Religion, Economic Development and Cultural Change: The Contradictory Role of Pentecostal Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa

INTRODUCTION What role does religion play in facilitating or hindering the process of modernization and development in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa societies? The primary concern in this paper is examining the relationship between religion, precisely Pentecostalism, and the process of modernization aimed at creating modern industrial societies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper fundamentally assumes that both Pentecostalism and the struggle for economic development and cultural change are existential realities and goals of Sub-Saharan African countries that cannot be ignored. One hopes that Pentecostalism will contribute positively to the process of modernization and development while still retaining its integrity as a faith and spiritual tradition among its adherents. After a brief discussion of the broader theoretical context of the paper, a section of the paper examines the positive impact of Pentecostalism on Africa's quest for economic development and cultural change. Next, the negative impact of Pentecostal Christianity on Africa's development imbroglio is explored. The paper concludes with some critical reflections on the contradictory role of Pentecostal Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa with regard to the process of economic development and cultural change. The theoretical contribution that the paper desires to make is part of a long research tradition that was adumbrated by Max Weber in his seminal book: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (1) Specifically, the paper focuses on how social groups in civil society in their theology and practice of religion affect the process of economic development broadly conceptualized. Weber was fascinated by what he considered to be the historically unique process of rationalization taking place in Western Europe. It was evident to Weber that there was a clear break between feudal Europe, which emphasized traditionalism, and modern capitalist Europe, which emphasized instrumental rationality as an integral element of the continent's social structure and social processes. (2) Weber's fascination with this unique study of the process of increasing rationalization in Western society was empirically illustrated by his comparative study of the evolution of capitalism in Western Europe and the Far East (i.e., India and China. (3) In pursuing this research program, Weber traces the origin of this new and unique economic rationality in the Western world to the religion and ethics practiced by certain ascetic Protestant sects (i.e., Calvinists). It is in this respect that religious worldviews and ethics become an integral part of the process of economic development and cultural change. On a critical note, Weber's conclusions about the relative failure and backwardness of Far East compared to the Western world with regard to the process of economic development and cultural change is, in the author's assessment, Eurocentric and smack of cultural hubris. Weber did not study Far Eastern cultures on their own terms. Rather he used Western cultural standards as a measuring rod to evaluate Far Eastern cultures. Wherever he noticed that Far Eastern cultural attributes did not fit the European standards, he automatically graded them poorly. In a significant way, one might argue in the spirit of Edward Said's scholarly work that Weber's research conclusions about Far Eastern cultures and broadly speaking, non-Western cultures in general, significantly suffers from the pitfalls of Orientalism. (4) Still one can appreciate Weber for raising the general empirical question of the relationship between values and cultural beliefs in general and the process of economic development and cultural change. Once we accept the theoretical premise that "magical and religious notions, as well as the ethical ideas of duty based upon them have influenced the conduct of all men in the past," (5) then we can extend the insight by generally studying whether or not there exist similar sorts of facilitating values and ethical factors for capitalist development embedded in the religious beliefs of non-Western people. …