RT Article
T1 Faith Tabernacle Congregation, the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic and Classical Pentecostalism in Colonial West Africa
JF Studies in world christianity
VO 26
IS 3
SP 219
OP 238
A1 Mohr, Adam
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1736223364
AB The 1918-19 influenza pandemic killed between 30 and 50 million people worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, as Terence Ranger points out, the pandemic left an indelible mark, including the unforeseen emergence of anti-medical religious movements. None were as significant as Faith Tabernacle Congregation, the Philadelphia-based divine-healing church that spurred a massive revival in West Africa - and a network stretching from Ivory Coast to Nigeria - without ever sending missionaries. They evangelised through personal letters exchanged across the Atlantic, and Faith Tabernacle literature sent from Philadelphia to various leaders in West Africa. The 1918-19 influenza pandemic was the spark that led to the church's massive growth, from one small branch before the pandemic began in 1918 to 10,500 members and nearly 250 branches of Faith Tabernacle in West Africa at its zenith in 1926. After the church's rapid demise between 1926 and 1929, leaders of Faith Tabernacle established most of the oldest Pentecostal Churches in the Gold Coast and Nigeria - such as the Apostolic Faith, the Apostolic Church, the Christ Apostolic Church and the Assemblies of God (Nigeria). Classical Pentecostalism, therefore, is Faith Tabernacle's legacy in West Africa, while abstinence from orthodox medicine continued to be debated within these Pentecostal circles.
K1 1918–19 influenza pandemic
K1 Divine Healing
K1 Faith Tabernacle Congregation
K1 Gold Coast
K1 Nigeria
K1 Pentecostalism
K1 West Africa
DO 10.3366/swc.2020.0307