Faith in Flux : Pentecostalism and Mobility in Rural Mozambique

Devaka Premawardhana

ISBN 10: 0812249984 / ISBN 13: 9780812249989

Edité par University Of Pennsylvania Press Apr 2018, 2018

A propos de cet article

Neuware - Pentecostalism-Africa's fastest growing form of Christianity-is known for displacing that which came before. Yet anthropologist Devaka Premawardhana witnessed neither massive growth nor dramatic rupture in the part of Mozambique where he worked. His research opens a new paradigm for the study of global Christianity, one centered on religious fluidity and existential mobility, and on how indigenous traditions remain vibrant and influential-even in the lives of converts. In Faith in Flux, Premawardhana narrates a range of everyday hardships faced by a rural Makhuwa-speaking people-snakebites and elephant invasions, chronic illnesses and recurring wars, disputes within families and conflicts with the state-to explore how wellbeing sometimes entails not stability but mobility. In their ambivalent response to Pentecostalism, as in their historical resistance to sedentarization and other modernizing projects, the Makhuwa reveal crucial insights about what it is to be human: about changing as a means of enduring, becoming as a mode of being, and converting as a way of life.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9780812249989

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Faith in Flux : Pentecostalism and Mobility in Rural Mozambique
• Éditeur: University Of Pennsylvania Press Apr 2018
• Date de parution: 2018
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0812249984
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780812249989
• Reliure: Buch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 231 L x 157 H x 23 P (en millimètres) 231 millimètres de largeur par 157 millimètres de hauteur par 23 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 499 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Anthropologist Devaka Premawardhana arrived in Africa to study the much reported "explosion" of Pentecostalism, the spread of which has indeed been massive. It is the continent's fastest growing form of Christianity and one of the world's fastest growing religious movements. Yet Premawardhana found no evidence for this in the province of Mozambique where he worked. His research suggests that much can be gained by including such places in the story of global Christianity, by shifting attention from the well-known places where Pentecostal churches flourish to the unfamiliar places where they fail.

In Faith in Flux, Premawardhana documents the ambivalence with which Pentecostalism has been received by the Makhuwa, an indigenous and historically mobile people of northern Mozambique. The Makhuwa are not averse to the newly arrived churches--many relate to them powerfully. Few, however, remain in them permanently. Pentecostalism has not firmly taken root because it is seen as one potential path among many--a pragmatic and pluralistic outlook befitting a people accustomed to life on the move.

This phenomenon parallels other historical developments, from responses to colonial and postcolonial intrusions to patterns of circular migration between rural villages and rising cities. But Premawardhana primarily attributes the religious fluidity he observed to an underlying existential mobility, an experimental disposition cultivated by the Makhuwa in their pre-Pentecostal pasts and carried by them into their post-Pentecostal futures. Faith in Flux aims not to downplay the influence of global forces on local worlds, but to recognize that such forces, "explosive" though they may be, never succeed in capturing the everyday intricacies of actual lives.

À propos de l'auteur

Devaka Premawardhana is Assistant Professor of Religion at Emory University.