Global Renewal Christianity: Africa

Vinson Synan, Amos Yong, and J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, eds., Global Renewal Christianity: Spirit-Empowered Movements—Past, Present, and Future, Volume 3: Africa (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2016) liv+ 499 pages.

This volume focused on the Spirit in Africa is the third in a series of now four texts. Produced for the enrichment of anyone intrigued with the phenomenon of Pentecostalism, this particular collection of articles offers scholarship of substance and depth, written to inform and to critique, a text which also concomitantly highlights the agents of this spirituality on the continent of Africa. Anyone remotely familiar with African Pentecostalism will note that many of the authors selected to contribute here are authorities speaking from within the movement itself, offering their weighty insights, firsthand observations, and care-full commentaries. Alongside of them are others who complement these selections with their own observations drawn from varied vantage points. Such a collection of material is a scholar’s feast but is equally attractive to those outside of the academies of theology, missiology, and sociology. The volume is a significant addition to what has already been written about the origins, nature, and influence of Pentecostalism in Africa and is a real treasure for anyone called to a deeper understanding of this brand of spirituality as it is found today on the continent.

The other aspect of this major work that deserves attention is that the text is itself a gift from the heart of Pentecostalism to the broader academy. The idea of publishing a multi-volume project on the Pentecostal movement worldwide, a vision embraced and nurtured amongst the proponents of the E21 association (Empowered 21) of Pentecostal-Charismatics, points to the concern for documentation and conscientious self-reflection. This author gets the sense that making a clarion call to the Pentecostal academy and its friends was not just the result of a brainstorm but was an act of worship in that same sense that characterizes this spirituality as affective, embodied, and expressive. In step with the nature of the Spirit as interrelationality, the gift is not just lifted upward but outward toward the community, and at least for this author, the opportunity for exposure to Pentecostalism in Africa as shared in the pages of this book is a gift gratefully received.

Whence Pentecostalism in Africa? One of the many themes addressed within the book is the origin of Pentecostalism on the continent and then its appearance in various regions throughout. The subject is touched on for West Africa, in particular Ghana and Nigeria, but the book also features the less popular histories of Burkina Faso and Cameroon. Eye-opening reports on the beginnings of the movement in various places include Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar, among others. The consensus regarding origins is mosaic. In many contexts, Pentecostalism is better understood as a “homegrown” phenomenon where indigenous initiatives figured prominently—as in the case of Peter Anim in Ghana and Ghali Hanna in Egypt—or where neighboring African Pentecostals brought the message of Spirit renewal. Ethiopia was impacted by a Pentecostal Kenyan evangelist and Namibia was reached through South African Pentecostals. But the influence of Pentecostals who came from outside the continent is also evidenced, especially in the story of Angola (Brazilian missions figure prominently) and Botswana (American Pentecostals were key). In the case of Namibia, Pentecostal missionaries from South Africa can be traced back to the American evangelist John G. Lake.

Allan H. Anderson’s chapter on the African spiritual world makes several compelling statements that best address the question: Why Pentecostalism? Anderson points out that the African holistic understanding of life where social space is shared with a host of agents in the spiritual realm is inherently attuned to Pentecostal sensibilities. Those sensibilities are grounded in the power of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts in the church. For those living in the awareness of causal factors beyond the material world, a religion that cannot address the problem of evil, poverty, and sickness is inept. Consequently, Pentecostalism’s focus on deliverance and empowerment meets the needs of the spiritual populace. For this reason, Anderson offers, the often overlooked answer to the growth of Pentecostalism can be found in its own religiosity. The Spirit of “no-less-unusual manifestations” as recorded in the Bible is the same Spirit at work in Pentecostalism in Africa today (p. 313).

Other articles in the volume address themes that are unique to a region, issue, or to the author herself. For example, Madipoane Masenya offers her perspective as a female African scholar who navigated a heavily Westernized academy that was woefully detached from real concerns in apartheid-riddled South Africa and from the actual living faith of Pentecostals. Her contribution brings up the issue of “detached scholarship” and the problem of biblical studies that have little relevance to real life concerns, such as her marginalized status as a woman of color (p. 387, 389).

In another chapter, Clifton Clarke offers the African philosophy of ubuntu to bear upon the tension between Pentecostals and Muslims in Nigeria. Clarke remarks about the way that Pentecostalism “enlarges” the ethos of ubuntu, which is in essence a concern for “the other” that recognizes that life is a shared communal reality undergirded by respect and compassion. Clarke points to “the unifying force of the Holy Spirit” as congruent with the concept of ubuntu and with a vision for interreligious dialogue. The metaphor of Spirit unity which embraces unity in diversity can provide a fresh pneumatological impulse toward the goal of intercommunal harmony as evangelism. At the same time, Nigerian Pentecostals can posture themselves as partners with Muslims in “the dialogue of life” by emphasizing shared experiences rather than differences (pp. 345-352).

