{"title":"Paul Gifford","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"african-christianity-book-paul-gifford-9781850653356","title":"African Christianity","description":"This text analyzes African Christianity in the mid-1990s, against the background of the continent's current social, economic and political circumstances. Paul Gifford employs concepts taken from political economy to shed light on the current dynamics of African churches and churchgoers, and assesses their different contributions in political developments since 1989. He also evaluates the Churches' role in promoting a civil society in Africa. Four detailed case-studies - Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and Cameroon - cover all strands of Christianity: Catholic, Evangelical, mainline Protestant, Pentecostal and Independent. These serve as detailed analyses of the state of the churches in each country and suggest more general patterns operating widely across sub-Saharan Africa.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49566412800273,"sku":"GOR004915798","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53140254589201,"sku":"GOR011984562","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1850653356.jpg?v=1751379214"},{"product_id":"ghana-s-new-christianity-book-paul-gifford-9781850657194","title":"Ghana's New Christianity","description":"In sub-Saharan Africa over the last two decades there has been an explosion of Christianity. This book sets out to identify its particular character, focusing on a particular place: Greater Accra, the capital of Ghana. Paul Gifford examines a wide range of Accra's new churches, giving priority to mega-churches. Every dimension -- discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, conventions, finances, clientele -- is analysed. Gifford argues that this Christianity is not otherworldly: its emphasis is on success, achievement, wealth here and now. Yet within this general orientation there is diversity. At one end of the spectrum are churches that, building on the traditional religious imagination, see demonic forces everywhere blocking personal success. In the churches the key factor is the special 'man of God' who is understood to have the 'anointing' to conquer these forces, to 'reverse the curse' that is holding the believer back. At the other end is a strain of this new Christianity that discounts spiritual forces and sees victory resulting from the believer's own education and skills, and from transforming culture. The book also joins the debate over the role of this Christianity in modernizing economic and political structures. It sets the scene by describing Ghana's political and economic situation in the decades when these churches were proliferating, and outlines the current debate on the reasons for Africa's economic plight. It is argued that although focusing on success and wealth can provide motivation in circumstances where it is so easy to despair, the pervasive emphasis on miracles militates against any natural fostering of a new work ethic. As for their political role, some churches are easily co-opted; others challenge the government, but for 'spiritual' reasons that provide little incentive to grapple with issues of governance; by contrast, Gifford finds one important church encouraging change of the entire political culture. No other book has set forth the complex nature of Africa's new Christianity with such clarity, or offered such a searching analysis of its power to tackle Africa's predicament.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49602367291665,"sku":"GOR004915815","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/185065719X.jpg?v=1750963658"},{"product_id":"christianity-development-and-modernity-in-africa-book-paul-gifford-9781849044776","title":"Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa","description":"Is African Christianity a religious marketplace now dominated by only two big players, the Catholic Church and Pentecostals? There is an important if largely unremarked diversity within African Christianity; on the one hand, an enchanted Christianity that views the world as pervaded by spiritual forces, and on the other a disenchanted Christianity that discounts them. An enchanted Christian sees his glorious destiny threatened by witches, spirits, and ancestral curses. Churches catering for this worldview lay bare the workings of this spirit world, and this enchanted imagination, along with the prosperity gospel, and emphasis on the pastor's 'anointing', are the principal characteristics of much African Pentecostalism. Gifford argues that the enchanted religious imagination militates against development by encouraging fear and distrust, diminishing human responsibility and agency, and downplaying functional rationality. The prosperity gospel of 'covenant wealth from tithes and offerings' is the antithesis of Weber's Protestant ethic; and to magnify the person of the pastor is to perpetuate the curse of the 'Big Man'.Official Catholicism, totally disenchanted and long associated with schools and hospitals, is now involved in development, from microfinance to election monitoring, from conflict resolution to human rights. This 'NGO-ization of Catholicism', made almost inevitable by funding from secular donors like the EU and UN, even if defended theologically, comes at the price of failing to address the 'religious' needs of so many African Christians.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49758829084945,"sku":"NGR9781849044776","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49929055469841,"sku":"GOR009604433","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1849044775.jpg?v=1750767940"},{"product_id":"plight-of-western-religion-book-paul-gifford-9781787381339","title":"The Plight of Western Religion","description":"'Religion' can be used to mean all kinds of things, but a substantive definition––based on the premise of superhuman powers––can clarify much. It allows us to attempt to differentiate religion from culture, ethnicity, morality and politics.   