Ghana's New Christianity, New Edition

Ghana's New Christianity, New Edition
Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2004-07-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780253217233

A sober, firsthand look at evangelical Christian churches in Accra, Ghana.

Ghana's New Christianity

Ghana's New Christianity
Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

In sub-Saharan Africa over the last two decades there has been an explosion of Christianity. This book sets out to identify its particular character, focusing on a particular place: Greater Accra, the capital of Ghana. Paul Gifford examines a wide range of Accra's new churches, giving priority to mega-churches. Every dimension -- discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, conventions, finances, clientele -- is analysed. Gifford argues that this Christianity is not otherworldly: its emphasis is on success, achievement, wealth here and now. Yet within this general orientation there is diversity. At one end of the spectrum are churches that, building on the traditional religious imagination, see demonic forces everywhere blocking personal success. In the churches the key factor is the special 'man of God' who is understood to have the 'anointing' to conquer these forces, to 'reverse the curse' that is holding the believer back. At the other end is a strain of this new Christianity that discounts spiritual forces and sees victory resulting from the believer's own education and skills, and from transforming culture.The book also joins the debate over the role of this Christianity in modernizing economic and political structures. It sets the scene by describing Ghana's political and economic situation in the decades when these churches were proliferating, and outlines the current debate on the reasons for Africa's economic plight. It is argued that although focusing on success and wealth can provide motivation in circumstances where it is so easy to despair, the pervasive emphasis on miracles militates against any natural fostering of a new work ethic. As for their political role, some churches are easily co-opted; others challenge the government, but for 'spiritual' reasons that provide little incentive to grapple with issues of governance; by contrast, Gifford finds one important church encouraging change of the entire political culture. No other book has set forth the complex nature of Africa's new Christianity with such clarity, or offered such a searching analysis of its power to tackle Africa's predicament.

Gender, Social Change and Spiritual Power

Gender, Social Change and Spiritual Power
Author: Jane E. Soothill
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004157891

Against a backdrop of debate concerning the role of Pentecostalism as a mediator of 'modernity', this book examines the interaction between charismatic Christianity, spiritual power and gendered social change in contemporary Ghana.

African Christianity

African Christianity
Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1998-07-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780253212047

These detailed analyses of the state of the churches in each country suggest more general patterns operating widely across sub-Saharan Africa.

Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism
Author: Emmanuel Kingsley Larbi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 572
Release: 2001
Genre: Ghana
ISBN:

African Charismatics

African Charismatics
Author: Johnson Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
Publisher:
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN:

This book provides significant insights into current historical and theological developments affecting independent indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana. The information used originates from a specific African context, but serves as a window for understanding modern African Christianity.

Sensational Movies

Sensational Movies
Author: Birgit Meyer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2015-10-16
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0520287673

Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010, Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture and society in turmoil. This book captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and tracks the interlacing of the mediumÕs technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects. Stepping into the void left by the defunct state film industry, video movies negotiate the imaginaries deployed by state cinema on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Birgit Meyer analyzes Ghanaian video as a powerful, sensational form. Colliding with the state film industryÕs representations of culture, these movies are indebted to religious notions of divination and revelation. Exploring the format of Òfilm as revelation,Ó Meyer unpacks the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and showcases the transgressive potential haunting figurations of the occult. In this brilliant study, Meyer offers a deep, conceptually innovative analysis of the role of visual culture within the politics and aesthetics of religious world making.

The New Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 4, From 1750 to the Present

The New Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 4, From 1750 to the Present
Author: John Riches
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 871
Release: 2015-04-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1316194116

This volume examines the Bible's role in the modern world - beginning with a treatment of its production and distribution that discusses publishers, printers, text critics, and translators and continuing with a presentation of new methods of studying the text that have emerged, including historical, literary, social-scientific, feminist, postcolonial, liberal, and fundamentalist readings. There is a full discussion of the changes in understandings of and approaches to the Bible in various faith communities. The dissemination of the Bible throughout the globe has also produced a host of new interpretations, and this volume provides a comprehensive geographical survey of its reception. In the final chapters, the authors offer a thematic overview of the Bible in relation to literature, art, film, science, and other disciplines. They demonstrate that, in spite of challenges to the Bible's authority in western Europe, it remains highly relevant and influential, not least in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Christianity, Wealth, and Spiritual Power in Ghana

Christianity, Wealth, and Spiritual Power in Ghana
Author: Karen Lauterbach
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2016-11-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319334948

This book centers around mid-level charismatic pastors in Ghana. Karen Lauterbach analyzes pastorship as a pathway to becoming small “big men” and achieving status, wealth, and power in the country. The volume investigates both the social processes of becoming a pastor and the spiritual dimensions of how power and wealth are conceptualized, achieved, and legitimized in the particular context of Asante in Ghana. Lauterbach integrates her analysis of charismatic Christianity with a historically informed examination of social mobility—how people in subordinate positions seek to join up with power. She explores how the ideas and experiences surrounding the achievement of wealth and performance of power are shaped and re-shaped. In this way, the book historicizes current expressions of charismatic Christianity in Ghana while also bringing the role of religion and belief to bear on our understanding of wealth and power as they function more broadly in African societies.

Biblical, Traditional, and Theological Framework for Understanding Christian Prophetism in Ghana Today

Biblical, Traditional, and Theological Framework for Understanding Christian Prophetism in Ghana Today
Author: Daniel Nii Aboagye Aryeh
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2019-01-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 149824436X

The basis for this project is to verify and determine the extent to which contemporary prophetic ministry in Ghana appropriates prophetism in the early church, Corpus Paulinum, and traditional prophetism in Ghana. The spirit of prophecy which was believed to have ceased in Judaism and during the intertestamental period has now been restored at the inauguration of Christianity. Notwithstanding, Paul gave stipulations for prophets and prophecy in the church in 1 Corinthians 14. This confirms that prophecy was a common phenomenon in the early church and Pauline communities. Contemporary prophetic ministry in Ghana claimed to have conformed to Pauline stipulations concerning prophets and prophecy in the church, but what is their level of conformity? Contemporary prophetic ministry is becoming popular due to its appeal and compatibility with religious worldviews and its pragmatic outlook that resonates with the Ghanaian phenomenon of religion. As an adherent of the Akan traditional religion would go to a religious intermediary for ebisa (literally to "inquire" or "ask") into present or future happenings, contemporary prophets have positioned themselves to be agents of ebisa in Ghanaian Christianity. This book explores biblical and traditional understandings of prophetism that have influenced contemporary Christian understanding of prophets and prophecy in the church.