Genders, Sexualities, and Spiritualities in African Pentecostalism: 'Your Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit'

426 Pages·2020·4.029 MB·English

by  Chammah J. Kaunda

CHRISTIANITY AND RENEWAL – INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Genders, Sexualities,
and Spiritualities in
African Pentecostalism
’Your Body is a Temple
of the Holy Spirit’
Edited by
Chammah J. Kaunda
Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies
Series Editors
Wolfgang Vondey
Department of Theology and Religion
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, UK
Amos Yong
School of Theology & School of Intercultural Studies
Fuller Theological Seminary
Pasadena, CA, USA
Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies provides a forum for
scholars from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, various global loca-
tions, and a range of Christian ecumenical and religious traditions to
explore issues at the intersection of the pentecostal, charismatic, and other
renewal movements and related phenomena, including: the transforming
and renewing work of the Holy Spirit in Christian traditions, cultures, and
creation; the traditions, beliefs, interpretation of sacred texts, and scholar-
ship of the renewal movements; the religious life, including the spirituality,
ethics, history, and liturgical and other practices, and spirituality of the
renewal movements; the social, economic, political, transnational, and
global implications of renewal movements; methodological, analytical,
and theoretical concerns at the intersection of Christianity and renewal;
intra-Christian and interreligious comparative studies of renewal and revi-
talization movements; other topics connecting to the theme of Christianity
and renewal. Authors are encouraged to examine the broad scope of reli-
gious phenomena and their interpretation through the methodological,
hermeneutical, and historiographical lens of renewal in contemporary
Christianity. Under the general topic of thoughtful reflection on
Christianity and renewal, the series includes two different kinds of books:
(1) monographs that allow for in-depth pursuit, carefully argued, and
meticulously documented research on a particular topic that explores
issues in Christianity and renewal; and (2) edited collections that allow
scholars from a variety of disciplines to interact under a broad theme
related to Christianity and renewal. In both kinds, the series encourages
discussion of traditional pentecostal and charismatic studies, reexamina-
tion of established religious doctrine and practice, and explorations into
new fields of study related to renewal movements. Interdisciplinarity will
feature in the series both in terms of two or more disciplinary approaches
deployed in any single volume and in terms of a wide range of disciplinary
perspectives found cumulatively in the series.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14894
Chammah J. Kaunda
Editor
Genders, Sexualities,
and Spiritualities in
African Pentecostalism
‘Your Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit’
Editor
Chammah J. Kaunda
Global Institute of Theology
Yonsei University
Seoul, Republic of Korea
College of Theology
Yonsei University
Seoul, Republic of Korea
United Graduate School of Theology
Yonsei University
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies
ISBN 978-3-030-42395-7 ISBN 978-3-030-42396-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42396-4
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F
oreword
A pertinent, yet less talked or researched about subject in religious tradi-
tions theorised and practised on the African continent and elsewhere,
especially within Pentecostal-Charismatic forms of spirituality, that is, the
subject of sexualities and spirituality, is the focus of the present volume. As
they engage the multi-faceted nature of notions and practices around sex-
ualities in varying African contexts, approaching the theme through mul-
tidisciplinary approaches, the authors bring a refreshing twist on the
subject of Pentecostalism and sexualities in Africa.
As a point of departure, the volume engages theological, public, media,
gendered and violent enactions. In their quest for an affirming, liberating
and inclusive Christian sexual theology and/or biblical hermeneutic, the
authors call for the affirmation of sexuality within the church and public
spaces; challenge the perpetuation of hegemonic masculinities; critique
gender-based violence perpetuated through the use of the Bible and
African traditions and cultures; question the problematic position of the
African Pentecostal-Charismatic church as a guardian of national morality,
among others. The second part focuses on the theme of marriage, family
and singleness exploring the approaches Pentecostal-Charismatic
Christians use to legitimate and promote sexuality expressed in the con-
text of heterosexual marriage. In the process, the received notions of a
traditional heterosexual family as the only legitimate site of sexual expres-
sion and procreation are revisited. In the third and last section of the
book, the authors challenge current normative perspectives within African
Pentecostal-Charismatic spirituality, by exposing the readers to non-
normative and non-conforming traditions, genders and sexualities. They
v
vi FOREWORD
problematise heteronormative notions of being born again; highlight gaps
caused by age disparities in Bible interpretation and foreground
Pentecostals’ struggles and intolerances to believers/people with non-
conformity genders and sexualities. They also challenge the criminalisa-
tion of homoeroticism and sexuality by Pentecostal Christians even as they
unpack heterosexual masculinist hegemonies among others. As they
embark on all these, the authors challenge prescriptive discourses on an
apparent static heteronormativity so rife within African Pentecostalism.
On the whole, the authors of this unique and thought-provoking addi-
tion, appear to see the need for an inclusive, affirming Christian theology/
spirituality on sexuality; one that recognises the humanity and dignity of
all people (read: insiders to African Pentecostalism) irrespective of their
gender, marital status and sexual orientation, thus calling for the full par-
ticipation of all believers within the body of Christ.
Pretoria, South Africa Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’a Mphahlele)
F : o h B
oreword F the uman ody
S /S S
and pirit piritS in the tudy
p r
oF entecoStal eligion
This book on Pentecostalism and sexuality in Africa is a timely volume that
articulates for both the general reader and the scholar some of the more
contemporary issues that arise from the impact and influence of
Pentecostalism within the African public sphere. That Pentecostalism is
the most significant religious development in Africa since the last three
decades of the twentieth century is not in doubt. Not only has it attracted