The topic of prosperity teachings on the continent is threaded throughout. Nimi Wariboko offers an insightful report on how West African Pentecostals negotiate the pressures to engage in consumerism. His term “born again shopping” refers to the spiritualizing of the shopping experience that takes place when the poor in cash but rich in faith touch or pray over items in response to their inability to purchase. Other commentaries on the “prosperity gospel” and its effects are offered by authors in reference to the contexts of Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Nigeria, and South Africa. While Harvey C. Kwiyani remarks that in the Malawian context greed is “disguised as the gospel of blessings” (p. 156), E. Kingsley Larbi reports on the prosperity teachings of David Oyedepo of Winner’s Chapel as heavily weighted with the themes of obedience, covenant relationship, hard work, and wise investing. Trad Nogueira-Godsey mentions Amos Yong among others who do not discount that positive attitudes and a more committed work ethic may result from a prosperity theology (p. 258-259).

Two more topics of interest found in this book are worth noting. The first is the “charismatization” of Roman Catholicism in Africa, and the second is the framing of African Pentecostalism as highly adaptable “liquid spirituality.” The African acceptance of the Charismatic Renewal that had already impacted Catholicism in the 1960s and 70s in North America is attributed in part to the influence of the African Independent Churches (AICs) on Roman Catholics. The AICs exemplified a brand of Christianity that incorporated native spirituality such as exorcisms, the prophetic, and healings as re-envisioned through the narratives of the Bible and superintended by the Spirit. Therefore, Charismatic Renewal became a vehicle for reviving the indigenous, holistic worldview, one which was better equipped to meet the existential needs of the populace along the lines of the AIC churches. For Nigeria, it was the initiative of Catholics who experienced baptism in the Spirit while in the U.S. that later brought the American Francis McNutt to lead conferences on Charismatic Renewal in Nigeria in 1974. Admittedly, this fresh vitality brought to Catholicism in Africa has not been unaccompanied by fresh challenges. According to Donatus Ukpong, dreams, visions, and prophetic utterances have been seen as valuable spiritual resources to Catholic Charismatics while these revitalized trends toward the spiritual dimension stand over against traditional pastoral methods (pp. 333-334).

Asonzeh Ukah presents a view of African Pentecostalism as “liquid spirituality,” a term that emphasizes the ability inherent in this movement to adapt, absorb, and rework itself in response to social context. This commentary affirms what has already been seen of Pentecostalism’s agility as a spirituality that contextualizes without difficulty in environments resonating the same biblical world of angels and demons. But Ukah observes an overarching tendency toward deregulation in matters of the Spirit where the individual concerns are raised up over those of family or community. Other features of “liquidity” are exemplified in the absorption of consumerism, the propagation of the hope of attaining the “good life,” and the perpetuation of an entrepreneurial “empire-building” spirit driving the mega-church phenomenon. As “a strong religion with a public and powerful ideology,” Ukah observes that Pentecostalism “promises customized salvation goods to both the rich and the poor, politicians and traders alike” (p. 379). This vantage point from which African Pentecostalism’s negotiations with socio-economic trends are seen should evoke concern. It seems appropriate to ask, when does liquidity become dilution? Perhaps this is where the need for a systematic Pentecostal theology becomes most apparent. This author sees Ukah’s contribution to this volume as a call to the Pentecostal movement in Africa, and worldwide for that matter, to diligent self-evaluation and even critique from within its own ranks. As is noted in other parts of the text, these critiques are already being voiced and will continue to be if the theological academy can continue to stay connected to the relevant issues and resistant to the propensity to detached scholarship already noted by Masenya.

As a closing observation, scholarship that can enlighten in regard to the contemporary Pentecostal movement in areas of North Africa besides Egypt seems to be the apparent need. It is obvious that sub-Sahara Africa is more accessible to many researchers. At the same time, the reports of activity in so many African nations give cause for optimism. In light of the vigor and fluidity of the Pentecostal movement, it is not unlikely that the stories being lived out in the northern regions today will find their way to the printed page in due time.

Reviewed by A. M. Droll

 

Preview: https://books.google.com/books?id=e_tmDAAAQBAJ

Further Reading:

Global Renewal Christianity: Asia and Oceania (Volume 1 in the series), reviewed by David Bradnick

Global Renewal Christianity: Latin America (Volume 2 in the series), reviewed by Oscar Merlo