Reviews for African Pentecostalism: An Introduction

The average rating for African Pentecostalism: An Introduction based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-06 00:00:00 Shelby Wyatt Ogbu Kalu's grasp of the English language is not perfect, and apparently the editors at Oxford University Press edit while drunk. I can't think of any other way to explain the glaring typos, misspellings, sentence fragments, and other grammatical issues in Kalu's latest book, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction. After about the fifth time the word "implode" was used to mean "explode", I had to restrain myself from writing a nasty letter to the people at Oxford revoking their English language privileges. Once I got over that, however, I was able to appreciate the extraordinary amount of research and thought that Kalu clearly put into this book. It was a monumental effort, and one that Kalu executed flawlessly from start to finish. Perhaps because he is not interested in the debate over whether missions constitute cultural imperialism, Kalu avoids polemic and manages to paint a subtle portrait of the tensions between externality and internality in African Pentecostalism. The interesting thing about this argument is that it does not hinge upon indigenization. He is uninterested in AICs that have adapted Christianity to fit African belief and ritual. Rather, he seeks to demonstrate that when Pentecostalism arrived in Africa it already had within it powerful resonances with "the African map of the universe." In Kalu's words, Pentecostals offer "new realities" that, "though seemingly from outside, come in to fulfill aspirations within the tradition and, then, to offer quite significantly the basis of self-understanding within the tradition" (186).

Review # 2 was written on 2013-11-11 00:00:00 Ray Michaels Ogbu Kalu covered a significant amount of African Pentecostal history. The book is great, but has some issues with foot notes. There were words that probably made sense for Ethiopians, but does not make sense to an English speaker. Kalu is a historian and his approach is strongly focused on African Pentecostal identity. The author drifts away from the missionary enterprise of the west, and argues that Pentecostals existed before the western missionaries arrived to Ethiopia. The book challenges the reader to do further research on African Pentecostalism, because of it syncretism with local traditions. Overall this book is aimed to an audience who is interested in history, mission and Pentecostalism.