Overview

This book is about African Pentecostalism and its relationship to religious beliefs about a pervading spirit world. It argues that Pentecostalism keeps both a continuous and a discontinuous relationship in tension. Based on field research in a South African township, including qualitative interviews and focus group discussions, the study explores the context of African Pentecostalism as a whole and how it interacts with the concepts of ancestors, divination, and various types of spirit. Themes discussed include the reasons for the popularity of healing, exorcism, the “prosperity gospel,” the experience of the Holy Spirit, Spirit manifestations and practices resembling both traditional and biblical precedents, as well as scholarly discussions on African Pentecostalism from theological and social scientific disciplines. The book suggests that the focus on a spirit-filled world affects all kinds of events and explains the rapid growth of Pentecostalism outside the western world.

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9783319737294

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Reviews

“Spirit-Filled World brings an in-depth understanding of African Pentecostalism and its starting point is to appreciate the African spirit world. … Anderson succeeds in demonstrating why Africans are attracted to Pentecostalism. While global classical Pentecostalism claims total breaking with the past, Anderson is balanced to accept that the points of continuity and discontinuity are polarized, but only affirmed through the use of the Spirit to deal with the problems related to the spirit world.” (Nomatter Sande, Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association, July 29, 2020) “Anderson produces yet another important contribution to the growing body of scholarship by and about Pentecostals; his work deserves wide readership among theologians, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians of Pentecostalism.” (Martin W. Mittelstadt, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 45 (2), June, 2019)

Anderson produces yet another important contribution to the growing body of scholarship by and about Pentecostals; his work deserves wide readership among theologians, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians of Pentecostalism. (Martin W. Mittelstadt, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 45 (2), June, 2019)

Author Information

Allan Heaton Anderson is Professor of Mission and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham, England. He is author of many articles and books, including An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2014), To the Ends of the Earth (2013), and Spreading Fires (2007).

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