RT Article
T1 Women, Rights Talk, and African Pentecostalism
JF Religious studies and theology
VO 36
IS 2
SP 245
OP 259
A1 Hackett, Rosalind I. J.
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1837301034
AB In this essay, I seek to bring a rights perspective to women’s religious leadership and agency in Africa, notably in the case of the newer forms of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity that now predominate in many parts of the continent. Rather than adopting a legal approach, I focus on the concept of "rights talk" which provides a more productive and inclusive way to approach ideas about women’s leadership in locally grounded (and often transnationally connected) African Christian communities. The protagonists are the women church founders and leaders who have publicly addressed the emancipation of women in the varying contexts of gender inequality. I contend that the way modern Pentecostal-charismatic women leaders argue for equality, justice, and dignity in their religious communities can also be traced back to their forbears in the African-initiated or independent churches that date from the seventeenth century onwards. There are interesting parallels, as well as some differences, in the ways that they frame, explicitly or implicitly, their understandings of equality and freedom from oppression, and balance compliance and resistance to perduring patriarchal limitations on their religious agency.
K1 Africa
K1 African independent/initiated churches
K1 Ghana
K1 Kenya
K1 Kongo
K1 Nigeria
K1 Pentecostal-charismatic movements
K1 Zambia
K1 Zimbabwe
K1 Agency
K1 Development
K1 Dignity
K1 Equality
K1 Freedom
K1 Gender
K1 Patriarchy
K1 rights talk
K1 Witchcraft
K1 Women
DO 10.1558/rsth.35161