This definition of religion necessarily implies a perception of reality. Until recent centuries in the West, and in most cultures still, the ordinary, natural and immediate way of understanding and experiencing reality was in terms of otherworldly or spiritual forces. However, a cognitive shift has taken place through the rise of science and its subsequent technological application.   This new consciousness has not disproved the existence of spiritual forces, but has led to the marginalisation of the other-worldly, which even Western churches seem to accept. They persist, but increasingly as pressure groups promoting humanist values.  Claims of 'American exceptionalism' in this regard are misleading. Obama's religion, Evangelical support for Trump, and the mega-church message of success in the capitalist system can all be cultural and political phenomena.   This eclipsing of the other-worldly constitutes a watershed in human history, with profound consequences not just for religious institutions but for our entire world order.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49995048517905,"sku":"GOR010131406","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1787381331.jpg?v=1751153708"},{"product_id":"ghana-s-new-christianity-new-edition-book-paul-gifford-9780253217233","title":"Ghana's New Christianity, New Edition","description":"\"Gifford knows his subject totally, has vast and wide-ranging sympathy for his subjects (though without being uncritical), and explores these themes with admirable intelligence. This book is simply the best thing out there.\" —Philip Jenkins  \"Gifford's is an uncompromising, hard-nosed study . . . [N]o one can again look at the subject without at least a respectful nod in his direction.\" —Lamin Sanneh  In Ghana's New Christianity, Paul Gifford considers the explosion of Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa by focusing on one place: Greater Accra, Ghana. Gifford examines every dimension of these new churches and mega-churches, including their discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, finances, and clientele. Ghana's New Christianity sets religious devotion into Ghana's political and economic situation and focuses on how fervent belief in success and wealth in the here and now can provide motivation to change in circumstances where it is so easy to despair. No other book brings forth the complex nature of Africa's new Christianity with such clarity or offers such a searching analysis of its power to tackle Africa's predicament.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346315481361,"sku":"CIN0253217237G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52305830248721,"sku":"CIN0253217237VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0253217237.jpg?v=1763226006"},{"product_id":"african-christianity-book-paul-gifford-9780253212047","title":"African Christianity","description":"\"This is by far the most informative book about contemporary African Christianity around; nobody could have written a study as richly detailed and as informed by real insider knowledge as he has done. . . . It will be the most significant study of African Christianity to appear at a time when its importance for Africa is becoming ever more widely recognized.\" —J. D. Y. Peel  \"A sophisticated political and social analysis of the various Christian groups is allied to a most original, consistent exploration of their different theological positions and thinking. . . . An interesting, important critical assessment of the extent to which the churches are playing a major role in the emergence of a civil society. . . . Gifford's overall analysis and his four case studies are so fresh and so important that . . . they cry out for immediate publication.\" —Richard Gray  Paul Gifford analyzes African Christianity in the mid-1990s, against the background of the continent's current social, economic, and political circumstances. Gifford employs concepts taken from political economy to shed light on the current dynamics of African churches and churchgoers and assesses their different contributions to political developments since 1989. He also evaluates the churches' role in promoting a civil society in Africa. Four case studies—Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, and Cameroon—cover all strands of Christianity: Catholic, Evangelical, mainline Protestant, Pentecostal, and Independent. These detailed analyses of the state of the churches in each country also suggest more general patterns operating widely across sub-Saharan Africa.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50428899328273,"sku":"GOR013947157","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415588765969,"sku":"CIN0253212049G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51748186456337,"sku":"CIN0253212049VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0253212049.jpg?v=1763221648"},{"product_id":"christian-churches-and-the-democratisation-of-africa-book-paul-gifford-9789004103245","title":"The Christian Churches and the Democratisation of Africa","description":"This volume focuses on the role Christian churches have played in Africa's democratisation movements since the late 1980s. In some cases churchmen have presided over national conferences; in many, Christians comprise arguably the most significant segment of civil society. In some countries pastoral letters have challenged dictators; in others, churches have provided an essential support for the status quo.  