Material Development and Spiritual Empowerment?

Abstract

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.

The contribution of Luphurise Mawere’s “Things to do so you are able to succeed financially” to African prosperity theology

“…Similarly, anthropologist Naomi Haynes (2012: 127) offered a category of “limited prosperity gospel” based on her work in the Zambian Copperbelt. Reflecting on the nuances of what he was seeing at a local level in Cameroon, Drønen (2015: 206) wrote, “For too long we have been dazzled by the success stories of [Ghanaian megachurch pastor] Mensa Otabil and [Winners’ Chapel pastor] David Oydepo [ sic ], and have thought that this is what the new Pentecostalism is all about.”…”

“…The preference for homogenization in definition did not produce clarity because it obscured or excluded local expressions of prosperity theology. Instead, Drønen (2015: 208) suggests “a post-Giffordian paradigm,” which focuses less on big churches and instead explores the prosperity theology present in a particular local context. Drønen does not elaborate on this paradigm but his observation that prosperity theology in Africa does not always align with Gifford’s dominant prosperity gospel paradigm is timely.…”