The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: A Cautionary Tale for the Sociology of Religion

Martin, Bernice

doi:10.1002/9780470998571.ch3

Cited by 45 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…As represented by the men participating in this study, born-again masculinity has a more 'modern' appearance, shaped by a globalising American evangelical discourse of 'biblical manhood' (Van Klinken forthcoming). The Pentecostal gender paradox, a concept coined by Bernice Martin (2001), is clearly manifested in born-again masculinity, such as when the men in this study embrace the notion of male headship on the one hand, while on the other hand emphasize respect, partnership, and even equality in gender relations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Men in the Remaking: Conversion Narratives and Born-Again Masculinity in Zambia

Klinken

2012

J Religion Afr

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The born-again discourse is a central characteristic of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa. In the study of African Christianities, this discourse and the way it (re)shapes people's moral, religious, and social identities has received much attention. However, hardly any attention has been paid to its effects on men as gendered beings. In the study of men and masculinities in Africa, on the other hand, neither religion in general nor born-again Christianity in particular are taken into account as relevant factors in the construction of masculinities. On the basis of a detailed analysis of interviews with men who are members of a Pentecostal church in Lusaka, Zambia, this article investigates how men's gender identities are reshaped by becoming and being born-again and how born-again conversion produces new forms of masculinity. The observed Pentecostal transformation of masculinity is interpreted in relation to men's social vulnerability, particularly in the context of the HIV epidemic in Zambia.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Men in the Remaking: Conversion Narratives and Born-Again Masculinity in Zambia

Klinken

2012

J Religion Afr

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“…Submission, power and responsibility are invested with particular meanings in these spaces: they constitute the trio of normative orders in the heart of the relations between Pentecostal men and women. It is the reason for which Bernice Martin (2001) asserts that these movements, qualified as "regressive," "patriarchal," or as "fundamentalists," have nevertheless contributed to the emancipation of millions of women in or from "the South." The author adds that the signs of emancipation are difficult to perceive for the western observers influenced by the Age of Enlightenments for whom Pentecostalism is above all marked by a lack of intellectual sophistication (2001: 57).…”

Section: The Male Domesticationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pentecostal reworking of male identities in Brussels: producing moral masculinities

Maskens¹

2015

etnografica

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vol. 19 (2) | 2015Inclui dossiê "Masculinities in times of uncertainty and change"The Pentecostal reworking of male identities in Brussels: producing moral masculinities The text is a facsimile of the print edition. Reconfigurações pentecostais de identidades masculinas em Bruxelas: a produção de masculinidades morais © CRIAThe Pentecostal reworking of male identities in Brussels: producing moral masculinities Maïté MaskensAddressing the paradoxes of gender in Pentecostal churches attended by converts of African or Latin-American origin in Brussels, it is argued that religious and migratory experiences are intimately intermingled in these spaces and that, in most cases, the geographical shift experienced by male believers has led to questions regarding their "traditional" masculinity. Their capacity to hold the role of breadwinner has often been undermined and they experience a kind of vulnerability against which religious gendered ideology often provides assurance and self-esteem by affirming men as heads of the religious space and chiefs of the household unit. Pentecostal masculinity, although adhering to a model of hegemonic patriarchal masculinity regarding the sexual division of domestic tasks, the recognition of men's formal authority, and an exclusive focus on young women as the purity "capital" of churches, also reveals significant ruptures with that model: religious discourse values domestic involvement, sensibility and gentleness, encouraged and valorised as masculine characteristics. This hybrid posture of Pentecostal masculinity appears as a contrasted gender repertoire allowing men of the church to oscillate between various identifications and social locations according to specific situations and different contexts of enunciation.KEYWORDS: masculinity, Pentecostal churches, migration, agency, gender, hegemonic masculinity.Reconfigurações pentecostais de identidades masculinas em Bruxelas: a produção de masculinidades morais  O artigo trata os paradoxos de género nas igrejas pentecostais com fiéis africanos e latino-americanos em Bruxelas, argumentando que as experiências migratória e religiosa estão intimamente ligadas nestes espaços e que, na maioria dos casos, a mudança geográfica vivida pelos homens crentes conduziu a que questionassem a sua masculinidade "tradicional". Estes homens veem muitas vezes ameaçada a sua capacidade para assegurar o sustento da família e experimentam por isso alguma vulnerabilidade, que a ideologia de género da sua religião contraria dando-lhes maior segurança e autoestima, ao afirmá-los como dirigentes do espaço religioso e chefes de família. Se bem que a masculinidade pentecostal adira a um modelo de masculinidade patriarcal hegemónica no que respeita à divisão sexual das tarefas domésticas, ao reconhecimento da autoridade formal dos homens e à visão das jovens mulheres como detendo a exclusividade do capital de "pureza" destas igrejas, ela revela também ruturas significativas relativamente a esse modelo: o discurso religioso valoriza o envolvimento domés-tico, a sen...

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“…Religious movements in Nigeria and Ghana cultivate an interpretative mode in which readers apply the lessons contained in a text to their day-to-day lives and, as a result, learn to interpret their mundane experiences through the framework of their spiritual experiences. In this manner, new subjectivities, or new types of selfhood, are constituted through the activity of reading, as readers redefine themselves in relation to the world (see Martin [1990Martin [ ] 1993Martin 1995). As Ruth Marshall argues in her study of Lagos, Pentecostal and born-again Christians produce freshly empowered selves who feel able to understand the divine and the diabolical workings of their worlds (Marshall 1993; see also Ellis and ter Haar 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Devotion and Domesticity: The Reconfiguration of Gender in Popular Christian Pamphlets from Ghana and Nigeria

Newell¹

2005

J Religion Afr

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Drawing upon interviews with readers in Ghana and Nigeria as well as a large number of locally published marriage guidance pamphlets, this article considers attitudes toward the printed word among Christian readers in West Africa. Gender is an especially significant category in West African 'how-to' books, particularly those produced by Pentecostal and evangelical authors. While the majority of male authors try to reinstate Pauline strictures on wifely submission in their writing, the female authors discussed in this article make use of biblical quotation alongside romantic discourse in order to reconfigure both men's and women's marital roles. In so doing, they construct marital utopias which reveal a great deal about the contradictions and paradoxes of contemporary Christian gender ideologies in West Africa.

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The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: A Cautionary Tale for the Sociology of Religion

Cited by 45 publications

References 11 publications

Men in the Remaking: Conversion Narratives and Born-Again Masculinity in Zambia

Men in the Remaking: Conversion Narratives and Born-Again Masculinity in Zambia

The Pentecostal reworking of male identities in Brussels: producing moral masculinities

Devotion and Domesticity: The Reconfiguration of Gender in Popular Christian Pamphlets from Ghana and Nigeria

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