Pentecostalism and Urban Modernity: Between Un-Territorial Identities and Symbolic Reinvestment in Urban Territory

• Published in: Social compass Vol. 54; no. 2; pp. 201 - 210
• Main Author: Fer, Yannick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01-06-2007
• Subjects: Evangelism; Intergroup Relations; Pentecostalists; Religious Conversion; Territoriality; Urban Areas
• ISSN: 0037-7686
• DOI: 10.1177/0037768607077031

Pentecostalism appears to be a religion of mobility, with an affinity for contemporary urban life, but the city is more often described by Pentecostal preachers as 'inhuman', under demoniac influence. This representation of the city as the place of spiritual warfare for liberation, which is spread by the 'third Pentecostal wave', leads to a symbolic reinvestment of territories, while believers tend to become independent of any territorial belonging through a personal conversion & voluntary religious involvement. The street is the very place on which these two contradictory foci of the Pentecostal mission can converge: a focus on individuals experiencing mobility; & a focus on the urban territory seen as a spiritual entity influencing the destiny of its dwellers. There is a deep affinity between the evangelization of the streets, frequently led by independent "prophets", & the Pentecostal paradigm based on an institutional "invisible" mediation & on the conviction that the true church should not remain inside the walls of the church. References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright 2007 Social Compass.]