We’d like to invite you submit an abstract to the panel Global Pentecostal Charismatic Christianities (STS #20) for next year’s SISR/ISSR Conference “Religion, Cooperation, and Conflict in Diverse Societies” in Lausanne, Switzerland 4 -7 July 2017.
Deadline: 10th Jan 2017.
Conveners: Cristina Rocha, Paul Freston, Kathleen Openshaw
Abstract:
Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a massive global growth in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianities (PCC). Scholars have noted how this growth has been prominent in the Global South (throughout Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia), but is also significant in the Global North (particularly the USA, Canada and Australia). PCC are highly portable, given the focus on strong personal experiences of salvation, glossolalia, divine healing, exorcism, and prophesy which can be easily adapted to local settings. This rapid expansion is also deeply connected to the development of Information communication technologies (ICTs). More recently PCC have been carried by migrants from the Global South to the Global North. PCC can offer migrants a ready-made support community, and a theological worldview that gives meaning to their hardship, reframing their physical journey in spiritual terms. We invite contributions towards a discussion of the complex social exchanges that accompany the global growth of PCC. We hope to address some of these questions: How do global PCC negotiate their presence in local landscapes? What is the role of ICTs in this expansion? How does this expansion blur the borders between the religious and the secular, and the private and the public? How do the, often conservative, preachings of many PCC dialogue with a secular mainstream? What role do PCC have in the everyday lives of migrants? How do PCC engage with the realms of politics, education, media, economics and social welfare? How are transnational PCC positive agents in conflict resolutions of all kinds?