PentecoStudies

Religious Return Mobility in Pentecostalized Kenya

2021-10-28T21:38:06+00:00

Based on extensive fieldwork in urban Kenya, this paper grapples with one thematic question and one conceptual question. On the thematic side, it considers the under-explored countertrend of Kenyans who, having turned to Pentecostalism, eventually return to their former, mainline-Protestant or Catholic denomination. Such reverting raises questions concerning personal attachments, social contexts and pressures, and the unidirectionality of born-again conversions. On the conceptual side, the paper frames this phenomenon using the notion of “return religious mobility”, which I propose is best suited to the lived-religion approach. More broadly, the paper emphasizes the ongoing relevance of people’s often-invisible religious histories, raising methodological and epistemological questions that go not only beyond formal membership binarism but also beyond the presentist bias as reflected through exclusive attention to de facto practice.

Together with God

2020-11-21T15:23:56+00:00

Indian Pentecostalism has been considered a religion of the poor and low caste since its inception in the beginning of the twentieth century. However, over recent decades, middle-class Pentecostalism has established itself as an integral part of the Indian Pentecostal movement. Proceeding from a lived religion perspective, this article explores how women in middle-class churches express and practice their religion in their everyday lives. More precisely, it focuses on four defining features of the women’s lived religion (following God’s plan, tending to the relationship with God, overcoming everyday challenges, and transforming the self). An argument that will run through the article is that the women’s way of “doing religion” is contingent upon what they experience as the actions of God, an agentic interplay that I conceptualize as “collateral agency”. The study is based on six-month-long fieldwork in the North Indian city Gururgam, including, among other things, interviews with 30 women in two middle-class Pentecostal churches.

The Contextual Significance of Clothes and Jewellery

2021-01-13T21:27:14+00:00

This article examines the significance of clothes and jewellery among Pentecostal middle-class women in Bangalore, South India. It discusses how they position themselves in relation to a religiously diverse context through their dress. Ways of dressing constitute embodied practices that express religious identity. Moreover, the issue of dress also demonstrates individual Pentecostal laywomen's agency in negotiating official church discourse, as well as the strong connections between lived religion and religious institutions. The methods used in the study are participant observations and qualitative semi-structured interviews with ordinary Pentecostals from two churches. Attitudes and practices relating to dress differ drastically between these two churches, thereby highlighting differences between the two types of South Indian Pentecostalism that they represent. The article illustrates how a focus on gender, embodiment and materiality can draw attention to previously overlooked dimensions of Pentecostalism as lived religion.

Everyday Migrant Pentecostalism

2021-03-22T13:21:58+00:00

This article looks at migrant Pentecostalism in Norway and how a lived religion approach can help study how Pentecostal migrants’ personal and communal everyday lives intersect with religion. Based on a study of a cross-section of Pentecostal migrant congregations in Norway, the article focuses on how Pentecostal transnational networks and local migrant congregations provide key theological frameworks for interpreting migratory trajectories, life challenges, and faith experiences. More concretely, I ask what differences the migratory context plays for the understanding and practice of religion for Pentecostal migrants in Norway. As a part of this, attention is given to everyday contexts of migrant and their faith communities as well as how lived forms of religion can challenge and broaden our understanding of how and where (migrant) religion is practised today. I also ask how we need theological perspectives to understand these migrant contexts from a lived religion perspective. By mending perspectives from lived religion and lived theology, I ask how migrant theologies can relate and contribute to religious and societal challenges relative to migration. More generally, these perspectives can help nuance our understanding of what constitutes migrant Norwegian and European Pentecostalism today and shed contextual light on religion’s role in understanding migration.

Editorial

2021-10-28T13:27:01+00:00

ARTMAN, Amy Collier. The Miracle Lady: Kathryn Kuhlman and the Transformation of Charismatic Christianity.

2021-10-28T22:33:25+00:00

ARTMAN, Amy Collier. The Miracle Lady: Kathryn Kuhlman and the Transformation of Charismatic Christianity. Library of Religious Biography Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2019. 244pp. Pbk. ISBN: 978-0-8028-7670-6. $28.

CARTLEDGE, Mark J., Sarah DUNLOP, Heather BUCKINGHAM and Sophie BREMNER. Megachurches and Social Engagement: Public Theology in Practice.

2021-10-28T22:36:25+00:00

CARTLEDGE, Mark J., Sarah DUNLOP, Heather BUCKINGHAM and Sophie BREMNER. Megachurches and Social Engagement: Public Theology in Practice. Leiden: Brill, 2019. 400p. Pbk. ISBN: 9789004402645. $80.

MITTELSTADT, Martin W. and Caleb H. COURTNEY (eds). Canadian Pentecostal Reader: The First Generation of Pentecostal Voices in Canada (1907–1925).

2021-10-28T22:39:51+00:00

MITTELSTADT, Martin W. and Caleb H. COURTNEY (eds). Canadian Pentecostal Reader: The First Generation of Pentecostal Voices in Canada (1907– 1925). Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2021. 507pp. Pbk. ISBN: 978-1-953358-08-0. £19.10.

STUDEBAKER, Steven M. The Spirit of Atonement: Pentecostal Contributions and Challenges to the Christian Traditions.

2021-10-28T22:43:33+00:00

STUDEBAKER, Steven M. The Spirit of Atonement: Pentecostal Contributions and Challenges to the Christian Traditions. London: T&T Clark, 2021. 224pp. Hbk. ISBN: 9780567682369. £81.00.

YONG, Amos. Renewing the Church by the Spirit: Theological Education after Pentecost.

2021-10-28T22:47:16+00:00

YONG, Amos. Renewing the Church by the Spirit: Theological Education after Pentecost. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020. 151pp. Pbk. ISBN: 978-0-8028- 7840-3. £15.00.

Guest Editorial

2021-10-28T21:28:12+00:00