Pentecostalism is currently the fastest-growing Christian movement, with hundreds of millions of followers. This growth overwhelmingly takes place outside of the West, and women make up 75 percent of the membership. The contributors to Spirit on the Move examine Pentecostalism's appeal to black women worldwide and the ways it provides them with a source of community and access to power. Exploring a range of topics, from Neo-Pentecostal churches in Ghana that help women challenge gender norms to evangelical gospel musicians in Brazil, the contributors show how Pentecostalism helps black women draw attention to and seek remediation from the violence and injustices brought on by civil war, capitalist exploitation, racism, and the failures of the state. In fleshing out the experiences, theologies, and innovations of black women Pentecostals, the contributors show how Pentecostal belief and its various practices reflect the movement's complexity, reach, and adaptability to specific cultural and political formations.

Contributors. Paula Aymer, John Burdick, Judith Casselberry, Deidre Helen Crumbley, Elizabeth McAlister, Laura Premack, Elizabeth A. Pritchard, Jane Soothill, Linda van de Kamp

About the Author
Judith Casselberry is Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College and author of The Labor of Faith: Gender and Power in Black Apostolic Pentecostalism, also published by Duke University Press.

Elizabeth A. Pritchard is Associate Professor of Religion at Bowdoin College and author of Religion in Public: Locke's Political Theology.

Reviews

"The editors and contributors of Spirit on the Move have successfully attended to this task without fear of troubling the waters of tidy conclusions in favor or against Black women's relation to Pentecostalism. Scholars and Pentecostal practitioners can listen to and be taught by the global women portrayed in the pages of this book."

-- Allison Kach * Sociology of Religion *
"Should be widely read by the African Studies community and particularly within the (re-emerging!) field of African Christianity." -- Adam Mohr * African Studies Review *
"Spirit on the Move begins with a clear and provocative introduction in which Elizabeth A. Pritchard details the empirical evidence of Pentecostalism's special appeal to Black women.... This volume [is] a most welcome single-volume contribution to Pentecostal studies, gender studies, and race studies." -- Devaka Premawardhana * H-Africa, H-Net Reviews *
"These essays provide a marvelous introductory text to the intersectional study of Black women and Global Pentecostalism.... [Spirit on the Move] has included Pentecostalism's appeal to Black women across the diaspora and countries on the continent of Africa." -- Marcia Clarke * Pneuma *
"This volume comes with powerfully dramatic ideas that speak to a world where Black women's lives often still matter little. Its authors' insights justifying Pentecostalism's inclusion alongside gender discrimination, colonialism, racism, classism, and state failure alone make this book worthy to be read. . . . By privileging the study of Pentecostal Black women's narratives alongside historical global forces, this anthology contributes to Black feminist studies and women and gender studies, especially African/a and Diaspora Pentecostal women's studies." -- Itohan M. Idumwonyi * Horizons *



Book Information
ISBN 9781478000327
Author Judith Casselberry
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 340g