The book comprises both theoretical analyses and case studies. The theoretical discussions include the history of Church-State relations; theology and democracy; Pentecostalism and democracy; the problems of consolidating democracy. The 13 case studies sketch the historical context, and then critically examine developments up till late 1993.  The book will prove particularly useful to students of Third World Christianity, African historians and political scientists, and all interested in the socio-political role of Christianity.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50536547811601,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50536548434193,"sku":"GOR013988712","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9004103244.jpg?v=1769680359"},{"product_id":"christianity-development-and-modernity-in-africa-book-paul-gifford-9780190495732","title":"Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa","description":"There is an important if largely unremarked diversity within African Christianity; on the one hand, an enchanted Christianity that views the world as pervaded by spiritual forces, and on the other a disenchanted Christianity that discounts them. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn enchanted Christian sees his glorious destiny threatened by witches, spirits, and ancestral curses. 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Paul Gifford shows that, in general, Liberian Christianity--far from being a force for justice and human advancement--diverted attention from the cause of Liberia's ills, left change to God's miraculous intervention, encouraged obedience and acceptance of the status quo, and thus served to entrench Doe's power. This Christianity, devised in and controlled from the United States, thus furthered regional American economic and political objectives, which were designed to support Doe's rule.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52402702156049,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52402702680337,"sku":"NLS9780521520102","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780521520102.jpg?v=1758758637"},{"product_id":"reading-paul-valery-book-paul-gifford-9780521585446","title":"Reading Paul Valery","description":"The most recently acknowledged--and the most private--of the masters of modernity, Paul Val ry is perhaps the most radical and wide-ranging. He navigates freely within the mental galaxies known to scientists, poets, literary theorists, musicians, philosophers, historians and social anthropologists, always concerned with exploring the potential and limits of the human mind. This volume of essays by internationally recognized scholars offers the first comprehensive account in English or French of Val ry's work. It brings into focus the deeper coherence that animates what Val ry called his unitary mind in a thousand pieces, and offers new perspectives on the immense range of his experimental and fragmentary writings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52431223259409,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52431224144145,"sku":"NLS9780521585446","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780521585446.jpg?v=1759171892"},{"product_id":"christianity-and-politics-in-doe-s-liberia-book-paul-gifford-9780521420297","title":"Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia","description":"This study examines the role of Christianity in Liberia under the corrupt regime of Samuel K. Doe (1980-1990). 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Pourquoi, trente ans après son émergence dans le paysage critique, continue-t-elle à susciter la méfiance, voire l’hostilité dans les milieux universitaires ? Quelles seront ses pistes d’investigation et problématiques futures ? Quelles nouvelles voies les technologies comme l’hypertexte et les hypermédias ouvrent-elles en matière d’édition et de pédagogie ? Voilà quelques-unes des questions que se sont posées les auteurs du présent volume, spécialistes en critique génétique et en critique littéraire de part et d’autre de la Manche et de l’Atlantique.  Illustrant l’activité courante du généticien et soulevant d’importantes questions théoriques, cet ouvrage se veut bilan de la discipline autant que panorama de ses possibles. Dans cette double perspective, il se propose d’évaluer l’état présent des études génétiques, de déterminer leur spécificité parmi les différentes approches critiques du texte, ainsi que d’apprécier l’aptitude de la génétique à réorienter, voire à renouveler la critique littéraire. Résolument interdisciplinaires, les travaux présentés examinent les grands débats qui ont eu lieu à l’intérieur de la discipline et à ses frontières, comparent des cas de genèse s’échelonnant du XVIe au XXe siècle, et tentent d’évaluer les acquis de la critique génétique et son impact sur la théorie et la pratique littéraires.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52666236993809,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52666238370065,"sku":"NLS9789042020931","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789042020931.jpg?v=1768561531"},{"product_id":"europe-and-its-others-book-paul-gifford-9783039119684","title":"Europe and its Others","description":"This volume presents selected proceedings of a conference on ‘Europe and its Others’ held at St Andrews University in 2007. 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What emerges from this two-way play of reflection is a sense of the tissue of awareness of the cultural identity that is ‘Europe’; and, perhaps, a renewed openness to Europe’s Others.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52820658585873,"sku":"NLS9783039119684","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783039119684.jpg?v=1764330376"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-paul-gifford.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}