Theo-urbanism: pastoral power and Pentecostals in Johannesburg

This article draws on Foucauldian analysis and ethnographic observations in a Pentecostal church in Johannesburg, to read how everyday urbanism is increasingly suffused with Pentecostal ‘pastoral power’. The article develops the idea of theo-urbanism to capture the inscription of religious, and spec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Culture and religion
Main Author: Katsaura, Obvious (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2017]
In: Culture and religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Johannesburg / Pentecostal churches
IxTheo Classification:AF Geography of religion
CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations
KBN Sub-Saharan Africa
KDG Free church
Further subjects:B Johannesburg
B Theo-urbanism
B Pentecostalism, Foucault
B pastoral power
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This article draws on Foucauldian analysis and ethnographic observations in a Pentecostal church in Johannesburg, to read how everyday urbanism is increasingly suffused with Pentecostal ‘pastoral power’. The article develops the idea of theo-urbanism to capture the inscription of religious, and specifically Pentecostal, ‘pastoral power’ into the intricacies of everyday urban political and socio-economic life. Attendant to the concept of theo-urbanism are the (sub-) concepts of ‘theopolitical’, ‘theoeconomic’ and ‘theosocial’ urbanism. Theopolitical urbanism is used to understand the (meta-) physics of the pastoral government of the ‘lives’ and ‘souls’ of the urban Pentecostal followership - incorporating ideas of pastoral presentation, pastoral coverage and pastoral biopower. The concept of theoeconomic urbanism is motivated by the need to understand the principles and practices of the emerging urban ‘Pentecostal economies’ of donation, justification, and fantasy that characterise the everyday lives of Pentecostals. Finally, the study develops the concept of theosocial urbanism to understand the emergence of urban Pentecostal ‘communities’ of solidarity and of pastoral urban ‘community’ outreach that has become central to urban (religious) life.
ISSN:1475-5610
Contains:Enthalten in: Culture and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2017.1358193