Catholic Pentecostalism and the paradoxes of Africanization : : processes of localization in a Catholic Charismatic movement in Cameroon / / by Ludovic Lado.

• Superior document: Studies of religion in Africa, v. 37
• Author: Lado, Ludovic, 1970-
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies on religion in Africa ; 37.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (260 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The anthropological literature on religious innovation and resistance in African Christianity tended to focus almost exclusively on what have come to be known as African Independent Churches. Very few anthropological studies have looked at similar processes within mission churches. Through an ethnographic study of localizing processes in a Charismatic movement in Cameroon and Paris, the book critically explores the dialectics between ‘Pentecostalization’ and ‘Africanization’ within contemporary African Catholicism. It appears that both processes pursue, although for different purposes, the missionary policy of dismantling local cultures and religions: practices and discourses of Africanization dissect them in search of ‘authentic’ African values; Charismatic ritual on the other hand features the dramatization of the defeat of local deities and spirits by Christianity.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- General introduction -- Chapter One. From North America to Cameroon -- Chapter Two. Misfortune narratives in Ephphata -- Chapter Three. A typology of spirit possession -- Chapter Four. Charismatic prayer sessions -- Chapter Five. Therapeutic strategies in Mangen -- Chapter Six. Ritual healing: Religion or magic? -- Chapter Seven. Ephphata in Paris -- Chapter Eight. Paradoxes of africanization -- Chapter Nine. Anthropology and philosophy in Africa -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.