The relationality of Pentecostal rupture: conversion, natality, and spiritual kinship in Ghana

Abstract: The article explores the dialogic process of deliberation, critique and intervention around Pentecostal conversion in Ghana. It argues that, from this immanent point of view, the Pauline motif of Christian natality (metanoia) is modulated according to two ethical stances, which I call evangelistic and apostolic. They emphasize respectively event and process, spiritual rebirth and maturation, and project conversion into a non-linear temporality. I highlight three axes of realignment that characterize spiritual maturation and examine some possible functions and articulations of spiritual kinship, which I understand to be the relational unity of Pentecostal pedagogy. I conclude by showing how the Christianity of spiritual kinship tends to be dissolved by the dominant focus of anthropologists of Christianity on individualistic disconnection, and demonstrate its capacity to “make a difference” in anthropological theory.

Keywords:
pentecostalism; conversion; kinship; ethics; anthropology of Christianity