Catholic Pentecostalism and the Paradoxes of Africanization

by Lado, Ludovic

• ISBN13: 9789004168985
• ISBN10: 9004168982
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-06-15
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Summary

Through an ethnographic study of a Charismatic movement in Cameroon and Paris, the book 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.

Author Biography

Ludovic Lado, D. Phil. in Social Anthropology, University of Oxford, teaches in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Management of the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaounde (Cameroon).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
General Introduction	p. 1
From North America to Cameroon	p. 9
The advent of Christianity in Southern Cameroun	p. 9
North American roots of Pentecostalism	p. 14
Faces of African Pentecostalism	p. 16
Archbishop Milingo's saga	p. 18
Hebga and the founding of Ephphata	p. 21
Charisma and Catholic hierarchy	p. 32
Misfortune Narratives in Ephphata	p. 41
Languages of distress	p. 44
Therapeutic itineraries	p. 61
The logic of accusations	p. 64
A Typology of Spirit Possession	p. 71
Traditionalists versus rationalists	p. 72
Spirit possession in Africa	p. 74
Charismatic demonology	p. 78
Hebga's typology	p. 80
Charismatic Prayer Sessions	p. 93
Nkol-Eton as a ritual place	p. 94
Prayer session items	p. 97
Comparing prayer session formats	p. 108
Therapeutic Strategies in Mangen	p. 113
The spiritual center of Mangen	p. 114
Mythical word, biblical word and ritual healing	p. 118
Charismatic weekends in Mangen	p. 122
On the battle field: spiritual warfare	p. 125
A few comparisons	p. 137
Ritual Healing: Religion or Magic?	p. 143
Blessing formulae: the power of words	p. 144
Revisiting Weber	p. 149
Reformation from within	p. 155
Ephphata in Paris	p. 159
African Christianity in the West	p. 160
Membership in Ephphata-Paris	p. 164
Ritual life in Ephphata-Paris	p. 169
Integration or demarcation?	p. 178
Paradoxes of Africanization	p. 181
From cultural violence to inculturation discourse	p. 181
Inculturation experiments: Africanization or de-africanization?	p. 185
Knowledge, religious power and cultural globalization	p. 198
Anthropology and Philosophy in Africa	p. 205
Cartesian dualism	p. 207
Hebga's critique of `Western' dualisms	p. 210
Between universalism and particularism	p. 213
Anthropology and philosophy in postcolonial Africa	p. 217
General Conclusion	p. 221
Bibliography	p. 227
Index	p. 241
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