Gender, Social Change And Spiritual Power Charismatic Christianity In Ghana

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 31 (2009) 291-329

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Jane E. Soothill, Gender, Social Change and Spiritual Power: Charismatic Christianity in Ghana, Studies of Religion in Africa (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007). xii + 268 pp., €83.00, US $124.00 cloth.

The global impact of African Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity continues to occupy the attention of Western academic scholarship. In this recent contribution, Soothill pro- vides a compelling and detailed analysis of the impact of gender, social change, and spiritual power in Ghana’s Charismatic scene.

The ﬁrst chapter raises some of the theoretical issues implicit in the study of religion and gender in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. Soothill reminds readers that religion for the African is not a separate sphere of activity but is integral to the African social fabric. She further introduces some of the dificulties implicit in the use of the term gender — for example, the range of cultural meanings inferred by culture, and their tendency to shift and change. Chapter two presents a deﬁ nition of the Ghanaian Charismatic Renewal, stating what the movement is not and identifying its unique characteristics. An historical and political analysis of the development of gender ideologies in Ghana is the focus of chapter three. Chapter four overviews key Charismatic discourses on womanhood, including male- female diﬀ erences and the issue of submission. Here Soothill challenges the idea that any Charismatic discourse on gender is primarily concerned with female domesticity and the reassertion of patriarchy. Rather, “religious action is a form of self fashioning” (123), and this self-fashioning and self-transformation best describes the lives of Ghanaian Charis- matic Christian women. T us Charismatic Christianity oﬀ ers an opportunity for change for both men and women. Chapter ﬁ ve explores gender power and authority between the female leader and the female participants. The power that female leaders exert can be understood in terms of personal charisma, their accumulation and distribution of resources, and their ability to access spiritual forces. Chapter six examines the inﬂ uence of Ghanaian Charismatic Christianity on marital relations, which has aﬀ ected traditional roles in the nuclear family.

Soothill admits that she is writing about a worldview to which she does not subscribe, namely, the African “spirit world” and how it directly impacts the present material world. Soothill is also conscious of the practical and theoretical implications of studying and por- traying African Pentecostalism and the presuppositions that she as a white, Western, single, non-Charismatic woman brings to the study. She takes the view that Ghana’s neo-Pentecos- talism is strongly inﬂ uenced and even shaped by North American Pentecostalism, but she goes much further than Paul Giﬀ ord (although not as far as Ogbu Kalu) in recognizing the way it is shaped by its own traditional African idioms.

On a whole the book is an important contribution to the study of African Pentecostalism as it highlights the often-overlooked importance of gender. Students and researchers of Afri- can Pentecostalism and gender studies will ﬁ nd it a valuable resource. Having lived and worked in Ghana for ten years and attended Charismatic worship services on a weekly basis, we found Soothill’s study to be a fair interpretation of what is now a global phenomenon.

Reviewed by Clifton Clarke and Marcia Clarke

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