to bridge this dilemma, since they argue for a linguistic approach to history, which in turn makes the analysis of historiography a central point of departure for the historian. By drawing out four of these theoretical contributions and applying them to a specific example from Ethiopian Pentecostalism, the article seeks to show a way forward in the writing of Pentecostal history

Writing Religious History: The Historiography of Ethiopian Pentecostalism

The growth and spread of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity is one of the more salient features of Ethiopia’s recent religious history. However, this process has hardly been addressed by academic studies in the past. Based on original field work and archival research, Jörg Haustein presents the fi rst detailed history of Ethiopian Pentecostalism, from the first Pentecostal mission efforts and the beginnings of an indigenous movement in Imperial Ethiopia to the political constraints of the Derg time and the spread of the movement into the mainline Protestant churches. Moreover, the study seeks to explore how the fictional, political and ideological aspects of its historical sources may be positively employed in order to analyze the genesis and proliferation of religious identities. In dialog with post-structuralist theories of historiography, Haustein thereby develops a basic approach to religious history which centrally accomodates the discursive nature of historical knowledge. Writing Religious History was awarded with the Ruprecht- Karls-Preis of the University of Heidelberg (2011) and the John Templeton Award for Theological Promise (2011)

Roundtable: Pentecostalism and Development

This article revisits central questions arising from Pentecostal actors’ development practices. These were raised during the final panel discussion of the 2014 GloPent conference on “Pentecostalism and Development”. The four panel participants, all development actors from various organisational and religious backgrounds, considered whether Pentecostal approaches to development work are distinctive, as well as identifying various benefits that can be gained from the engagement of Pentecostal churches in development and some challenges that arise during collaboration between development actors and Pentecostal churches. The discussion was conducted through two rounds of statements by the panel participants, complemented by editorial comments and reflections. It concludes that neither the Pentecostal approach to development nor Pentecostal churches’ links with development actors are necessarily distinctive. However, more exchanges are needed between Pentecostal organisations and their members, development practitioners working with Pentecostal churches and scholars of the Pentecostal movement to improve development work among Pentecostals, links between Pentecostals and other development actors and scholarly awareness of the most salient issues

EPRDF's Revolutionary Democracy and Religious Plurality: Islam and Christianity in post-Derg Ethiopia

In 1991 the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) introduced policies aimed at recognizing the country’s long-standing religious diversity, providing a public arena for religious groups, and maintaining a sharp division between religion and the state. This further roded the traditionally dominant position of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, strengthened Protestant Christian and Muslim communities, and created a more flux and competitive configuration among the religious communities. Seeking to maintain its political power, the EPRDF has at the same time made efforts to monitor and control the different religious communities. Therefore, the last 20 years have been marked by uneven developments, in which the government’s accommodating attitudes have been interlaced with efforts to curtail the influence of the religious communities. This article surveys the intersection and reciprocal influences between EPRDF policies and religious communities over the last 20 years, and discusses how Muslims and Christians (Orthodox and Protestant) have negotiated their roles in relation to politics and public life. These developments have, the article argues, led to the emergence of divergent and competing narratives, reconfiguring self-understanding, political aspirations and views of the religious other. The EPRDF ideology of ‘‘revolutionary democracy’’ has, in this sense, enabled religion to surface as a force for social mobilization and as a point of reference for attempting to define nationhood in Ethiopia

Embodying the Spirit(s): Pentecostal Demonology and Deliverance Discourse in Ethiopia

The article explores Pentecostal embodiment practices and concepts with regard to Holy Spirit baptism and demon possession. The studied material is connected to a specific and highly controversial debate in Ethiopian Pentecostalism, which revolves around the possibility of demon possession in born-again and Spirit-filled Christians. This debate runs through much of Ethiopian Pentecostal history and ultimately is concerned with whether or how Christians can host conflicting spiritual forces, in light of the strong dualism between God and evil in Pentecostal cosmology. The article shows that the embodiment of spirits and/or the Holy Spirit is related to theological concepts of the self, because these concepts define what may or may not be discerned in certain bodily manifestations. Moreover, the article contends that this debate thrives on a certain ambiguity in spirit embodiment, which invites the discernment of spiritual experts and thereby becomes a resource of power