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Book Reviews / Pneuma 35 (2013) 87-156
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Katherine Attanasi & Amos Yong (eds), Pentecostalism and Prosperity: The Socio-Economics of the Global Charismatic Movement, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). xii + 259 pp., $73.79 hard cover.
Are the disparities found in different societies in respect to wealth, power and poverty a question of economics, politics and environmental factors, or are they related to issues of religion and spirituality? This is the question Pentecostalism and Prosperity attempts to answer but from the perspectives of Prosperity Pentecostalism. Scholarly interest in the social and economic implications of religion has been persistent for some time now. The debates ignited by Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1920) and R. H. Tawney’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1929) are still unresolved. Closer to the publica- tion of Pentecostalism and Prosperity,Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson’s Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty (2012) deals with the same problematic. Why Nations Fail argues that religion is not important for understanding the origins and persist- ence of poverty and prosperity (p.57). Historical, institutional (political and economic), and geographical factors are given more weight than religion. It is precisely here that Pentecostal- ism and Prosperity departs from the logic of Why Nations Fail. Religion is a system of values and meaning-making which engenders an attitude of change towards society and the envi- ronment. Even though material changes such as economic rationality in this world is to be rooted in an immaterial world, religion also involves rigorous this-worldly calculations and permutations that produce practical social and economic consequences. It is the nature of these outcomes that twelve eminent scholars debate in Pentecostalism and Prosperity. The bulk of the twelve chapters was assembled from a 2011 symposium on “Pentecostalism and Prosperity” held at Regent University. Excluding the “Introduction” by Katherine Attanasi, the chapters are divided in three unequal parts, namely, Taxonomies of Prosperity (Chap- ters 1 and 2); Case Studies (chapters 3 through 9) and Responses (chapters 10 through 12). There is an apparent unease about reviewing a book that seems to have been so well arranged to incorporate three distinct chapters of its own “reviews” which is what the Responses do.
The central problematic of the core chapters of the book (3 – 9) is to critically tease out the relationships between internally variegated forms of Pentecostalism which make the bold claims that becoming a particular kind of Christian, practicing certain rules such as tithing and “sowing”, improves believer’s material conditions, sometimes radically. Even though Pentecostalism claims to have its roots in the primitive Pentecost, there is no empir- ical evidence that the disciples of Jesus were wealthy as a result of following their Master: those who were well-to-do were so prior to contact with him. It is hard if not impossible to argue that the disciples of Jesus became rich as a consequence of embracing the virtues of the new religion or practicing the Beatitudes.
The first chapter of the book by Amos Yong presents a set of five typologies and argu- ments for and against “Prosperity theologies”. Yong asks if Prosperity theologies are directed toward a form of “renewal economics”. This is followed by an examination of what Nimi Wariboko calls “Pentecostal paradigms of national economic prosperity in Africa”. “Africa” in this chapter concerns specifically English-speaking Nigeria and Ghana; there is no mention of positions from French-speaking Africa such as the Democratic Republic of Congo where a vibrant Pentecostal culture rivals what is happening in Lagos. The case studies from South
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15700747-12341305
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 35 (2013) 87-156
Africa, Latin America, two from the United States of America, Wenzhou in Zhejiang Prov- ince of China, the Philippines and Eastern Europe in different ways provide empirical insights in the contextual negotiations or adaptations of the prosperity message. What these cases demonstrate convincingly is that the prosperity message can be made to do anything its proponents want it to do for them. Like Pentecostalism itself, the prosperity message is protean, malleable. This versatility is both its strength and its weakness; it is culturally or contextually adapted to diverse situations as well as functions as a rationalization for power, greed, accumulation and personal aggrandizement. The three responses to the case studies from eminent scholars of the Pentecostal phenomenon address different concerns emanat- ing from the case studies as well as interrogate different claims implicit in the prosperity message. Andrew Chesnut argues that the popularity of Prosperity Pentecostalism is because it is addressed primarily to the poor, the disenfranchised and the disempowered. This is cor- rect even when it overlooks an important dynamic in countries such as Nigeria, where pros- perity preachers primarily target the corruptly rich, mainly fraudulent business persons, economic entities and corrupt politicians. Identifying with prosperity Christianity has become for these nouveaux riches a way of justifying their loot, a veritable means of money laundry. The second response by Frank Machia asks the critical question if the “so-called prosperity theology” is “a syncretistic accommodation to an alien doctrine and ethical com- mitment” (p. 225) and calls for discernment in how this contextual “theology” is appraised by scholars. The last response by Douglas Hicks relates the central concern of the book to three thematic structures: Prosperity, theology and economy, and argues that prosperity should be conceptualized as capabilities rather than material accumulation (p. 250). While many of the responses recognized and emphasized money as central feature in the “theol- ogy” of prosperity Pentecostalism, none of the case studies paid adequate attention to the local practices of money, and the meaning and consequences of prosperity message as per- formed by Pentecostal churches and their own-leaders. This aspect deserves further explora- tion.
One of the accomplishments of Pentecostalism and Prosperity is that it weaves together different, not-so-compatible strands of debate on the economic consequences of Charis- matic Christianity. This collection connects with ongoing debates about the role of cultural practices in the making and sustenance of wealth; it may act as a counter-force to Why Nations Fail. It would be useful to scholars and post-graduate students in diverse disciplines: sociology, religious studies, theology, anthropology and economics.
Reviewed by Asonzeh Ukah University of Bayreuth, Germany [email protected]
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