Book Launch: Christianity, Wealth, and Spiritual Power in Ghana

In this seminar Karen Lauterbach will present her recently published book ‘Christianity, Wealth, and Spiritual Power in Ghana’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2017). The book centers around mid-level charismatic pastors in Ghana and provides an analysis of pastorship as a pathway to becoming small ‘big men’. The book investigates both the social processes of becoming a pastor and the spiritual dimensions of how power and wealth are conceptualized, achieved, and legitimized. The study is a historically informed examination of social mobility — how people in subordinate positions seek to join power. The book historicizes current expressions of charismatic Christianity in Ghana while also bringing the role of religion and belief to bear on our understanding of wealth and power as they function more broadly in African societies.