Spirits and Letters : Reading, Writing and Charisma in African Christianity
Studies of religion have a tendency to conceptualise 'the Spirit' and 'the Letter' as mutually exclusive and intrinsically antagonistic. However, the history of religions abounds in cases where charismatic leaders deliberately refer to and make use of writings. This book challenges prevailing scholarly notions of the relationship between 'charisma' and 'institution' by analysing reading and writing practices in contemporary Christianity. Taking up the continuing anthropological interest in Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity, and representing the first book-length treatment of literacy practi
1 online resource (286 pages)
9780857450104, 0857450107
645101208
Title page-Spirits and Letter; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Notes on Language; Introduction; Part I-Histories and Ethnographies; CH 1-Colonial literacies; CH 2-Passages, configurations, traces; CH 3-Schooled literacy, schooled religion; Part II-Literate Religion; CH 4-Literate cultures in a material world; CH 5-Indices to the scriptural; CH 6-The fringes of Christianity; CH 7-Thoughts about 'Religions of the book'; Part III-Ways of Reading; CH 8-Texts, readers, spirit; CH 9-Evanescence and the necessity of intermediation; CH 10-Setting Texts in Motion. CH 11-Missions in writingCH 12-Enablements to literacy; Part IV-Bureaucracy in the Pentecostal-Charismatic mode; CH 13-Offices and the Dispersion of Charisma; CH 14-Positions of writers, positions in writings; CH 15-Outlines for the future, documents of the immediate; CH 16-Bureaucracy in-between; CH 17-Epilogue; Bibliography; Index