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Pentecostalism and Development

I just finished attending my first Glopent conference, the 8th international meeting of the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism. The conference was held at SOAS, University of London.

The conference theme was "Pentecostalism and Development" and featured plenary addresses by Matthew Clark (Deakin University, Australia), Tomas Sundnes Drønen (School of Mission and Theology in Stravanger, Norway), and Dena Freeman (visiting fellow at the London School of Economics).

The conference attempted to address a number of questions about the relationship between Pentecostalism in the so-called "developing world" and how scholars understand and interpret what is happening.

The various speakers and papers in parallel sessions raised a number of excellent questions. For example, one of the basic issues revolves around the relationship between Pentecostals and development agencies, how they view that relationship, who get's to define the role religion plays, and as Matthew Clark argued, whether or not they see that relationship as one of mutual and shared concern. My view is that the suspicion Pentecostals have towards development agencies accounts for the large amount of work that Pentecostals do themselves, which bypasses state sponsored development work.

Tomas Sundnes Drønen offered a rich ethnographic description of small, primarily rural Pentecostal churches in northern Cameroon struggling to gain acceptance by government authorities, negotiating identities with larger more accepted Lutheran Churches, and the fascinating ways in which Pentecostals desire to be successful like their Muslim counterparts. I appreciated his focus on the mosaic of Pentecostalism and the various small rural churches often lost in the shadow of the megachurches of America and Nigeria.

Finally, Dena Freeman offered an account of the conversion of Ethiopians to Pentecostalism, which included the rupture of continuity with traditional life. And yet, these Ethiopian Pentecostals have gained new social identities, successful businesses, and for development workers, new models for expanding projects.

There is more that could be said about the conference and I'm still processing the many rich ideas I hope to apply to my own work. Questions like, what constitutes the social good? What is social engagement? How do we understand the role of religion and civil society? What is the social impact of religion and what benefit does religion contribute to community cohesion and citizenship? How might Pentecostals contribute to public policy and development? What happens when development projects fail? Or politically, when the goals, motives, and outcomes differ between development agencies and faith based organizations?

If you've never attended a Glopent conference, I strongly recommend it.

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