Spirit on the Move: Black Women and Pentecostalism in Africa and the Diaspora (Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478000325 ISBN 13: 9781478000327

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2019

Synopsis

Pentecostalism is currently the fastest-growing Christian movement, with hundreds of millions of followers. This growth overwhelmingly takes place outside of the West, and women make up 75 percent of the membership. The contributors to Spirit on the Move examine Pentecostalism's appeal to black women worldwide and the ways it provides them with a source of community and access to power. Exploring a range of topics, from Neo-Pentecostal churches in Ghana that help women challenge gender norms to evangelical gospel musicians in Brazil, the contributors show how Pentecostalism helps black women draw attention to and seek remediation from the violence and injustices brought on by civil war, capitalist exploitation, racism, and the failures of the state. In fleshing out the experiences, theologies, and innovations of black women Pentecostals, the contributors show how Pentecostal belief and its various practices reflect the movement's complexity, reach, and adaptability to specific cultural and political formations.

Contributors. Paula Aymer, John Burdick, Judith Casselberry, Deidre Helen Crumbley, Elizabeth McAlister, Laura Premack, Elizabeth A. Pritchard, Jane Soothill, Linda van de Kamp

About this title

About the Author

Judith Casselberry is Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College and author of The Labor of Faith: Gender and Power in Black Apostolic Pentecostalism, also published by Duke University Press.

Elizabeth A. Pritchard is Associate Professor of Religion at Bowdoin College and author of Religion in Public: Locke's Political Theology.

Review

“This groundbreaking collection of essays offers readers a much-needed and richly nuanced look into the lives and communities of the women behind one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the world. It is a must-read for scholars of religion and those more broadly interested in the social impact of Pentecostal faith.” (Marla Frederick, author of Colored Television: American Religion Gone Global)

“Spirit on the Move proceeds at the intersection of Pentecostal and black feminist studies with important philosophical debate bearing on religious experience in a global world. It argues that Pentecostalism’s appeal to black women worldwide consists in its being the medium through which they engage forms of power at once intimate and embodied and embedded in nation-states and their interrelations. The focus is firmly on the ability of these Pentecostalists to become ‘masters of the meanings’ and thereby to move beyond diasporic lives that are merely liminal or nostalgic. The individual chapters augment the argument and provide new insights into modern subjectivities honed by struggle and informed by spirit. Quite simply one of the most insightful treatments I have read.” (Diane J. Austin-Broos, author of Jamaica Genesis: Religion and the Politics of Moral Orders)

Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1478000325
• ISBN 13: 9781478000327
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Casselberry Judith, Pritchard Elizabeth A.