Pentecostalism, Politics, and Prosperity in South Africa

Abstract

One of the fastest growing religious movements in South Africa is a form of Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelic (PCE) Christianity that has some version of prosperity theology as a central pillar. This paper, based on sermons and interviews with 97 PCE pastors in the area of Johannesburg, South Africa, argues that these churches form loose clusters defined by similar emphases along a continuum of prosperity theology. These clusters are “abilities prosperity,” “progress prosperity,” and “miracle prosperity.” Some churches fall neatly into one of the clusters, while others appear as more of a hybrid between two of these types. The paper shows that a relationship exists between the type of theology preached by PCE churches and the nature and extent of the political engagement that the pastors suggested that members in these churches should have.

Decolonising Religious Studies in South Africa: Reflections on the field 26 years after democracy

“…It is important to note that Christian privilege does not wholly extend to all those whom claim Christian status, mainline Protestant Churches, mainly English speaking with both deep colonial and protest credentials generally dominate in terms of political and public stature. Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical churches have also grown in terms of public visibility and esteem in part due to its connection with high‐profile, political and popular figures and the appeal of prosperity theology in the South African context (Chipkin & Leatt, 2006; Frahm‐Arp, 2018).…”

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“…In these churches, the prosperity doctrine is merged with business education. This development has the potential to contribute significantly towards bringing South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa into the modern age economically (see Daniels [2015] and Martin [2002], cited in Frahm-Arp [2018a]).…”

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“…What follows is a synthesis of entrepreneurial opportunism in the domain of religion by considering how it is constructed/enacted/performed in the pastorpreneur's career context (the micro-level), organisational context (meso level) and the consumer market context (macro-level). The synthesis heavily relies on the work of Frahm-Arp (2015, 2018a, 2018b whose research focus area is what she refers to as Pentecostal Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches or Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelic (PCE) Christianity. For the rest of this chapter, this autonomous movement in Christianity will be referred to as Neo-Pentecostalism.…”

“…These churches are not only influenced by the Pentecostal movement but also by the Charismatic movement, a worldwide revivalist Christian movement with a belief in the charismata -gifts of the Holy Spirit -beliefs that took hold in the mid-1950s (Jones & Palffy 2013), and also by Evangelical Christianity. The Pentecostal-Charismatic-Evangelical Christian churches follow a Christian fundamentalist tradition, meaning they believe every word of the Bible is literally true (Armstrong 2007) and is the divinely inspired word of God (Armstrong 2019;Frahm-Arp 2018a).…”