African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism & the Rise of Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement

by David Maxwell

Overview

This book considers the rise of born-again Christianity in Africa through a study of one of the most dynamic Pentecostal movements. David Maxwell traces the transformation of the prophet Ezekiel Guti and his prayer band from small beginnings in the townships of the 1950s into the present-day transnational business enterprise, which is now the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God. Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa claims one and a half million members in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa and has branches in other African countries, Europe, and the United States. African Gifts of the Spirit illuminates Africa’s relations with American Christianities, black and white.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821417379
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	02/12/2007
Edition description:	1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

David Maxwell, past editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa, is senior lecturer at the University of Keele.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Photographs & Tables     ix
List of Abbreviations     xi
Place Names     xii
Acknowledgements     xiii
Introduction     1
Print, Post & Proselytism in the Making of Global Pentecostalism     17
Missions & Independency: The Southern African Pentecostal Movement ca. 1908-1950     38
Sects & the City: Nationalism, Evangelism & Respectability in the Making of The Assemblies of God, African 1950s-1970     60
'Pooma Satani' Chasing out the Demons of Sin, Sickness & Poverty: Church Growth in the Decade of National Liberation 1970-1980     88
'A Sleeping Giant': Religious Globalisation, History & Identity in the 1980s     109
Managing Ministry: Mission, Money & Memorialisation 1990s-2000s     133
Taking up the Missionary Mantle: Transnational Expansion in a Post-Colonial world 1980s-2000s     163
'Priests for our Families' Poverty, Prosperity & Pentecostal Spirituality in Neo-Liberal Zimbabwe     184
Conclusion     212
Sources & References     227
Index     245

Editorial Reviews

This is a pathbreaking major work tracing the tangled roots of a significant religious movement in Zimbabwe and beyond. . . . Richly documented, it explores the relation between social rupture of conversion, and links changes to the movement to historical events from the Great Depression to the rise of independence, and the impact of neo-liberalism. It is a required read.”
—David Martin, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics


“The combination of history with fascinating participatory material makes the book the best and most illuminating account ever written of an African initiated church . . . a very important book and a remarkable work of scholarship.”
—Terrence Ranger, Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford


“Few books on African Christianity match its scope and intellectual rigor. It will define the field of Pentecostal Studies for years to come.”
—Harri Englund, University of Cambridge

From the Publisher