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Faith in African Lived Christianity Faith in African Lived Christianity <UN> Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies Edited by William K. Kay (Glyndŵr University) Mark J. Cartledge (Regent University) Editorial Board Kimberly Ervin Alexander (Regent University) Allan H. Anderson (University of Birmingham) Jacqueline Grey (Alphacrucis College, Sydney) Byron D. Klaus (Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Springfield, MO) Wonsuk Ma (Oral Roberts University) Jean-Daniel Plüss (European Pentecostal/Charismatic Research Association) Cecil M. Robeck, Jr (Fuller Theological Seminary) Calvin Smith (King’s Evangelical Divinity School) volume 35 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/gpcs <UN> Faith in African Lived Christianity Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives Edited by Karen Lauterbach Mika Vähäkangas leiden | boston <UN> This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Cover illustration: Baptism in Zanzibar. Photo by Hans Olsson. Chapter 2 is a slightly adapted and expanded version of the following article: Joel Robbins, ‘World Christianity and the Reorganization of Disciplines: On the Emerging Dialogue between Anthropology and Theology.’ In: Theologically Engaged Anthropology: Social Anthropology and Theology in Conversation. Edited by J. Derrick Lemons (Oxford: Oxford Publishing Limited, 2018). ISBN 9780198797852, pp. 226–243. Reproduced with kind permission of the Oxford Publishing Limited through PLSclear. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lauterbach, Karen, editor. | Vähäkangas, Mika, editor. Title: Faith in African lived Christianity : bridging anthropological and theological perspectives / edited by William K. Kay, Glyndŵr University, Mark J. Cartledge, Regent University. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020. | Series: Global Pentecostal and charismatic studies, 1876-2247 ; volume 35 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Faith in African Lived Christianity - Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives offers a comprehensive, empirically rich and interdisciplinary approach to the study of faith in African Christianity. The book brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people’s faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019032609 (print) | LCCN 2019032610 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004398498 (paperback : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9789004412255 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Christianity--Africa. | Africa--Religious life and customs. | Experience (Religion) Classification: LCC BR1360 .F35 2020 (print) | LCC BR1360 (ebook) | DDC 276.7/083--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032609 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032610 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1876-2247 ISBN 978-90-04-39849-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-90-04-41225-5 (e-book) Copyright 2020 by the Authors. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. <UN> Contents Foreword vii Notes on Contributors viii 1 Faith in African Lived Christianity – Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives: Introduction 1 Mika Vähäkangas and Karen Lauterbach Part 1 Normativity and Positionality in Anthropology and Theology 2 World Christianity and the Reorganization of Disciplines: On the Emerging Dialogue between Anthropology and Theology 15 Joel Robbins 3 From Objects to Subjects of Religious Studies in Africa: Methodological Agnosticism and Methodological Conversion 38 Frans Wijsen 4 Liberationist Conversion and Ethnography in the Decolonial Moment: a Finnish Theologian/Ethicist Reflects in South Africa 52 Elina Hankela 5 Re-thinking the Study of Religion: Lessons from Field Studies of Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora 80 Galia Sabar Part 2 Methods and Approaches: From Anthropology to Theology and Back 6 Fakery and Wealth in African Charismatic Christianity: Moving beyond the Prosperity Gospel as Script 111 Karen Lauterbach 7 How to Respect the Religious Quasi-Other? Methodological Considerations in Studying the Kimbanguist Doctrine of Incarnation 133 Mika Vähäkangas <UN> vi Contents 8 Pentecostal Praise and Worship as a Mode of Theology 156 Martina Prosén 9 The Sounds of the Christians in Northern Nigeria: Notes on an Acoustic History of Bachama Christianity 180 Niels Kastfelt 10 What Has Kinshasa to Do with Athens? Methodological Perspectives on Theology and Social Science in Search for a Political Theology 195 Elias Kifon Bongmba Part 3 Theology in Lived Religion: Case Studies 11 African Migrant Christianities – Delocalization or Relocalization of Identities? 227 Stian Sørlie Eriksen, Tomas Sundnes Drønen and Ingrid Løland 12 Going to War: Spiritual Encounters and Pentecostals’ Drive for Exposure in Contemporary Zanzibar 249 Hans Olsson 13 The Dramatization and Embodiment of God of the Wilderness 271 Isabel Mukonyora 14 Breathing Pneumatology: Spirit, Wind, and Atmosphere in a Zulu Zionist Congregation 291 Rune Flikke 15 Gendered Narratives of Illness and Healing: Experiences of Spirit Possession in a Charismatic Church Community in Tanzania 314 Lotta Gammelin 16 Revealed Medicine as an Expression of an African Christian Lived Spirituality 335 Carl Sundberg Index 355 <UN> Foreword This book comes out of the research project “Looking for Wholeness in an En- chanted World: Healing, Prosperity and Ritual Action in African Charismatic/ Pentecostal Churches.” At the completion of a long project, one realizes that the list of organizations and people without whom it would not have been re- alized is very long. We want to extend our thankfulness to all who have helped and supported us on the way and name here only a few. This project was generously supported by the Swedish Research Council, the Lund Mission Society, the Lund University Faculty of Humanities and The- ology as well as the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (CTR). We are very grateful for the financial support as well as the CTR administrative sup- port throughout the entire project. We owe special thanks to the Prefect of the Centre, Dr. Alexander Maurits, for his continuous encouragement, flexibility and support. Additionally, Ms. Anna Kring’s administrative skills and kind spir- its have helped us to keep the project on the track. The contributors to this volume are researchers of the project, participants in the concluding conference of the project that took place in Lund in March 2016, as well as colleagues otherwise related to the project such as members of the advisory board. The conference was financially supported by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ) for which we are thoroughly thankful. Additional support was received from Lund Mission Society and in the form of teacher exchange attached to the conference from the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiq- uities (Vitterhetsakademien). Additionally, the IT-department of the faculties has generously supported us in creating websites (not least for the conference with fancy administrational functions) and posters (thank you, Mr. Marcus Lecaros!). We are deeply grateful for the support offered by Ingrid Heijckers-Velt, as- sistant editor at Brill as well as for the feedback and encouragements we have received from the editors of the book series. Much of the academic support for research and publication happens anon- ymously, and a great number of research application panel members, peer re- viewers and editors have contributed their time and energy to improve our work and to facilitate publication. Most of them remain unknown to us but that does not diminish our gratitude. <UN> Notes on Contributors Elias Kifon Bongmba holds the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Chair in Christian Theology and is Profes- sor of Religion at Rice University. He is President of the African Association for the Study of Religions. He is the author of The Dialectics of Transformation in Africa (Palgrave, 2006), which won the Frantz Fanon Prize from the Caribbean Philosophical Association. He holds an Honorary Doctorate in the Faculty of Theology at Lund University. Stian Sørlie Eriksen works
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