Pentecostalism and Witchcraft: Spiritual Warfare in Africa and Melanesia (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)

This open access book presents fresh ethnographic work from the regions of Africa and Melanesia—where the popularity of charismatic Christianity can be linked to a revival and transformation of witchcraft. The volume demonstrates how the Holy Spirit has become an adversary to the reconfirmed presence of witches, demons, and sorcerers as manifestations of evil. We learn how this is articulated in spiritual warfare, in crusades, and in healing or witch-killing raids. The contributors highlight what happens to phenomena that people address as locally specific witchcraft or sorcery when re-molded within the universalist Pentecostal demonology, vocabulary, and confrontational methodology. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction to Pentecostal Witchcraft and Spiritual Politics in Africa and Melanesia (Knut Rio, Michelle MacCarthy, Ruy Blanes)....Pages 1-36 German Pentecostal Witches and Communists: The Violence of Purity and Sameness (Bjørn Enge Bertelsen)....Pages 37-65 Becoming Witches: Sight, Sin, and Social Change in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (Thomas Strong)....Pages 67-92 The Ndoki Index: Sorcery, Economy, and Invisible Operations in the Angolan Urban Sphere (Ruy Blanes)....Pages 93-114 Branhamist Kindoki: Ethnographic Notes on Connectivity, Technology, and Urban Witchcraft in Contemporary Kinshasa (Katrien Pype)....Pages 115-144 Jesus Lives in Me: Pentecostal Conversions, Witchcraft Confessions, and Gendered Power in the Trobriand Islands (Michelle MacCarthy)....Pages 145-162 The Power of a Severed Arm: Life, Witchcraft, and Christianity in Kilimanjaro (Knut Christian Myhre)....Pages 163-187 Demons, Devils, and Witches in Pentecostal Port Vila: On Changing Cosmologies of Evil in Melanesia (Annelin Eriksen, Knut Rio)....Pages 189-210 Spiritual War: Revival, Child Prophesies, and a Battle Over Sorcery in Vanuatu (Tom Bratrud)....Pages 211-233 Learning to Believe in Papua New Guinea (Barbara Andersen)....Pages 235-255 Witchcraft Simplex: Experiences of Globalized Pentecostalism in Central and Northwestern Tanzania (Koen Stroeken)....Pages 257-279 Afterword: Academics, Pentecostals, and Witches: The Struggle for Clarity and the Power of the Murky (Peter Geschiere)....Pages 281-291 Afterword: From Witchcraft to the Pentecostal-Witchcraft Nexus (Aletta Biersack)....Pages 293-305 Back Matter ....Pages 307-311 This open access book presents fresh ethnographic work from the regions of Africa and Melanesia where the popularity of charismatic Christianity can be linked to a revival and transformation of witchcraft. The volume demonstrates how the Holy Spirit has become an adversary to the reconfirmed presence of witches, demons, and sorcerers as manifestations of evil. We learn how this is articulated in spiritual warfare, in crusades, and in healing or witch-killing raids. The contributors highlight what happens to phenomena that people address as locally specific witchcraft or sorcery when re-molded within the universalist Pentecostal demonology, vocabulary, and confrontational methodology Annotation Presents fresh ethnographic work from the regions of Africa and Melanesia - where the popularity of charismatic Christianity can be linked to a revival and transformation of witchcraft. The volume demonstrates how the Holy Spirit has become an adversary to the reconfirmed presence of witches, demons, and sorcerers as manifestations of evil. We learn how this is articulated in spiritual warfare, in crusades, and in healing or witch-killing raids. The contributors highlight what happens to phenomena that people address as locally specific witchcraft or sorcery when re-molded within the universalist Pentecostal demonology, vocabulary, and confrontational methodology charismatic Christianity; Holy Spirit; demonology; evangelism; indigenous Pentecostal movements; ethnography