This article seeks to show that Thomas Kuhn's theory of paradigm-shift can be used as a methodological tool in the study of religious conversion. The same way that the scientist is limited to work within a scientific paradigm, the believer can be said to exercise religion within a theological paradigm. And as anomaly can lead to science crises and a change of worldview, anomaly within the horizon of the believer can lead to existential crisis and religious reorientation. A reservation towards the application of Kuhn's theory on religious conversion is, however, proposed by the author who does not see that different worldviews necessarily are incommensurable. Religious conversion is more often than not a reorientation that combines (what Kuhn's theory would consider as) incompatible differences.

This article seeks to shed light on the relationship between material development and spiritual empowerment among Pentecostal churches in Northern Cameroon. Field studies show that several Pentecostal churches recently have been established in the area, and that they are “negotiating space” in order to find places and areas where they can influence the local community. Due to the strong Muslim control over the economy in the region, the new churches have little focus on prosperity, but the material and developmental discourse focus on entrepreneurship through education and hard work. The article concludes that the relative success achieved by the churches is connected to their focus on global mobility, local flexibility, spiritual authority and human dignity.

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This chapter will start by introducing briefly the discussion between mission as evangelizing activities and mission as diaconal activities. It will then show through examples, mainly from Central and Eastern/Southern Africa (Cameroon and Madagascar), how mission organizations and local churches (independently and in companionship) have dealt with the tensions between evangelism and development activities. Of importance will be how and to what extent churches have been influenced by the emerging and professionalized “development industry,” and how this has influenced the theological discourse related to the diaconal work of the mission organizations and the independent churches. Particular attention will be directed towards the fight against poverty through educational and health-oriented activities in a historical perspective, drawing attention to the development of UN’s development goals and African churches’ engagement with these goals.

The growing literature on religion and migration offers a wide range of terminologies in order to describe different aspects of the migratory trajectory. The article analyses how the three terms “transnational”, “transcultural”, and “translocal” are applied by different scholars in order to describe how religion influences and frames the experiences of those who leave their homes behind. It is further argued that discourse analysis can be a helpful methodological and analytical approach towards the field under study in order to engage with the rich variety of sources which might help us develop a yet more finely tuned analysis of the new religious communities. With the object of exemplifying how discourse analysis can be applied in future studies, the article gives examples from three different contexts where religious practices face change due to the migratory situation. The first example proposes studies of the “simultaneity aspect” in transnational studies among Nigerian migrants in Europe. The second example highlights how translocal aspects influence the study of ethnicity among migrants to cities in northern Cameroon, and the third example focuses on transcultural aspects of historical conversion narratives.