Moving by the Spirit ─ Pentecostal Social Life on the Zambian Copperbelt

Drawing on two years of ethnographic research, Moving by the Spirit explores Pentecostal Christianity in the kind of community where it often flourishes: a densely populated neighborhood in the heart of an extraction economy. On the Zambian copperbelt, Pentecostal adherence embeds believers in relationships that help them to “move” and progress in life, whether through educational attainment, marriage, or advancement in the church hierarchy. These efforts that enable believers to realize a measure of the good life give copperbelt Pentecostalism its particular local character, shaping ritual practice, gender dynamics, and church economics. Focusing on the promises and problems that Pentecostalism presents, Moving by the Spirit highlights this religion’s role in making life possible in structurally adjusted Africa.

Naomi Haynes is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. She is co-editor of the Current Anthropology special issue, The Anthropology of Christianity: Unity, Diversity, New Directions and of the Social Analysis special issue, Hierarchy, Values, and the Value of Hierarchy.? She is also co-curator of the Anthropology of Christianity Bibliographic Blog (www.anthrocybib.net).