Abstract
The revitalization and growth of Christianity in the Global South reflects a spirituality that is largely pneumatic in focus. So, argues J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu in this present volume Sighs and Signs of the Spirit. Asamoah-Gyadu is Professor of African Christianity at Trinity Theological Seminary in Ghana, West Africa. He writes as a participant observer with an insider’s assessment. In this work, he postulates the rise of African Pentecostal faith as a result of an emphasis on the person and power of the Spirit that coheres to both biblical spirituality and African religious aspirations. These pneumatic movements seek biblical authenticity but have “also achieved contextual relevance by working within indigenous worldviews of spiritual causality” (p. 87). The author describes the signs of Pentecostalism as the incredible impetus the movement brings to the African church, while the sighs reflect some of the more questionable doctrines and practices.
The book contains twelve chapters and begins in chapters 1 and 2 with surveys of Pentecostal and charismatic type movements in African Christianity. Interaction with leading scholars of African Christianity provide a foundation for his observations. The rise of new African pneumatic movements signals what he believes is a new form of “Christian expression” and theology that resonates with African aspirations to experience God as near and accessible.
With chapter 3, the author shifts his focus to forms and symbols that represent signposts of biblical import that accent Pentecostal participation in globalizing and transnational influences. An example of Pentecostal globalization is found in African prosperity hermeneutics of Old Testament narrative, discussed in chapter 4 as the filter for enabling local believers to overcome a negative past in order to take dominion in the here and now. This is disseminated through sophisticated media that functions as “sensational forms” of “enchanted texts” (pp. 64–65), stimulating a sacramental and sacred function to the spoken and written word (pp. 69–71). Chapter 6 describes the prophetic Word as it relates to a prosperity hermeneutic, a central feature of Ghanaian pneumatic Christianity. In the remaining chapters, he surveys the localizing agency of Pentecostal spirituality (chapter 7) and the pentecostalization of older denominations and parachurch groups using the Full Gospel Business Men’s Association and Women’s Aglow as case samples. Chapters 9 and 10 provide a case study of Ghana’s Church of Pentecost and the association of exorcism with conversion. He concludes in chapters 11 and 12 with a reasoned response to the prosperity message and future implications of Pentecostal faith in Africa.
Asamoah-Gyadu provides in this volume a scholarly work accessible to the student of African Christianity. One of the book’s commendations is the author’s insider perspective, something much needed in the study of African spirituality. This volume is a must read for those desiring further understanding of Global South faith and of those voices shaping future discussion within Evangelical theology.