Summary

Pentecostal political thought refers to the relationship between Pentecostal Christianity and the constitution of a political order. It speaks to the evolution of the relationship between politics and theology in world history; the nature, constitution, and meaning of political theology; and how Pentecostalism mediates the understanding of the relationship between politics and theology, especially in Africa. Since political theology does not answer to any straightforward description or definition, a historical analysis reveals how its contours have been molded since the ancient times (in the works, e.g., of Marcus Terentius Varro), in the 20th century (fundamentally through the intervention of Carl Schmitt), and in contemporary time through Pentecostalism’s intervention in various societies, from the Western liberal societies to postcolonial African societies. Due to its theology of the spontaneous Spirit, Pentecostalism has consolidated its hold on societies—postsecular and postcolonial—that are undergoing a crisis of social and political order. The Pentecostal social imaginary, at least the type this article focuses on, therefore constitutes a significant challenge to the state everywhere, especially in its understanding of politics as a mode of being for those who have been shortchanged by the state. The question, however, is how to understand African Pentecostalism’s understanding of politics and its aspiration to become a political community when its spirituality is constituted on an individualist and friend-enemy basis that fragments Pentecostalism itself, as well as its relationship with non-Pentecostal faiths.