Pentecostal Churches and Capitalism in a South African Township: Towards a Communism of the Market?
With reference to two Pentecostal churches in the Kayamandi suburb of Stellenbosch, South Africa, we consider the ways in which capitalism and the Pentecostal spirit interrelate in a contemporary South Africa. We start off by acknowledging that many forms of Pentecostalism now tend to follow the par...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
ASRSA
2021
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In: |
Journal for the study of religion
Year: 2021, Volume: 34, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-36 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Stellenbosch
/ Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa
/ Pentecostal churches
/ Capitalism
/ Revival Fire Ministries Church
/ Market economy
/ Secularism
/ Religious ethnology
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IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy CB Christian life; spirituality CH Christianity and Society KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KDG Free church NBK Soteriology |
Further subjects: | B
Apostolic Faith Mission
B Pentecostalism B Revival Fire Ministries B Communism B South Africa B Capitalism |
Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
Summary: | With reference to two Pentecostal churches in the Kayamandi suburb of Stellenbosch, South Africa, we consider the ways in which capitalism and the Pentecostal spirit interrelate in a contemporary South Africa. We start off by acknowledging that many forms of Pentecostalism now tend to follow the paradigm set by neo-Pentecostalism, and that the same might be true of our two church communities, Revival Fire Ministries, and the Apostolic Faith Mission, even if the latter is more typically regarded as part of the classical Pentecostal movement in South Africa. Then we discuss Pentecostalism and its relationship to the secular domain. We show how Pentecostalism, in contrast to traditional forms of Christianity, is par excellence involved in the immanent/horizontal affairs of believers' lives. Indeed, the market itself appears to be sacralized, implying a transfer of holiness into the secular domain. We conclude with the idea that we have observed a fourth wave of Pentecostalism, anticipating that the golden age of Gesara/Nesara may be considered as a secular faith, forming a Hegelian synthesis of the two so-called secular religions of the 20th century, capitalism and communism. We have analyzed it as an apocatastasis, meaning restoration to the original or primordial condition¹. |
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ISSN: | 2413-3027 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n2a6 |