“Living Theology” – Everyday Life, Challenges and Resources among International Pentecostals in Stockholm
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pent.24282Keywords:
lived theology, challenges, resources, Pentecostals, migrationAbstract
This article explores challenges and resources among international Pentecostals living in the capital of Sweden. The analysis builds on fieldwork carried out in 2019 in an Arabic and an African Pentecostal church the Stockholm. Using lived religion as a theoretical tool, challenges related to the Swedish culture are explored, revealing experiences of discrimination and intolerance of both the informants’ origin and Pentecostal faith, and thereby questioning personal and religious identity. Resources among the international Pentecostals are found in the church community forming an extended family with both practical, emotional, and spiritual support, that provides meaning and purpose. Furthermore, the spiritual dimension of lived religion is highlighted as foundational for the international Pentecostals as Living theology expressed in their lives. The article contributes by a strong practice approach and by highlighting the meaning of social and cultural context for Pentecostal Christianity.
References
Ammerman Nancy T. et al. Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Live. Oxford, New York, 2007.
Ammerman, Nancy T. Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Ammerman, Nancy T. “Lived Religion as an Emerging Field: An Assessment of its Contours and Frontiers” Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 29.2 (2016): 83–99. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1890-7008-2016-02-01
Ammerman, Nancy T. “Rethinking Religion: Toward a Practice Approach”. American Journal of Sociology 126.1 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1086/709779
Ammerman, Nancy Tatom 2021. Studying Lived Religion: Contexts and Practices. New York: New York University Press
Alvarsson, Jan-Åke, Afrikanska pentekostaler i Sverige, Aschim Anders, Olva Holverlien and Helje Kringleotn Sødal (eds). Kristne migranter i Norden. Kyrkjefag Profil no. 28. Oslo: Portal forlag, 2016.
Alvarsson, Jan-Åke (ed.). Pentekostalism i Sverige på 2020-talet. Studia pentecostalia upsaliensia vol 5. Skellefteå: Artos & Norma Bokförlag, 2021.
Anderson, Allan Heaton. An Introduction to Pentecostalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Cameron, Helen, Deborah Bhatti, Catherine Duce, James Sweeney and Clara Watkins (eds). Talking about God in Practice. Theological Action Research and Practical Theology. London: SCS Press, 2010.
Cartledge, Marj J. “Pentecostal Experience: An Example of Practical Theological Rescriping” Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association 28.1 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1179/jep.2008.28.1.003
Connor, Philip. Patterns of Immigrant Religion in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. New York: New York University Press, 2014.
Eriksen, Stian S. “The Diversification of Norwegian Pentecostalism: Changing Cultures, Identities, and Theologies through Migration”. Journal of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity 43.1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1080/27691616.2023.2188897
Francis, Leslie J., and Jeff Astely. Exploring Ordinary Theology, Everyday. Christian Believing and the Church. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.
Furseth, Inger (ed.). Religious Complexity in the Public Sphere Comparing Nordic Countries. New York: Springer International Publishing AG, 2018.
Hovorun, Cyril. Meta-Ecclesiology. Chronicles on Church Awareness. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Kivisto, Peter. Migrant Faiths in North America and Western Europe. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014.
Knott, Kim. “Living Religious Practices”. In J. Saunders, E. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and S. Snyder (eds), Intersections of Religion and Migration: Religion and Global Migrations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Kubai, Anne. “Accommodation and Tension: African Christian Communities and their Swedish Hosts”. In Helena Vilaça, Enzo Pace, Inger Furseth and Per Pettersson (eds), The Changing Soul of Europe: Religion and Migrations in Northern and Southern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.
Kuhlin, Julia. Lived Pentecostalism in India: Middle Class Women and Their Everyday Religion. Uppsala: Studia Missionalia Svecana CXXV, 2022.
Kuhlin, Julia & Yonatan N. Gez (eds). Special Issue: Pentecostalism and Lived Religion. PentecoStudies 20.2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1558/pent.43392
Lundgren, Linnea. A Risk or Resource? A Study of the Swedish State’s Shifting Perception and Handling of Minority Religious Communities between 1952–2019. Stockholm: Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University Collage, 2021.
Löfstedt, Malin, and Katarina Westerlund. “Turning to Practice in Academic Theology and Religious Studies. Research Circles as an Example”. Studia Theologica – Nordic Journal of Theology 75.1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/0039338X.2021.1917158
Marsh, Charles, Peter Slade and Sarah Azaransky (eds). Lived Theology: New Perspectives on Method, Style, and Pedagogy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
McGuire, Meredith B. Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Moberg, Jessica. 2013. Intimacy, and Mobility. A Case Study of Charismatic Christianity in Present-day Stockholm. Stockholm: Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 74, 2013.
Schielke, S. and L. Debevev (eds). Ordinary Lives and Grand Schemes: An Anthropology of Everyday Religion. New York: Berghahn Books, 2012.
Sheldrake, Philip. Spirituality: A Brief History. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2013.
Smith, James K. A. 2010. Thinking in Tongues. Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
Thielman, Frank S., Theology of the New Testament. New York: Zondervan, 2005.
Timmermans, S., and I. Tavory. “Theory Construction in Qualitative Research: From Grounded Theory to Abductive Analysis”. Sociological Theory 30.3 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275112457914
Westerlund, Katarina (ed.). Internationell Pentecostalism i Storstockholm. Tre församlingar i ett förändrat religiöst landskap. CRS rapporter no. 1. Uppsala: Uppsala universitet, 2021.
Weyel, Birgit, Wilhelm Gräb, Emmanuel Lartey and Cas Wepener (eds). International Handbook of Practical Theology. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022.
Willander, Erika. The Religious Landscape of Sweden: Affinity, Affiliation and Diversity in the 21st Century. Stockholm: Swedish Agency for Support to Faith Communities (SST), 2019.
