Comments on Sensational Movies

• Published in: Religion (London. 1971) Vol. 46; no. 4; pp. 644 - 653
• Main Author: Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bergen Routledge 01-10-2016; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Africa; Birgit Meyer; Christians; Cultural values; Entertainment; Faith healing; Film studies; God; Good & evil; healing and deliverance; Hyperactivity; Imagination; Meyer, Birgit; Money; Motion pictures; movie; occult; Paul Gifford; Pentecostal churches; Power; Religion; Religious studies; Supernatural; Theology; Wealth; Witchcraft; worldview
• ISSN: 0048-721X; 1096-1151
• DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2016.1210396

This response to Birgit Meyer's Sensational Movies engages the book as a study of how Pentecostal ideas are transferred into popular entertainment and back into the church. It explores the close connection between the video films and interventionist theology, in which the power of God may be invoked to deal with supernatural evil in the lives of people. In closing, a number of virulent issues for Christian life and theology in Ghana are identified. Among these are: the omnipresent and hyperactive nature of supernatural evil in the African religious imagination; the demonization of traditional religion as a 'demonic doorway;' the creation of Christian ritual contexts for dealing with the effect of demons; the idea that money, power, and wealth are impossible to obtain merely through hard work; and the close relationship between prosperity and evil.