masses of people, but its influence on the critical populations of people in
their late teens to about early 40s is an important part of the story. Besides,
not only is Pentecostalism reshaping Christian spirituality in Africa, but its
engagement with the contentious matter of sexuality cannot be left hang-
ing without some sort of academic religious and theological engagement.
The issues have been very carefully articulated here with examples from
across various African contexts. The public discussion of sexuality has
always been a problem in the African tradition and as for the debate on
gay/lesbian issues, it remains a taboo topic meant for those who want to
‘westernise’ and ‘liberalise’ African morality. At least, that is the thinking
of those who feel that it must not be discussed.
Thus, the collection edited by Chammah J. Kaunda, would serve to
open up the debate on sexuality a bit more so that the caveat that has for
such a long time been placed on these matters by Pentecostals, in particu-
lar, could be relaxed a bit. Rather than comment on the collection of
essays, I have decided to place the discussion within the context of
Pentecostalism and the understanding of the human body. Perceptions of
the human body in Pentecostal religion are critical for understanding its
approach to sexuality. It is impossible to talk about religion without
vii
viii FOREWORD: OF THE HUMAN BODY AND SPIRIT/SPIRITS IN THE STUDY…
engaging with spirit and conversely, we cannot talk about spirit without
embodiment. Spirits usually require residence in physical objects and sub-
stances to make their presence and activities felt. This volume, which inci-
dentally bears a title I chose for an article I wrote a decade ago, is a
significant contribution to the growing body of studies on religion, but in
particular, on Pentecostal religion and the human body.1 The relationship
between religion and the human body is important for Christian theology
generally as we see in the response to those who, following Friedrich
Nietzsche, attempt to argue that Christianity is nihilistic:
What is missing, especially in the more vulgar variants of the assertion
of the hostility of the Christian church towards the body, is a critical soma-
tology, i.e., a theological understanding of the body that does not take its
own time-bound understanding of embodiment as an unproblematic
horizon for the historical understanding of the body.2
Indeed, religion has to do with how the two asymmetrical worlds of the
universe—the earthly and the heavenly—interact through heavenly revela-
tions and earthly responses. We know what we know about religion
because diverse ephemeral spirits have revealed themselves through vari-
ous kinds of embodiments. Hierophantic experiences of all sorts have led
to the creation of sacred spaces, objects and locations due to claims of
encounters and experiences with spiritual beings. Spirits, which by defini-
tion are incorporeal in nature, have often revealed themselves and their
natures by possessing human beings.
In African traditional religious discourses of spirit-possession, for exam-
ple, a distinction is often made between a call to priesthood and lunacy. The
two situations involve some form of spirit-possession; whereas in priest-
hood deities possess people in order to have them serve in sacred mediato-
rial roles as religious functionaries, in the case of lunacy, evil spirits take over
the executive faculties of human beings to bring them to ruin. ‘The things
of the Spirit are spiritually discerned’ (I Corinthians 2:14) may be a biblical
saying but it has resonances within traditional worldviews of how the
incorporeal works through the corporeal. In both cases, it is usually at the
diviner’s court that through ritual communication with the spirit at work,
the distinction would be made as to whether the case of spirit-possession is
1 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “Your Body is a Temple: Conversion Narratives in African-
led Eastern European Pentecostalism,” Pastoral Psychology 58/1 (February 2009): 1–14.
2 Ola Sigurdson, Heavenly Bodies: Incarnation, the Gaze, and Embodiment in Christian
Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 2016), 2.
FOREWORD: OF THE HUMAN BODY AND SPIRIT/SPIRITS IN THE STUDY… ix
called into the service of a deity or simply the onset of lunacy caused by a
malevolent spirit. The diviner embodies a spirit which reveals things about
human concerns and remains the mouthpiece of that spiritual being as
mediator. It is therefore instructive that the indigenous word translated as
diviner among the Yoruba, Babalawo, simply means ‘father of secrets’
meaning, the one with the capacity to discern and receive communication
from the spiritual realm for the benefit of the physical realm.
This basic theoretical understanding of spirit-possession—which fits
both the biblical and African understandings—is important for appreciat-
ing the relationship between Pentecostalism and the human body. In a
recent collection of essays titled Pentecostals and the Body, this matter has
received very important scrutiny from the perspective of the sociology of
religion.3 Commenting for example on the relationship between the Holy
Spirit and the Pentecostal Christian body on one hand and the Spirit/
spirits on the other, Michael Wilkinson notes:
Pentecostal bodies, therefore, restricted what entered that temple so as
not to defile God’s abode…Bodies must be clean in order for the Spirit to
enter and live. Evil spirits too must be exorcised from the body since pol-
luted sinful bodies must be cleansed for the Holy Spirit to enter.4
Pentecostalism is a movement of the Holy Spirit and as Wilkinson tries
to argue above, the infilling of the Holy Spirit has implications for Christian
morality and most especially for sex and sexuality. The expression of
Pentecostalism may be used to cover the diverse streams of Christian
churches and movements that value, affirm and consciously promote the
experience of the Holy Spirit as normative to Christian life and worship.
In Pentecostal Christianity, the Holy Spirit ‘clothes with power,’ he ‘fills’
people, and he endows them with gifts. Thus, not only does the Holy
Spirit inspire ‘cleaner sexuality’ in the human body, but engagements in
negative sexual acts such as gay/lesbian relations open the body for the
intrusion of evil and demonic spirits.
The critical expression that captures the movement of the Holy Spirit
in human life is ‘manifestation’ and so when people speak in tongues,
prophesy, have visions, display words of knowledge or even demonstrate
3 Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse ed., Pentecostals and the Body: Annual Review of
the Sociology of Religion, vol. 8 (Leiden: Brill Academic, 2017).
4 Michael Wilkinson, “Pentecostalism, the Body and Embodiment,” in Pentecostals and the
Body: Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion vol. 8, edited by Michael Wilkinson and
Peter Althouse (Leiden: Brill Academic, 2017), 15–35, 32–33.