Charisma as a Transnational Enterprise

Abstract

African Pentecostalism is not confined to Africa. As Africans move into Europe, many bring new ways of interpreting Christianity. The empirical research in Nigeria, Ghana, and Italy supports the idea that African Pentecostalism has produced a worldwide socio-religious innovation. Two elements in particular emerge: high mobility in individual religious choices and the fluidity of the boundaries of religious affiliation. Migration processes have emphasized the latter to an even greater extent. The most important result of this innovation is, on the one hand, the radical change that affects the church model and, on the other, the emergence of a charismatic religious leadership. This chapter deals with the idea of “charisma” as a transnational “company” or religious “enterprise.” In this way, the new African churches that are transplanted in Europe contribute to the weakening of the traditional boundaries of Euro-centric Christianity and to the loosening of the link between national identity and belonging to a Christian denomination. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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