Ghana's New Christianity, New Edition PDF Download

Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253217233
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
A sober, firsthand look at evangelical Christian churches in Accra, Ghana.

Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In sub-Saharan Africa over the last two decades there has been an explosion of Christianity. This book sets out to identify its particular character, focusing on a particular place: Greater Accra, the capital of Ghana. Paul Gifford examines a wide range of Accra's new churches, giving priority to mega-churches. Every dimension -- discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, conventions, finances, clientele -- is analysed. Gifford argues that this Christianity is not otherworldly: its emphasis is on success, achievement, wealth here and now. Yet within this general orientation there is diversity. At one end of the spectrum are churches that, building on the traditional religious imagination, see demonic forces everywhere blocking personal success. In the churches the key factor is the special 'man of God' who is understood to have the 'anointing' to conquer these forces, to 'reverse the curse' that is holding the believer back. At the other end is a strain of this new Christianity that discounts spiritual forces and sees victory resulting from the believer's own education and skills, and from transforming culture.The book also joins the debate over the role of this Christianity in modernizing economic and political structures. It sets the scene by describing Ghana's political and economic situation in the decades when these churches were proliferating, and outlines the current debate on the reasons for Africa's economic plight. It is argued that although focusing on success and wealth can provide motivation in circumstances where it is so easy to despair, the pervasive emphasis on miracles militates against any natural fostering of a new work ethic. As for their political role, some churches are easily co-opted; others challenge the government, but for 'spiritual' reasons that provide little incentive to grapple with issues of governance; by contrast, Gifford finds one important church encouraging change of the entire political culture. No other book has set forth the complex nature of Africa's new Christianity with such clarity, or offered such a searching analysis of its power to tackle Africa's predicament.

Author: Jane E. Soothill
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004157891
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Against a backdrop of debate concerning the role of Pentecostalism as a mediator of 'modernity', this book examines the interaction between charismatic Christianity, spiritual power and gendered social change in contemporary Ghana.

Author: Paul Gifford
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253212047
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
These detailed analyses of the state of the churches in each country suggest more general patterns operating widely across sub-Saharan Africa.

Author: Emmanuel Kingsley Larbi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ghana
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description

Author: Johnson Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This book provides significant insights into current historical and theological developments affecting independent indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana. The information used originates from a specific African context, but serves as a window for understanding modern African Christianity.

Author: Birgit Meyer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520287673
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010, Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture and society in turmoil. This book captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and tracks the interlacing of the mediumÕs technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects. Stepping into the void left by the defunct state film industry, video movies negotiate the imaginaries deployed by state cinema on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Birgit Meyer analyzes Ghanaian video as a powerful, sensational form. Colliding with the state film industryÕs representations of culture, these movies are indebted to religious notions of divination and revelation. Exploring the format of Òfilm as revelation,Ó Meyer unpacks the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and showcases the transgressive potential haunting figurations of the occult. In this brilliant study, Meyer offers a deep, conceptually innovative analysis of the role of visual culture within the politics and aesthetics of religious world making.

Author: John Riches
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316194116
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 871

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Book Description
This volume examines the Bible's role in the modern world - beginning with a treatment of its production and distribution that discusses publishers, printers, text critics, and translators and continuing with a presentation of new methods of studying the text that have emerged, including historical, literary, social-scientific, feminist, postcolonial, liberal, and fundamentalist readings. There is a full discussion of the changes in understandings of and approaches to the Bible in various faith communities. The dissemination of the Bible throughout the globe has also produced a host of new interpretations, and this volume provides a comprehensive geographical survey of its reception. In the final chapters, the authors offer a thematic overview of the Bible in relation to literature, art, film, science, and other disciplines. They demonstrate that, in spite of challenges to the Bible's authority in western Europe, it remains highly relevant and influential, not least in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Author: Robert B. Fisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
West African Religious Traditions provides a unique and accessible way for readers to understand the dynamics and structures of traditional African religion, and to see its resonances in African-American religious life today. Focusing on the Akan of Ghana, this book is the result of the author's lifetime of close collaboration with Ghanaians at all levels of that West African nation. West African Religious Traditions is a remarkable entree into a fascinating world of African religion and culture. Fisher has lived and taught in Ghana and brings to his writing both love for Africa and the keen eye of a trained liturgist who knows the importance of grounding his statement of principles in concrete observations of song, dance, ceremonies, and recitations of mythic narratives. Ghanaians have been involved at every stage of the writing and re-writing of this book, helping to clarify the material. The result is an up-to-date, well researched, and student-ready volume, whose study questions and bibliography make it ideal for classroom use.

Author: Daniel Nii Aboagye Aryeh
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 149824436X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
The basis for this project is to verify and determine the extent to which contemporary prophetic ministry in Ghana appropriates prophetism in the early church, Corpus Paulinum, and traditional prophetism in Ghana. The spirit of prophecy which was believed to have ceased in Judaism and during the intertestamental period has now been restored at the inauguration of Christianity. Notwithstanding, Paul gave stipulations for prophets and prophecy in the church in 1 Corinthians 14. This confirms that prophecy was a common phenomenon in the early church and Pauline communities. Contemporary prophetic ministry in Ghana claimed to have conformed to Pauline stipulations concerning prophets and prophecy in the church, but what is their level of conformity? Contemporary prophetic ministry is becoming popular due to its appeal and compatibility with religious worldviews and its pragmatic outlook that resonates with the Ghanaian phenomenon of religion. As an adherent of the Akan traditional religion would go to a religious intermediary for ebisa (literally to "inquire" or "ask") into present or future happenings, contemporary prophets have positioned themselves to be agents of ebisa in Ghanaian Christianity. This book explores biblical and traditional understandings of prophetism that have influenced contemporary Christian understanding of prophets and prophecy in the church.