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9781107057241

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'In what is by far the most profound and wide-ranging study of one of the world's most challenging and disconcerting religious phenomena, Ilana van Wyk has produced a truly engrossing work of ethnography. In its triumphant march out of Brazil and across the globe, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God attracts millions of followers, but also puzzlement, indignation and shock for its success with methods which seem at first sight to be utterly out of keeping with contemporary cultures. This book covers the controversial aspects one by one: money, demonic possession and exorcism; unbearable family tensions amidst poverty and AIDS; and the mysteries of the church's internal dynamics. Some of the case material is deeply distressing, but the analytical fruits will be with us for a long time to come.' David Lehmann, University of Cambridge 'This excellent study not only offers a sound ethnography of the UCGK's actual pragmatics of faith and its amazing capacity to appear 'globally local' but also challenges established analytical frameworks and moves the study of global Pentecostalism to a new level. It is a truly groundbreaking work that uses the case of an exceptional church to challenge long-held assumptions in the study of religion in Africa at large.' Birgit Meyer, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands 'This book chronicles the historical process of mobility, adaptation and transformation of the UCKG in South Africa. Through a bottom-up approach, micro-level discourse, thick ethnographic description and concise elucidation of local internal dynamics, the book illumines another face of global Pentecostalism. Backtracking from grandiose macro-level assumptions about the UCKG, it grounds the Church's appeal, demographic mobility and phenomenal growth within epistemological, ontological and semiotic conditions, emphasising local impulses, agency, and symbolic and ritual repertoires of the local South African religious field.' Afe Adogame, University of Edinburgh 'Van Wyk's superb analysis of a new kind of church teems with anthropological insight. Her monograph contributes significantly to the study of Christianity in South Africa, building on classical works such as Bengt Sundkler's Bantu Priests and Prophets and Jean Comaroff's Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance.' Isak Niehaus, Brunel University

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Ilana van Wyk is a researcher at the Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

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