Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing streams of Christianity in the world. The movement has played a significant role in reshaping religion in the twenty-first century.1 “Pentecostalism” may be defined as the stream of Christianity that emphasizes personal salvation in Christ as a transformative experience wrought by the Holy Spirit. Following that initial experience, phenomena such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, visions, healing, miracles, signs, and wonders are accepted and encouraged as evidence of the active presence of God’s Spirit.
“Charismatic” generally refers to historically younger Pentecostal independent and parachurch movements, many of which function within non-Pentecostal denominations. The expression derives from Paul’s reference to charismata pneumatika—“gifts of the Spirit”—in 1 Corinthians 12–14. Paul uses the expression for the extraordinary divine graces believers manifest through their experience of the Holy Spirit.
Rise of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa
Pentecostalism is not a monolithic movement. “African Pentecostalism” describes specifically African initiatives, appropriations, and contributions to the growth and impact of Pentecostalism as a global phenomenon. Its precursors included indigenous prophetic figures, many of whom were forced out of historic mission denominations for pursuing spiritual practices church authorities sometimes regarded with suspicion.
These figures included William Wadé Harris of the Gold Coast, now Ghana; Garrick Sokari Braide of the Niger Delta; Simon Kimbangu of the Congo; Isaiah Shembe of South Africa; and others. Around the turn of the twentieth century, these prophets challenged Africans to set aside traditional resources of supernatural help and turn toward the living God of the Bible. Many revivalistic prophetic campaigns resulted in independent churches after the prophets had left the scene.
“In Africa, Western mission-related Pentecostal denominations developed alongside churches born from African initiatives.”
The prophetic movements were followed by the emergence of Spiritual, Aladura, or Zionist churches known collectively as African independent or African initiated churches. Healing became a central activity in these churches, although some incorporated therapeutic methods that were not recognizably Christian. It has therefore remained contentious to classify all of these older churches as Pentecostal without qualification. African Pentecostalism has since developed in many directions.
Classical Pentecostal denominations gained considerable prominence. In South Africa, for example, the Assemblies of God, Apostolic Faith Mission, and Full Gospel Church of God belong to this tradition. Some churches had North American roots, but many classical Pentecostal bodies operating in Africa began locally, with foreign assistance arriving later.
Other Pentecostal expressions included new independent churches, trans-denominational fellowships, charismatic renewal groups within mainline churches, and itinerant preachers. Together, these became prominent expressions of African Christianity.
Africa consequently came to include both major Western mission-related Pentecostal denominations and African-initiated churches. Independent congregations and ministries also emerged from local initiatives in countries including Nigeria, Ghana, and Zimbabwe. African Pentecostal churches subsequently became a visible presence in Western Europe and North America, demonstrating the growing global reach of modern African Christianity.
The African factor in Pentecostalism
Rudolf Otto lamented orthodox Christianity’s inability to recognize the non-rational dimension of religion, arguing that it approached “the idea of the holy” too intellectualistically.3 Pentecostalism may be understood as a response to cerebral Christianity. Wherever it has appeared, the movement has defined itself through the recovery of experiential faith: the Spirit’s power to infuse life and the living presence of Jesus Christ to save from sin and evil.
This is particularly significant in African contexts where religion is often understood as integral to survival and everyday life. Direct divine communication, intervention in crises, and religious mediation are central to many religious experiences. Healing and deliverance have therefore become important expressions of African Pentecostal Christianity. The worldviews underlying these practices—especially belief in spiritual or mystical causality—resonate with strands of African philosophy.
“Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity has influenced many levels of public life, including economics, education, and politics.”
In Uganda, newer Pentecostal communities grew rapidly and came to overshadow some older African initiated churches.4 Independent churches attracted many upwardly mobile young people through lay-oriented leadership, offices based on charismatic gifting, innovative use of media, concern for congregational growth, and a relaxed approach to dress. In prosperity teaching, conversion to Christ was often linked to expectations of redemptive uplift, sometimes evidenced through material well-being.
Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity has influenced many levels of African civic life, including economics, education, and politics. Its political role has been both constructive and problematic. Some pastors offered spiritual protection to political figures seeking to consolidate power. Such relationships damaged the reputation of Christian leaders when they appeared to provide Christian alternatives to shrine services or to lend religious legitimacy to political ambition.
