ABSTRACT
This book investigates the substantial and growing contribution which African Independent and Pentecostal Churches are making to sustainable development in all its manifold forms. Moreover, this volume seeks to elucidate how these churches reshape the very notion of sustainable development and contribute to the decolonisation of development.
Fostering both overarching and comparative perspectives, the book includes chapters on West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, and Burkina Faso) and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe and South Africa). It aims to open up a subfield focused on African Initiated Christianity within the religion and development discourse, substantially broadening the scope of the existing literature. Written predominantly by scholars from the African continent, the chapters in this volume illuminate potentials and perspectives of African Initiated Christianity, combining theoretical contributions, essays by renowned church leaders, and case studies focusing on particular churches or regional contexts.
While the contributions in this book focus on the African continent, the notion of development underlying the concept of the volume is deliberately wide and multidimensional, covering economic, social, ecological, political, and cultural dimensions. Therefore, the book will be useful for the community of scholars interested in religion and development as well as researchers within African studies, anthropology, development studies, political science, religious studies, sociology of religion, and theology. It will also be a key resource for development policymakers and practitioners.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|71 pages
Overarching perspectives
chapter 3|22 pages
The challenge of environment and climate justice1
chapter 4|22 pages
African Initiated Churches and development from below
chapter 5|7 pages
Distinguished church leader essay
part II|78 pages
Nigerian perspectives
chapter 6|10 pages
Distinguished church leader essay
chapter 7|21 pages
‘A starving man cannot shout halleluyah’
chapter 8|15 pages
Approaches to transformation and development
chapter 11|6 pages
Distinguished church leader essay
part III|59 pages
Ghanaian perspectives
chapter 12|12 pages
Distinguished church leader essay
chapter 13|17 pages
An evaluation of Pentecostal Churches as agents of sustainable development in Africa
chapter 14|15 pages
Pentecostalism and sustainable development
chapter 15|13 pages
Distinguished church leader essay
part IV|23 pages
Perspectives from Burkina Faso
chapter 16|10 pages
Distinguished church leader essay
part V|38 pages
Zimbabwean perspectives
chapter 18|17 pages
Investing in the future generation
chapter 19|19 pages
Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity and the management of precarity in postcolonial Zimbabwe
part VI|19 pages
South African perspectives