African Charismatics: Current Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana

Abstract

A few years ago, a small group of us from the United States were guest participants at a year-end prayer festival held in Accra, Ghana. Perhaps a thousand Christian believers had gathered for this annual event, which took place in a spacious open-air setting with four 30-meter-long tents forming a square around a huge dusty center. Th e intense round-the-clock prayer meetings progressed through alternating three-hour prayer blocks and three-hour rest periods -even though some stalwarts "rested" by praying and casting out demons in small group sessions. Usually within each prayer block there were three onehour sessions that focused on specifi c topics, ranging from fi nances (personal and church) to youth education to church leadership to needs for healing and holiness. Th roughout the festival we sang praises, heard exhortations, and interceded while randomly walking back and forth, all at the earnest, microphoneblasting urgings of that particular session's leader.Th e climax of the four-day gathering was the Sunday morning deliverance service, which began with exuberant dancing and singing. Th e message announced that morning's opportunity for experiencing a miracle. Th ere then followed a long session of healings and exorcisms, during which individuals and groups were called up to be specially prayed for by the preacher. Th ere was anointing with oil, plus more singing and rejoicing. After this remarkable service and entire prayer festival, the analytical questions as to what had transpired were unavoidable.African Charismatics sets this kind of gathering in the necessarily intercultural and global context of twentieth-century Christian renewal movements in Ghana. Th e book's material is essentially Asamoah-Gyadu's Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Birmingham, U.K. -as the extensive (and refreshingly international) bibliography attests. A manageable index helps to pinpoint topics, authors, organizations, and movements.Th e book's discussion is easy to navigate, although graphics and tables would help to enliven what is a challenging text-only presentation. Th e eight chapters are balanced and well-introduced. Chapters one and eight respectively place Ghanaian Pentecostalism in its wider context and identify its defi ning characteristics. Chapters two through four analytically and historically describe various movements, while chapters fi ve through seven constructively tackle such key themes as deliverance, healing, and prosperity teaching. Th e discussion is consistently appreciative of, as well as carefully critical of abuses within, this MIST 24,1_f13_136-137.indd 136 MIST 24,1_f13_136-137.indd 136 5/15/07 8:41:00 AM 5/15/07 8:41:00 AM MIST 24,1_f13_136-137.indd 137 MIST 24,1_f13_136-137.indd 137 5/15/07 8:41:01 AM 5/15/07 8:41:01 AM