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Spirits And Letters

Reading, Writing and Charisma in African Christianity

by Thomas G. Kirsch

  • Hardback
  • 286 pages
  • Publisher: Berghahn Books
  • 15.9 x 22.9 x 2 cm

£129.38

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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 practices among African Christians, this volume explores how church leaders in Zambia refer to the Bible and other religious literature, and how they organise a church bureaucracy in the Pentecostal-charismatic mode.Thus, by examining social processes and conflicts that revolve around the conjunction of Pentecostal-charismatic and literacy practices in Africa, Spirits and Letters reconsiders influential conceptual dichotomies in the social sciences and the humanities and is therefore of interest not only to anthropologists but also to scholars working in the fields of African studies, religious studies, and the sociology of religion.
Spirits And Letters and Spirits and Letters
Spirits and LettersSpirits And Letters

  • Author

    Thomas G. Kirsch

  • Book Format

    Hardback

  • Publisher

    Berghahn Books

  • Published

    May 2008

  • Edition

    illustrated edition

  • Weight

    517g

  • Page Count

    286

  • Dimensions

    15.9 x 22.9 x 2 cm

  • ISBN

    9781845454838

  • ISBN-10

    1845454839

  • Eden Code

    1181351

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