A Pentecostal Modernity? Response to Charles Taylor’s “A Catholic Modernity?” | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online
2004
Volume 75, Issue 3/4
  • ISSN: 2542-6583
  • E-ISSN: 2590-3268

Abstract

Abstract

There are somewhere between 200 million and 600 million Pentecostal/ Charismatic Christians in the world today. Most of them live in the “majority world,” and two thirds are women. Pentecostals are proud of being modern and frequently boast of it. Yet “Pentecostal modernity” is not a straightforward clone of the intellectual and political history of Europe and the North Atlantic. It contains paradoxical elements that can be plausibly interpreted as evidence of purposefully moral selectiveness by Pentecostals among the items in the “modern” cultural program. They in effect help to “heal the wounds of modernity.” This account of Pentecostal modernity also seeks to show that in two particular respects Pentecostal modernity might be considered a “correction” of Charles Taylor’s western model of modernity: in regarding human flourishing as sanctioned; and in retaining a porous model of the self, vertically open to possession by the Spirit or by forces of evil, and horizontally open by retaining some “dividual” characteristics of embeddedness with others.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/NTT2021.3/4.003.MART
2021-09-01
2024-03-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/25426583/75/3/4/NTT2021.34.003.MART.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5117/NTT2021.3/4.003.MART&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Assmann, Aleida. Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Austin-Broos, Diane J.Jamaica Genesis: Religion and the Politics of Moral Orders. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1967.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Becker, Felicitas. “Fashioning Selves and Fashioning Styles: Negotiating the Personal and the Rhetorical in the Experiences of African Recipients of ARV Treatment.” In Religion and AIDS Treatment in Africa: Saving Souls, Prolonging Lives, edited by Rijkvan Dijk et al., 27-48. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Boyd, Linda. Preaching Prevention: Born-Again Christianity and the Moral Politics of AIDS in Uganda. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2015.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bruce, Steve. Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Brusco, Elizabeth E.. The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Colombia. Austin TX: University of Texas Press, 1995.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Brusco, Elizabeth E.. “Gender and Power.” In Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, edited by AllanAnderson, MichaelBergunder, AndréDroogers and Cornelisvan der Laan, 74-92. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Cabrita, Joel.Text and Authority in the South African Nazaretha Church. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Colorado, Carlos D., and Justin D.Klassen, eds. Aspiring to Fullness in a Secular Age: Essays on Religion and Theology in the Work of Charles Taylor. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Comaroff, Jean, and John L.Comaroff, eds. Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Comaroff, Jean, “Pentecostalism, ‘Post-secularism’ and the Politics of Affect in Africa and Beyond.” In Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity, edited by MartinLindhardt, 220-47. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Dilger, Hansjörg. “Healing the Wounds of Modernity: Salvation, Community and Care in a Neo-Pentecostal Church in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania,”Journal of Religion in Africa37, no.1 (2007): 59-83.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Eisenstadt, Shmuel Noah. “Multiple Modernities,”Daedalus129, no.1 (2000): 1-29.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Elisha, Omri. “Personhood: Sin, Sociality, and the Unbuffered Self in US Evangelicalism.” In The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, edited by SimonColeman and RosalindHackett, 41-56. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Engelke, Matthew. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Freeman, Dena. “Development and the Rural Entrepreneur: Pentecostals, NGOs and the Market in the Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia.” In Pentecostalism and Development: Churches, NGOs and Social Change in Africa, edited by DenaFreeman, 159-80. London and New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2012.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Freston, Paul. “Pentecostals in Latin America: Compromise or Prophetic Witness?.” In Spirit and Power: The Growth and Global Impact of Pentecostalism, edited by DonaldE. Miller, KimonH. Sargeant and RichardFlory, 101-18. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge, Vol. 1. New York: Pantheon, 1978.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: The Use of Pleasure, Vol. 2. New York: Pantheon, 1985.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: The Care of the Self, Vol. 3. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Foucault, Michel. The Birth of Bio-politics: Lectures at the Collège de France 1978-1979. New York: Picador, 2008.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Hefner, Robert W.“Introduction.” In Global Pentecostalism in the 21st Century, edited by RobertW. Hefner, 1-36. Bloomington IN: University Indiana Press, 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Klaits, Frederick. Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana’s Time of AIDS. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Lindhardt, Martin. “More than Just Money: the Faith Gospel and Occult Economies in Contemporary Tanzania,”Nova Religio13, no.1 (2009): 41-67.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Lindhardt, Martin. “When God Interferes: Ritual, Empowerment and Divine Presence in Chilean Pentecostalism.” In Practicing the Faith: The Ritual Life of Pentecostal- Charismatic Christians, edited by MartinLindhardt, 220-248. New York: Berghahn, 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Lindhardt, Martin. Power in Powerlessness: A Study of Pentecostal Life Worlds in Urban Chile. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Lindhardt, Martin, ed. New Waysof Being Pentecostal in Latin America. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Mannathukkarem, Nissim.“Postcolonialism and Modernity: A Critical Realist Critique,”Journal of Critical Realism9, no. 3 (2010): 299-327 (published online 21April, 2015).
