Abstract
Two connected elements of APCC’s beliefs and practices were continually emphasized within the church: the Prosperity Gospel and Holy Spirit Power. These were described by congregants as having particular utility for African migrants. The Prosperity Gospel is a religious doctrine maintaining that God will bless faithful believers with physical health and material wealth, while Holy Spirit Power incorporates numerous ideas about supernatural power, protection from curses and the devil, as well as the expression of spiritual gifts. This chapter details narratives concerning how the Prosperity Gospel provides migrants with success, healing, and a conceptual framework for charitable giving and remittance. Congregant accounts of Holy Spirit Power are also conveyed, which include descriptions of supernatural faculties, exorcisms, and the need for divine protection from demonic attacks.
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Notes
Laryea and Hayfron, “African Immigrants,” 116, 18; Dennis D. Cordell, “Paradoxes of Immigrant Incorporation: High Achievement and Perceptions of Discrimination by Nigerians in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (USA),” in Trans-Atlantic Migration: The Paradoxes of Exile, ed. Toyin Falola and Niyi Afolabi (New York: Routledge, 2008), 13–17.
Giles Mohan and A. B. Zack-Williams, “Globalisation from Below: Conceptualising the Role of the African Diasporas in Africa’s Development,” Review of African Political Economy, 29:92 (2002): 211–236;
John A. Arthur, “The New African Diaspora in North America: Policy Implications,” in The New African Diaspora in North America: Trends, Community Building, and Adaptation, ed. Kwado Konadu-Agyemang, Baffour K. Takyi, and John Arthur (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2006), 294.
Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1995), 247.
Opoku Onyinah, “Deliverance as a Way of Confronting Witchcraft in Modern Africa: Ghana as a Case History,” Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies, 5:1 (2002): 107; Anderson, “Stretching the Definitions,” 106.
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Allan Anderson, Moya: The Holy Spirit in an African Context (Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1991), 51.
For a more detailed discussion of the various views of “Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” see Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals, 3rd ed. (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 25, 324;
Gordon Fee, “Towards a Pauline Theology of Glossolalia,” in Pentecostalism in Context: Essays in Honor of. William W. Menzies, ed. Wonsuk Ma and Robert P. Menzies (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997).
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William James, Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York: Collier Books, 1961), 351.
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© 2015 Thomas Aechtner
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Aechtner, T. (2015). Beliefs and Practices: The Prosperity Gospel and Holy Spirit Power. In: Health, Wealth, and Power in an African Diaspora Church in Canada. Religion and Global Migrations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485496_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485496_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50371-1
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