Intervening in debates on religion and social inequalities, this article advocates a shift from
concerns with economic ethics to a focus on religious belonging as embodying class-based
cultural distinctions. In the first part, I critically review the literature that draws inspiration
from Weber’s concept of Protestant inner-worldly asceticism and advance two arguments:
Pentecostal orientations toward this-worldly salvation thwart rationalising potentials and feed
into magic, or “occult,” economies instead. Simultaneously, however, Pentecostalism promotes
personal autonomy by emphasising the possibilities for radical personal change through
conversion and becoming “born again.” In the second part, I draw on Bourdieu’s cultural
sociology and show that personal autonomy and certain images of Pentecostal modernity are
increasingly deployed within practices of cultural distinction between the modern Pentecostal
and economically successful and the backward who remain locked in the past. The article is
based on ethnographic research among Pentecostals in South Africa as well as a review of the
literature on other African societies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:83819 |
| Date | 28 February 2023 |
| Creators | Burchardt, Marian |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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