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Marriott, McKim. “Interpreting Indian Society: A Monistic Alternative to Dumont’s Dualism,”Journal of Asian Studies36, no. 1 (1976): 189-95.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Marshall, Ruth. Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Martin, Bernice. “The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: A Cautionary Tale for the Sociology of Religion.” In The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, edited by RichardK. Fenn, 52-66. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Martin, Bernice. “Latin American Pentecostalism: The Ideological Background.” In Pentecostal Power: Expressions, Impact and Faith of Latin American Pentecostalism, edited by CalvinL. Smith, 85-110. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Martin, Bernice. “Tensions and Trends in Pentecostal Gender and Family Relations.” In Global Pentecostalism in the 21st Century, edited by RobertW. Hefner, 115-148. Bloomington, IN: University Indiana Press, 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Martin, David. “Pentecostalism: An Alternative Form of Modernity and Modernization.” In Global Pentecostalism in the 21st Century, edited by RobertW. Hefner, 37-62. Bloomington IN: University Indiana Press, 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Martin, David. Religion and Power: No Logos without Mythos. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Martin, David. Ruin and Restoration: On Violence, Liturgy and Reconciliation. London: Routledge, 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Martin, David. Secularisation, Pentecostalism and Violence: Receptions, Rediscoveries and Rebuttals in the Sociology of Religion. London: Routledge, 2017.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Martin, David. “Pointing to Transcendence: Reflections from an Anglican Context,”NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion75, no. 3/4 (October2021): 310-336.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Meyer, Birgit. Translating the Devil: Religion and Modernity among the Ewe in Ghana. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Meyer, Birgit. “Pentecostalism and Neo-Liberal Capitalism: Faith, Prosperity and Vision in African Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches,”Journal for the Study of Religion20, no. 2 (2007): 5-28.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Meyer, Birgit. “Aesthetics of Persuasion: Pentecostalism’s Sensational Forms,”. In “Global Christianity, Global Critique.” Special Issue, South Atlantic Quarterly109, no.4 (2010), 741-763.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Meyer, Birgit, and AnneliesMoors, eds. Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Peterson, Jordan B.12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. London: Penguin, 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Mishra, Pankaj. Age of Anger: A History of the Present. London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 2017.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. O’Neill, Kevin Lewis. City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. O’Neill, Kevin Lewis. Secure the Soul: Christian Piety and Gang Prevention in Guatemala. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2015.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Prickett, Stephen. Secret Selves: A History of Our Inner Space. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Seligman, Adam B., and RobertP. Weller. Rethinking Pluralism: Ritual, Experience and Ambiguity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Shah, Rebecca Samuel, and TimothySamuel Shah. “Pentecost amid Pujas: Charismatic Christianity and Dalit Women in Twenty-First Century India.” In Global Pentecostalism in the 21st Century, edited by RobertW. Hefner, 194-222. Bloomington, IN: University Indiana Press, 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Soothill, Jane E. Gender. Social Change and Spiritual Power: Charismatic Christianity in Ghana. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Strathern, Marilyn. The Gender Gift. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Taylor, Charles. The Malaise of Modernity. CBC Massey Lectures. Toronto: Anansi, 1991.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Taylor, Charles. “A Catholic Modernity?.” In ACatholic Modernity? Charles Taylor’s Marianist Award Lecture, edited by JamesL. Heft, 13-37. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Taylor, Charles. “Afterword.” In Working with A Secular Age: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Charles Taylor’s Master Narrative, edited by FlorianZemmin, ColinJager and GuidoVanheeswijck, 369-84. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Van Dijk, Rijk, HansjörgDilger, MarianBurchardt, and TheraRasing, eds. Religion and AIDS Treatment in Africa: Saving Souls, Prolonging Lives. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Van de Kamp, Linda. Violent Conversion: Brazilian Pentecostalism and Urban Women in Mozambique. Oxford: James Currey, 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Van Klinken, Adriaan S. Transforming Masculinities in African Christianity: Gender Controversies in Times of AIDS. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Van Wyk, Ilana. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in South Africa: A Church of Strangers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Wadkins, Timothy H.The Rise of Pentecostalism in Modern El Salvador: From the Blood of the Martyrs to the Baptism of the Spirit. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017.
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Wanner, Catherine. Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007.
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Werbner, Richard. Holy Hustlers, Schism and Prophecy: Apostolic Reformation in Botswana. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.5117/NTT2021.3/4.003.MART
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error