The Pentecostal Antirevolution: Reflections from Angola

Abstract

This article discusses the so-called ‘revolutionary’ character of Evangelical and Pentecostal movements, as has been proposed in mainstream sociological and anthropological literature. Through a historical and ethnographic account of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in Angola, we suggest that in this country Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism is defined by exclusionary tactics that render most churches compliant with the current political regime, and they in fact act as reactionary, conservative forces in contexts of social and political disruption. This in turn exposes a divergence in terms of political rhetoric and praxis among Evangelical and Pentecostal movements.

A Historiographical Overview of Mission and Politics in Twentieth-Century Angola and Mozambique

“…Anaxsuell Fernando Silva and Karen Susan Silva Pititinga Rosa (2017) have similarly focused on this church in terms of a 'new global religious cartography' of Angola, while Natalia Zawiejska and Linda van de Kamp (2018) examined the church's 'multipolarity' in Angola. In a more critical tone, Blanes and Natalia Zawiejska (2019) analysed the church's 'antirevolutionary' nature in Angola, and Lívia Reis Santos (2019) did similar work in relation to the church in Mozambique. Premawardhana (2018), in turn, deconstructed the UCKG narrative about and focus on globalization, multipolarity, and success.…”