Ethiopian Religious Politics and the Rise of Pentecostalism

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Venue
Faber Building, 23/24 Russell Square
Room
FG01

About this event

Jörg Haustein, Study of Religions, SOAS

This paper looks at the political and historical parameters for the significant rise of Pentecostal Christianity in the traditionally Christian-Orthodox Ethiopia. Beginning with the origins of the movement under Haile Selassie's reign and ending in the current political and religious configuration under a Pentecostal Prime Minister, the paper traces Pentecostal interaction with the Ethiopian state and its politics. I will argue that the ostensibly a-political narrative of "persecution" espoused by much of Pentecostalism proved to be a robust political paradigm for times of oppression, but even guides Ethiopian Pentecostal politics in its present state of religious freedom.

Organiser: Dr Marie Rodet

Contact email: mr28@soas.ac.uk