After an explosion of conversions to Pentecostalism over the past three decades, tens of millions of Nigerians now claim that “Jesus is the answer.” But if Jesus is the answer, what is the question? What led to the movement’s dramatic rise and how can we make sense of its social and political significance? In this ambitiously interdisciplinary study, Ruth Marshall draws on years of fieldwork and grapples with a host of important thinkers—including Foucault, Agamben, Arendt, and Benjamin—to answer these questions. To account for the movement’s success, Marshall explores how Pentecostalism presents the experience of being born again as a chance for Nigerians to realize the promises of political and religious salvation made during the colonial and postcolonial eras. Her astute analysis of this religious trend sheds light on Nigeria’s contemporary politics, postcolonial statecraft, and the everyday struggles of ordinary citizens coping with poverty, corruption, and inequality. Pentecostalism’s rise is truly global, and Political Spiritualities persuasively argues that Nigeria is a key case in this phenomenon while calling for new ways of thinking about the place of religion in contemporary politics.

In the Days of Caesar is a constructive political theology formulated in sustained dialogue with the Pentecostal and charismatic renewal one of the most vibrant religious movements at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Amos Yong here argues that the many tongues, practices, and gifts of renewal Christianity offer up new resources for thinking about how Christian community can engage and transform the social, political, and economic structures of the world. Yong has three goals here. First he seeks to correct stereotypes of Pentecostalism, both political and theological. Secondly he aims to provoke Pentecostals to reflect theologically from out of the depths of their own Pentecostalism rather than merely to adopt some framework for theological or political self-understanding. Finally Yong shows that a distinctively Pentecostal form of theological reflection is not a parochial activity but has constructive potential to illuminate Christian belief and practice. This book s engagement with political theology from a Pentecostal perspective is the first of its kind.

The last decade has witnessed fundamental shifts in the relationship between religion and politics. In this light, religious symbols, motifs, justifications, and practices are increasingly noticeable in political discourses, as well as agendas, particularly in the Global South, with Pentecostal Christians standing out as salient actors. Performative practices enacted in political contexts such as the anointing of state authorities, prophecies, warfare prayers, etc. have drawn the attention of numerous scholars worldwide. The four surveys contained in this volume account for these developments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and synoptically engage with the following question: Can any meaningful nexus connecting multiple and apparently isolated nodes of Pentecostal engagement in the political sphere around the globe be identified? In addition, they do the groundwork for drawing parallels on a global level, on the basis of which new light can be shed on fundamental changes in Pentecostal actorhood and self-understanding. Thus, local developments and ethnographic studies are for the first time reflected upon from a global perspective.

Today over forty million Latin Americans classify themselves as Protestant, of which the overwhelming majority belong to some form of Pentecostalism. The rapid dissemination of Pentecostal beliefs has produced vibrant alternatives to traditional dominant culture and changed relations within the family, locality, and workplace. This volume introduces broad issues in the Pentecostal movement, including gender relations, political power and organization, and inter-Pentecostal and ecumenical relations. These themes are then examined more specifically in the country case studies, which address the historical foundations of the Pentecostal movement, patterns of and explanation for its growth, and the consequences of its expanding presence, including increased political influence.

As the epicenter of Christianity has shifted towards Africa in recent decades, Pentecostalism has emerged as a particularly vibrant presence on the continent. This collection of essays offers a groundbreaking study of the complex links between politics and African Pentecostalism. Situated at the intersection between the political, the postcolonial, and global neoliberal capitalism, contributors examine the roots of the Pentecostal movement’s extraordinary growth; how Pentecostalism intervenes in key social and political issues, such as citizenship, party politics, development challenges, and identity; and conversely, how politics in Africa modulate the Pentecostal movement. Pentecostalism and Politics in Africa offers a wide-ranging picture of a central dimension of postcolonial African life, opening up new directions for future research.

This book argues that Christians have a stake in the sustainability and success of core cultural values of the West in general and America in particular. Steven M. Studebaker considers Western and American decline from a theological and, specifically, Pentecostal perspective. The volume proposes and develops a Pentecostal political theology that can be used to address and reframe Christian political identity in the United States. Studebaker asserts that American Christians are currently not properly engaged in preventing America’s decline or halting the shifts in its core values. The problem, he suggests, is that American Christianity not only gives little thought to the state of the nation beyond a handful of moral issues like abortion, but its popular political theologies lead Christians to think of themselves more as aliens than as citizens. This book posits that the proposed Pentecostal political theology would help American Christians view themselves as citizens and better recognize their stake in the renewal of their nation. The foundation of this proposed political theology is a pneumatological narrative of renewal—a biblical narrative of the Spirit that begins with creation, proceeds through Incarnation and Pentecost, and culminates in the new creation and everlasting kingdom of God. This narrative provides the foundation for a political theology that speaks to the issues of Christian political identity and encourages Christian political participation.

This book investigates the life and leadership of Lewi Pethrus, a monumental figure in Swedish and international Pentecostalism. Joel Halldorf describes Pethrus’ role in the emergence of Pentecostalism in Sweden, the ideals and practices of Swedish Pentecostalism, and the movement’s turn to professional party politics. When Pentecostals in the USA ventured into politics, they became allied with the Republican party, and later Donald Trump. The Swedish Pentecostals took another route: while culturally conservative, they embraced the progressive economic politics of the Social Democratic party. During the 2010s, they have also rejected the nationalism of the growing populist movement. Halldorf analyzes and explains these differences between Swedish evangelicals and Pentecostals on the one hand, and the Religious Right in the USA on the other.