The Personal is Political:Pentecostal Approaches to Governance and Security

In this essay, I explore Pentecostal approaches to governance and security, taking an anthropological approach. I focus on Pentecostalism as a distinctive way of looking at and being in the world, one that understands the family as central in its approach governance and security. I highlight the paradox between Pentecostalism’s strong orientation towards individual and family moral conduct and practices of female leadership in Pentecostal contexts. I conclude with some broader reflections on the implications for diplomacy and other practitioners of foreign policy

Los expertos en religión y la producción de un conocimiento (religioso) (1)

This article discusses how religion (religious ideas, knowledge and practices) is one of the most successful exportation products of contemporary Nigeria. This situation refl ects some religious innovations that try to grapple with the social, cultural, economic and political realities of the times. In the last three decades of the twentieth century, there was an upsurge of religious consciousness and a proliferation of religious groups and worship places among all religious traditions within the country. This article analyses this phenomenon in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, rccg, of Nigeria, pointing out a new religious setting, the emergence and expansion of a ¿new culture of God and doing religion¿. It is an expansion of the local religious fi eld. This new setting is characterized by plurality, competition and contest for power and resources.El presente artículo discute cómo la religión, en tanto ideas, conocimiento y prácticas religiosas, es actualmente uno de los principales productos de exportación de la Nigeria contemporánea. Esta situación refleja innovaciones religiosas que intentan sortear las realidades sociales, culturales, económicas y políticas de su tiempo. Durante las tres últimas décadas del siglo xx, ha habido un resurgimiento de la conciencia religiosa y una proliferación de los grupos religiosos y los lugares de culto en todas las tradiciones religiosas del país. El trabajo se enfoca en el análisis de este problema en la Redimida Iglesia Cristiana de Dios de Nigeria, para ilustrar este nuevo escenario de donde surge y se expande una ¿nueva cultura de Dios¿ y ¿otra forma de hacer religión¿, partiendo de lo local; un escenario plural y mercantil, caracterizado por una competencia y lucha por el poder y los recursos

Los expertos en religión y la producción de un conocimiento (religioso) (1)

This article discusses how religion (religious ideas, knowledge and practices) is one of the most successful exportation products of contemporary Nigeria. This situation refl ects some religious innovations that try to grapple with the social, cultural, economic and political realities of the times. In the last three decades of the twentieth century, there was an upsurge of religious consciousness and a proliferation of religious groups and worship places among all religious traditions within the country. This article analyses this phenomenon in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, rccg, of Nigeria, pointing out a new religious setting, the emergence and expansion of a ¿new culture of God and doing religion¿. It is an expansion of the local religious fi eld. This new setting is characterized by plurality, competition and contest for power and resources.El presente artículo discute cómo la religión, en tanto ideas, conocimiento y prácticas religiosas, es actualmente uno de los principales productos de exportación de la Nigeria contemporánea. Esta situación refleja innovaciones religiosas que intentan sortear las realidades sociales, culturales, económicas y políticas de su tiempo. Durante las tres últimas décadas del siglo xx, ha habido un resurgimiento de la conciencia religiosa y una proliferación de los grupos religiosos y los lugares de culto en todas las tradiciones religiosas del país. El trabajo se enfoca en el análisis de este problema en la Redimida Iglesia Cristiana de Dios de Nigeria, para ilustrar este nuevo escenario de donde surge y se expande una ¿nueva cultura de Dios¿ y ¿otra forma de hacer religión¿, partiendo de lo local; un escenario plural y mercantil, caracterizado por una competencia y lucha por el poder y los recursos

‘Everything is plastic’: the faith of unity movement and the making of a post-catholic religion in Uganda

One of David Chidester’s long-term fascinations in the academic study of religion is his nuanced scrutiny of the sensorial features of contemporary religious life. Chidester uses an approach of multi-sensorial imagination of matter to investigate the plasticity and elasticity of religion to innovate and accommodate changing religious and spiritual desires and how such adaptions ensure the popularity of religious participation in a contemporary, technologysaturated society. Based on an ethnographic investigation of a new religious movement in Uganda, this essay mobilizes some of the analytical concepts developed by Chidester to think through the material dynamics of African religious life in the context of changing socio-economic, cultural, and political contexts of Africa.Keywords: David Chidester, Owobusobozi, Faith of Unity, post-Catholic, material religion, African religio

Globalisation of Pentecostalism in Africa: evidence from the Redeemed Christian church of God (Rccg), Nigeria

The préoccupation with the globalisation discourse in recent times has often over- looked events in Africa as marginal to broad processes of global transformations. Africa is seen as a continent with a ‘recipient culture’, with little to contribute to the rest of the world. The turmoil that gripped Africa in the last three decades of the twentieth century brought with it socio-cultural changes. One aspect of these changes for many societies of non-Muslim Africa was the emergence of Pentecostalism as one of the most dynamic movements as well as a formidable force of change. In Nigeria this brand of religious participation is altering not just the way individuals reconstruct their self-understanding; it is also changing the social and economic practices of groups and corporate organisations. Using the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which is arguably the largest and fastest growing pentecostal church in Nigeria, as a case study this paper describes the différent ways in which the pentecostal movement in Africa has embraced global change as well as become a vector of change for the wider African society and beyond