European University Institute Library

Enchanted Calvinism, labor migration, afflicting spirits, and Christian therapy in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Adam Mohr

eng

index present

non fiction

Enchanted Calvinism

electronic resource

dictionaries

1097100403

Adam Mohr

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

labor migration, afflicting spirits, and Christian therapy in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana

Enchanted Calvinism's central proposition is that Ghanaian Presbyterian communities, both past and present, have become significantly more enchanted--that is, more attuned to spiritual explanations of and remedies for suffering--as they have become more integrated into capitalist modes of production. The author draws on a specific Weberian concept of religious enchantment to frame the discussion of spiritual affliction and spiritual healing within the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, particularly under the conditions of labor migration: first, in the early twentieth century during the cocoa boom in Ghana and second, at the turn of the twenty-first century in the context of the healthcare migration from Ghana to North America. Relying on extensive archival research, oral historical interviews, and participant-observation group interviews conducted in North America, Europe, and West Africa, the study provides evidence that the more these Ghanaian Calvinists became dependent on capitalist modes of production, the more enchanted their lives, and, subsequently, their church became, although in different ways within these two migrations. One striking pattern that has emerged among Ghanaian Presbyterian labor migrants in North America, for example, is a radical shift in gendered healing practices, where women have become prominent healers, while a significant number of men have become spirit-possessed. Adam Mohr is a Senior Writing Fellow in Anthropology with the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania.--, Provided by publisher

The disenchantment of Ghana's Basel Mission, 1828-1918 -- Enchanted competition for the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, 1918-60s -- The enchantment of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, 1960-2010 -- The school of deliverance and the enchantment of the Ghanaian Presbyterian churches in North America -- The enchantment of the United Ghanaian Community Church, Philadelphia -- Gendered transformations of enchanted Calvinism in the Ghanaian Presbyterian diaspora