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The Universal Church Of The Kingdom Of God In South Africa



The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) is a Brazilian Pentecostal church that has been very successful in establishing branches and attracting followers in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike other Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCC), the UCKG insists that relationships with God be devoid of 'emotions', that socialisation between members be kept to a minimum and that charity and fell... more details
Key Features:
  • Provides an ethnography of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in South Africa
  • Examines the rituals and beliefs of UCKG members, their relationships with each other and their understanding of the importance of religion in their lives
  • Shows how the UCKG has been successful in establishing branches and attracting followers in post-apartheid South Africa


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Features
Author Ilana Van Wyk
Format Paperback
ISBN 9781107686250
Pages 304
Description
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) is a Brazilian Pentecostal church that has been very successful in establishing branches and attracting followers in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike other Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCC), the UCKG insists that relationships with God be devoid of 'emotions', that socialisation between members be kept to a minimum and that charity and fellowship are 'useless' in materialising God's blessings. Instead, the UCKG urges members to sacrifice large sums of money to God for delivering wealth, health, social harmony and happiness. While outsiders condemn these rituals as empty or manipulative, this book shows that they are locally meaningful, demand sincerity to work, have limits and are informed by local ideas about human bodies, agency and ontological balance. As an ethnography of people rather than of institutions, this book offers fresh insights into the mass PCC movement that has swept across Africa since the early 1990s.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), a church of Brazilian origin, has been enormously successful in establishing branches and attracting followers in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike other Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCC), the UCKG insists that relationships with God be devoid of 'emotions', that socialisation between members be kept to a minimum and that charity and fellowship are 'useless' in materialising God's blessings. Instead, the UCKG urges members to sacrifice large sums of money to God for delivering wealth, health, social harmony and happiness. While outsiders condemn these rituals as empty or manipulative, this book shows that they are locally meaningful, demand sincerity to work, have limits and are informed by local ideas about human bodies, agency and ontological balance. As an ethnography of people rather than of institutions, this book offers fresh insights into the mass PCC movement that has swept across Africa since the early 1990s. Review: 'In what is by far the most profound and wide-ranging study of one of the world's most challenging and disconcerting religious phenomena, Ilana van Wyk has produced a truly engrossing work of ethnography. In its triumphant march out of Brazil and across the globe, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God attracts millions of followers, but also puzzlement, indignation and shock for its success with methods which seem at first sight to be utterly out of keeping with contemporary cultures. This book covers the controversial aspects one by one: money, demonic possession and exorcism; unbearable family tensions amidst poverty and AIDS; and the mysteries of the church's internal dynamics. Some of the case material is deeply distressing, but the analytical fruits will be with us for a long time to come.' David Lehmann, University of Cambridge 'This excellent study not only offers a sound ethnography of the UCGK's actual pragmatics of faith and its amazing capacity to appear 'globally local' but also challenges established analytical frameworks and moves the study of global Pentecostalism to a new level. It is a truly groundbreaking work that uses the case of an exceptional church to challenge long-held assumptions in the study of religion in Africa at large.' Birgit Meyer, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands 'This book chronicles the historical process of mobility, adaptation and transformation of the UCKG in South Africa. Through a bottom-up approach, micro-level discourse, thick ethnographic description and concise elucidation of local internal dynamics, the book illumines another face of global Pentecostalism. Backtracking from grandiose macro-level assumptions about the UCKG, it grounds the Church's appeal, demographic mobility and phenomenal growth within epistemological, ontological and semiotic conditions, emphasising local impulses, agency, and symbolic and ritual repertoires of the local South African religious field.' Afe Adogame, University of Edinburgh 'Van Wyk's superb analysis of a new kind of church teems with anthropological insight. Her monograph contributes significantly to the study of Christianity in South Africa, building on classical works such as Bengt Sundkler's Bantu Priests and Prophets and Jean Comaroff's Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance.' Isak Niehaus, Brunel University 'The UCKG is one of the most astounding phenomena of the globalization of Christianity. The foreign country where this Brazilian church has done best is South Africa, representing one of the greatest success stories in south-south religious transnationalism. Ilana van Wyk does more than tell this story; she offers us a portrait of how this unique church functions at the local level in a South African city, and in doing so greatly expands our understanding of its international appeal.' Paul Freston, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario '... offers a thorough (and often troubling) account of the UCKG in South Africa, and more specifically of one large congregation located in Durban ... In one of the most insightful parts of her analysis, van Wyk argue
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