A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya

by Kyama M. Mugambi

Overview

Perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, Africa has generated unique expressions of Christianity that have, in their rapid development, overtaken older forms of Christianity represented by historic missionary efforts. Similarly, African Christianity has largely displayed its rootedness in its social and cultural context. The story of Pentecostal movements in urban Kenya captures both remarkable trends. Individual accounts of churches and their leaders shed light on rich and diverse commonalities among generations of Kenya's Christian communities.  

Exploring the movements' religious visions in urban Africa,  A Spirit of Revitalization: Urban Pentecostalism in Kenya highlights antecedent movements set against their historical, social, economic, and political contexts. Kyama Mugambi examines how, in their translation of the gospel, innovative leaders synthesized new expressions of faith from elements of their historical and contemporary contexts. The sum of their experiences historically charts the remarkable journey of innovation, curation, and revision that attends to the process of translation and conversion in Christian history.

While outlining a century of successive renewal movements in Kenya between 1920 and 2020, the study also delves into features of recent urban Pentecostal churches. Readers will find a thorough historical treatment of themes such as church structures, corporate vision, Christian formation, and theological education. The longitudinal and comparative analysis shows how these Pentecostal approaches to orality, kinship, and integrated spirituality inform Kenyans' reimagination of Christianity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481313551
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2020
Series:	Studies in World Christianity
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kyama M. Mugambi is Assistant Professor of World Christianity at Yale Divinity School. He remains connected to Africa actively researching aspects of the church there.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 The Spirit-Roho Christians
Conflict and Continuity in Early Kenyan Christianity
2 Revivalists and Student Movements
Early Cosmopolitan Renewal in Kenya
3 Self-Determination, Evangelicalism, and Renewal
New Pentecostal Charismatic Churches, 1970-1990
4 A New Pentecostal Response to Political and Economic Turmoil
Progressive Pentecostal Churches, 1990-2005
5 Go Ye and Make Disciples
Discipleship in Urban Kenyan Pentecostalism
6 Leadership Development and Renewal in Kenya
The Beginnings of Historic Mission Theological Education
7 Spirit-Led and Structured
The Case of "Christ Is the Answer Ministries"
8 "Without a Vision My People Perish"
Reconceptualizing the Future at the Nairobi Chapel
Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

Andrew F. Walls

Africa's great cities are a major laboratory for twenty-first century Christianity. This important and impressive book tells us much about Christian activity in a major urban centre, deepening our understanding of the influences shaping it. It also reflects how wide a range of phenomena can properly be comprehended under the heading 'Pentecostalism.'

Emma Wild-Wood

Mugambi displays all the advantages of an insider perspective in this rich volume: unparalleled access to the Pentecostal churches he studies, deep knowledge of the social and theological concerns that animate them, and profound insight into their historical antecedents.  A Spirit of Revitalization takes the reader inside the Pentecostal milieu in Kenya.

Mark R. Shaw

For many, Pentecostalism in Africa is an unwelcome North American import of televangelist Christianity on the one hand, or an escapist, super-spirituality that cares little about Africa’s social, economic and political needs on the other. Kyama Mugambi moves the narrative of African Pentecostalism beyond these incomplete storylines by giving us a picture of lived Pentecostalism in a key part of Africa today. Those who care about African Christianity and its future would do well to read this book. Readers will come away with an understanding of how the winds of the Spirit are blowing that is rich, learned, wise, nuanced, and deeply grounded in the author’s own experience.

Wanjiru M. Gitau

To me what stands out in Mugambi’s work are the stories, names, places, churches, and organizations in which the themes of orality, kinship, and worldview are generously referenced through a representative sketch in each chapter. To most Kenyans, the totality of these narratives constitutes familiar lore, a lot like a much-loved item of clothing. In reading this book then, readers are invited to re-examine the now well-worn garment, not merely to get better acquainted with the energetic spirit of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity as it has evolved in Kenya through several generations, but also to locate specific elements of this Christianity in Kenya’s changing world through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and hopefully, to orient new generations to figure out their own place in the next phase of the story.

Andrew F Walls

Africa's great cities are a major laboratory for twenty-first century Christianity. This important and impressive book tells us much about Christian activity in a major urban centre, deepening our understanding of the influences shaping it. It also reflects how wide a range of phenomena can properly be comprehended under the heading ‘Pentecostalism.’

Editorial Reviews

I enthusiastically recommend the book for all scholars of Christianity, and indeed religion, in Africa.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History - Joel Cabrita

"...An important and necessary addition to the study of world Christianity."

Evangelical Quarterly - Aaron Dunlop

... an outstanding book that provides a rich, engaging and compelling account of urban Pentecostalism in Kenya.

Exchange Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context - Samuel K. Bussey

A Spirit of Revitalization enables us to interpret Christian participation in politics or response to political scenarios in two important ways. The two ways relate to social identity and self-recognition, and a broad understanding of the political in Africa.

African Studies Review - Nimi Wariboko

Written with all the strengths of an in‐ sider who can speak to transnational theoretical debates, A Spirit of Revitalization is rich in ground-level detail while remaining conversant in current interventions from Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere in Africa.... A Spirit of Revitalization is imperative reading both for scholars of African religion and world Christianity.

H-Net Reviews - Paul G. Grant