Faith in African Lived Christianity – Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives

New book co-edited by Associate Professor Karen Lauterbach and Professor Mika Vähäkangas at Lund University brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people’s faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality. Karen Lauterbach’s own chapter ‘Fakery and Wealth in African Charismatic Christianity: Moving Beyond the Prosperity Gospel as Script’ provides a critical of the prosperity gospel and how it has been approached in the literature.