Pentecostalism is a Protestant Christian movement that emphasises direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. Protestants believe that this enables a Christian to live a Spirit-filled and empowered life. This empowerment involves the use of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and divine healing. Witchcraft, according to practitioners, is the practice of magical skills and abilities such as using spells, incantations and magical rituals. It is a broad term that varies culturally and socially. In many cultures, witches are seen as the opposite of sacred. In some countries, many Pentecostal pastors have combined their evangelical brand of Christianity with regional beliefs in witchcraft. The book presents researches and studies performed by experts across the globe. Different approaches, evaluations, methodologies and advanced studies on Pentecostalism and witchcraft have been included herein. This book is a vital tool for all researching or studying this topic, as it gives incredible insights into emerging trends and concepts.

This open access book presents fresh ethnographic work from the regions of Africa and Melanesia—where the popularity of charismatic Christianity can be linked to a revival and transformation of witchcraft. The volume demonstrates how the Holy Spirit has become an adversary to the reconfirmed presence of witches, demons, and sorcerers as manifestations of evil. We learn how this is articulated in spiritual warfare, in crusades, and in healing or witch-killing raids. The contributors highlight what happens to phenomena that people address as locally specific witchcraft or sorcery when re-molded within the universalist Pentecostal demonology, vocabulary, and confrontational methodology.

This open access book presents fresh ethnographic work from the regions of Africa and Melanesia-where the popularity of charismatic Christianity can be linked to a revival and transformation of witchcraft. The volume demonstrates how the Holy Spirit has become an adversary to the reconfirmed presence of witches, demons, and sorcerers as manifestations of evil. We learn how this is articulated in spiritual warfare, in crusades, and in healing or witch-killing raids. The contributors highlight what happens to phenomena that people address as locally specific witchcraft or sorcery when re-molded within the universalist Pentecostal demonology, vocabulary, and confrontational methodology. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Juxtaposes case studies from Melanesia and Africa in order to better compare, contrast, and illuminate the effects of and engagements with Pentecostalism. Focuses on chief themes of Pentecostalism and witchcraft while also bringing in discussions of globalization, visibility, movements of capital, and embodiment. Presents rich and detailed case studies while also offering up wide-ranging theoretical analyses and critiques of established thinking/concepts.

"Witchcraft" and exorcism have long been dominant features of life in African cultures. This unique book provides a thorough, field research-based description and analysis of a specifically Pentecostal Christian response to these phenomena within the Akan culture of Ghana. Anthropological studies generally claim that the ultimate goal of exorcism is modernisation. Using interdisciplinary studies with a theological focus, the author takes a different view, arguing that it is divinatory consultation or an inquiry into the sacred and the search for meaning that underlies the current "deliverance" ministry, where the focus is to identify and break down the so-called demonic forces by the power of God and to "deliver" people from their torment. The deliverance ministry is one attempt to contextualise the gospel for African people. However, preoccupation with demonisation and exorcistic practices is found to bring Christianity into tension with the Akan culture, family ties and other religions. In order to develop a properly safeguarded ministry of exorcism in an African context, the author examines contextualisation and suggests the integration into African Christianity of divinatory consultation, which has strong resonances with the biblical concept of prayer.

Pentecostal scholars from four continents here offer constructive theological proposals focusing on the role of the Holy Spirit in diverse cultural and religious contexts. Typical Pentecostal topics Spirit-baptism, healing, and other charisms are interwoven with such themes as post-colonialism, religious plurality, racial diversity, and cultural heritage.

Over the past decades, Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity has arguably become the fastest growing religious movement in the world. Distinguishing features of this variant of Christianity include formal ritual activities as well as informal, experiential, and ecstatic forms of worship. This book examines Pentecostal-charismatic ritual practice in different parts of the world, highlighting, among other things, the crucial role of ritual in creating religious communities and identities.

Ethiopian and Eritrean Pentecostalism and the Habesha church in Rome -- Breaking with the past, healing history -- Conclusion -- References -- 7 "I went out into the street ... and now I am fighting for my life.": Street children, witchcraft accusations, and the collapse of the household in Bangui (Central African Republic) -- A history of oppression and dispossession -- The streets of Bangui -- Witchcraft violence:Children, adults and religious leaders in the streets of Bangui -- Etiological crisis and the collapse of the household -- Conclusion: The dialectic of enclosure and freedom -- References -- 8 Fields of experience: In between healing and harming. On conversation between Dogon healers and sorcerers -- Healing powers, sacrifice and sorcery on the Dogon plateau -- Archives of disorder, secret and rebellion -- To accuse, to heal, to envision -- Epistemological debris and 'hierarchies of credibility'. Conclusions -- References -- Index

Your Holy Spirit Handbook to Surviving Last Days Deception. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? - Matthew 7:22 Are they prophesying by the Holy Spirit... or ministering under a demonic influence? Jennifer LeClaire received a startling prophetic word that a showdown was coming to the body of Christwhere both true and false prophets will be exposed. In this book she presents a confrontational yet constructive word of warning to the contemporary Spirit-empowered movement. More than ever, there is a great need in the modern prophetic community to be discerning of what is true and what is false. This powerful book features intriguing chapters that provide Bible answers, supernatural clarity and timely spiritual solutions, including: Identify what real prophets look and sound like. Discover the signs of false prophets. Discern the difference between false prophets and false prophecy. Avoid Prophetic Con Artists who sell prophecies and engage in spiritual scams. Beware of Charismatic Witchcraft. Recognize the counterfeit Rise of Christian Witches and Psychics. Resist those offering deliverance and impartation who are empowered by divination. When you learn to recognize and resist satans counterfeits, you will build your life upon unshakeable Truth and thrive in victory during days of darkness and compromise.

Beliefs in witchcraft and demons still shape many societies and seem to be increasing rather than disappearing with modernization and urbanization. Witch hunts in Africa and Asia show the scope of the problem. The deliverance practices of pentecostal and charismatic churches are widely controversial and their effects are rather ambiguous. The contributions in this volume, written by experts and practitioners from four continents, analyze these phenomena from the perspectives of intercultural theology, anthropology, and ethnology, and also describe the responses of Catholic and Protestant churches. (Series: Contributions to Mission Science / Intercultural Theology // Beitrage zur Missionswissenschaft / Interkulturellen Theologie - Vol. 32) [Subject: Anthropology, Ethnology, Sociology, Religious Studies]