Politicians in countries such as Ghana and Zambia also cultivated relationships with charismatic leaders, in part because their churches attracted large youthful followings. These historical examples illustrate both the public reach of the movement and the ethical difficulties created when spiritual authority and political power become closely aligned.
Pentecostalism and African Christianity
People tend to consider theological ideas important when those ideas address their religious needs. Encounters with a spiritual world—whether understood as malevolent power, moral disorder, or a source of help—have long been elements of African religiosity. Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity found a receptive setting because of its openness to the supernatural and its interventionist, oral theological forms. Practitioners nevertheless intended this theology to be biblical. Three recurring emphases help explain it.
Three theological emphases
- Transformation: a direct encounter with God that changes personal and communal life.
- Empowerment: the gospel’s power to overcome sin, destructive influence, and spiritual affliction.
- Restoration: a holistic understanding of salvation encompassing spiritual and physical well-being.
1. Transformation
African Pentecostal theology places strong emphasis on transformation. The movement offers a direct and particularly intense encounter with God that is understood to introduce profound change in a person’s life and circumstances. The Holy Spirit facilitates the immediate character of this encounter. Transformation takes place at both personal and communal levels, including a new dynamism in worship.
The foremost theological emphasis is therefore the transformative encounter with God, who is holy and who is spirit. Participants testify not only to new life but also to a transition away from traditional religious resources toward trust in God alone.
2. Empowerment
African Pentecostal theology is also a theology of empowerment. Transformation and empowerment are closely connected. The belief that a Christian may still be dominated by destructive desires or demonic influences has led churches to provide contexts in which people renounce such obstacles through healing and deliverance.
African religion has traditionally been expected to address evil associated with spirits, witchcraft, and curses. Such powers have been invoked to explain sickness, failure, childlessness, and other setbacks. The Pentecostal practice of healing and deliverance draws especially on Jesus’ encounters with affliction and Pauline teaching about principalities and powers in Ephesians 6.
The basic theological orientation is that demons may either possess a person or oppress a person through other influences. Pentecostal churches therefore provide settings for prayer and exorcism. In this way, an African worldview of spiritual causation remains important to the practice of healing and deliverance.
3. Restoration and well-being
A third emphasis holds that successful healing and deliverance makes room for health, success, and the realization of God-given abilities. Deliverance theology can function as a response to the shortcomings of faith teaching: when life does not improve, demons or witches may be invoked as explanations. African Pentecostal prosperity theology therefore has important questions to address concerning suffering.
At the same time, the cross of Christ is understood not only as a symbol of weakness but also as victory over sin, the world, and death. Pentecostals stress that the gospel concerns restoration. Transformation of the person is expected to become evident through health, well-being, and care. Salvation is presented holistically, including spiritual and physical abundance.
The process of restoration is not purely individual. People are encouraged to disengage from perceived generational curses and, through fasting and prayer, to seek freedom for family members. Salvation consequently takes on a broad meaning that includes well-being, freedom from sickness and misfortune, and deliverance from sin and evil.5
African Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity is complex, dynamic, and diverse. Its growth and global reach make it an important subject for anyone studying evangelism, mission, and the changing shape of the global church.
Endnotes
- Harvey G. Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century (Addison-Wesley, 1996); and “The Myth of the Twentieth Century: The Rise and Fall of Secularization,” Harvard Divinity Bulletin, vol. 28, nos. 2/3 (1999), 6–8.
- J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, African Charismatics: A Study of Independent Indigenous Pentecostal Movements in Ghana (E.J. Brill, 2005).
- Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1950), 3.
- Paul Gifford, African Christianity: Its Public Role (Hurst and Co.), 157.
- Allan Anderson, “Global Pentecostalism in the New Millennium,” in Allan Anderson and Walter Hollenweger, eds., Pentecostals after a Century: Global Perspectives on a Movement in Transition (Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 215.
Archive context: This article belongs to the August 2006 issue. It is presented as a historical text; descriptions of organizations, public influence, and political relationships reflect the period discussed rather than current reporting.