Abstract
This study explores the paradox of Botswana Pentecostal masculinities. It demonstrates how the doctrines of born again, new creation and the Holy Spirit construct distinct Pentecostal masculinities characterized by mutuality and egalitarian existence and simultaneously Pentecostal hermeneutics is entrenched in patriarchy and therefore encourages the performance of hegemonic masculinities.
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Notes
- 1.
Anderson A. Bazalwane: African Pentecostals in South Africa (Pretoria: University of South Africa Press 1992), 2–6; Robert Mbe Akoko, “Ask and You shall be Given”: Pentecostalism and the Economic Crisis in Cameroon (Leiden: African Studies Centre, 2007).
- 2.
Donald W. Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1987).
- 3.
This clearly excludes all churches that identify themselves or are classified as Pentecostal but do not hold these doctrines true such as most African Initiated Churches (AIC). For instance, Allan Anderson classifies the AIC’s as Pentecostal, yet they do not teach rebirth.
- 4.
Todd M. Johnson, Gina A. Zurlo, Albert W. Hickman, and Peter F. Crossing, “Christianity 2017: Five Hundred Years of Protestant Christianity,” International Bulletin of Mission Research (2016): 1–12; Allan Anderson, Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2009).
- 5.
Edward L. Cleary, “Brazil: Superstar and Competition with Pentecostals,” in The Rise of Charismatic Catholicism in Latin America, edited by Edward L. Cleary (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011), 132–151; Benjamin Diara and Nkechinyere G. Onah, “The Phenomenal Growth of Pentecostalism in the Contemporary Nigerian Society: A challenge to mainline churches,” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 5/6 (2014): 395–402.
- 6.
John, Beynon, Masculinity and Culture (Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press, 2002), 2.
- 7.
Raewyn Connel, Masculinities (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005).
- 8.
Connel, Masculinities.
- 9.
Connel, Masculinities.
- 10.
Tim Carrigan, Bob Connell and John Lee, “Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity,” in The Masculinity Studies Reader edited by Rachel Adams and David Savran (Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2002), 99–118.
- 11.
Connell, Masculinities.
- 12.
Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (New York, NY: Basic books 2002), 62–69.
- 13.
This text is often read to refer to women as well. This is why I have added ‘and woman’ in my rendering of the text.
- 14.
My focus in this chapter is more on Pentecostalism as it is expressed in Africa, especially the Southern part of Africa. Therefore, some of the Pentecostal beliefs and practices I am presenting here may be different in other parts of the world. For example, in America, there may be no strict rules against consumption of alcohol after conversion. In Southern African Pentecostalism, among those who teach rebirth and the Holy Spirit, sin refers to sex before marriage, drinking alcohol, partying with alcohol and girls, smoking cigarettes among others.
- 15.
Van Klinken Adriaan, “Male Headship as Male Agency: An Alternative Understanding of a ‘Patriarchal’ African Pentecostal Discourse on Masculinity,” Religion and Gender 1/1 (2011), 104–124; Quiroz Sitna, “The Dilemmas of Monogamy; Pleasure, Discipline and Pentecostal Moral Self in the Republic of Benin,” Religions 7/8 (2016), https://doi.org/10.3390/religion7080102
- 16.
While Pentecostals are aware and accept that demonic powers are always at work trying to cause a born again to fall back into the life of sin, the ideal is that a born-again new creation should stay away from sin.
- 17.
Gordy John, “Toward a theology of Pentecostal preaching,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 10/1 (2001): 81–97; Dale Coulter, “What meaneth this? Pentecostals and theological inquiry,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 10/1 (2001): 38–64.
- 18.
Gordy, “Toward a Theology of Pentecostal Preaching,” 93.
- 19.
Gordy, “Toward a Theology of Pentecostal Preaching,” 93.
- 20.
Gordy, “Toward a Theology of Pentecostal Preaching,” 93.
- 21.
David Maxwell, “Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty? Pentecostalism, Prosperity and Modernity in Zimbabwe,” Journal of Religion in Africa 28/3 (1998): 350–373.
- 22.
Maxwell, “Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty?” 355.
- 23.
Togarasei Lovemore, “Christianity and Hegemonic Masculinity: Transforming Botswana Hegemonic Masculinity Using the Jesus of Luke,” Scriptura 112/1 (2013): 1–12, 2.
- 24.
Van Klinken, “Male Headship as Male Agency,” 234.
- 25.
Maxwell, “Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty?”, 353.
- 26.
Van Klinken, “Male Headship as Male Agency,” 234.
- 27.
Kenneth Archer, “Early Pentecostals Biblical Interpretation,” JPT 18 (2001): 67.
- 28.
Van Klinken, “Male Headship as Male Agency,” 108.
- 29.
Rosinah Gabaitse, “Towards an African Pentecostal Feminist Biblical Hermeneutic of Liberation: Interpreting Luke-Acts with Batswana Women,” PhD Thesis (University of Kwazulu Natal: Pietermaritzburg 2013).
- 30.
Mary McClintock-Fulkerson, Changing the Subject: Women’s Discourse and Feminist Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 254.
- 31.
M.L. Tan-Chow, Pentecostal Theology for the Twenty First Century: Engaging with Multi-Faith Singapore (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007).
- 32.
Togarasei, “Christianity and Hegemonic Masculinities,” 6.
- 33.
Isabel Phiri, “Domestic Violence in Christian Homes: A Durban Case Study,” Journal of Constructive Theology 6/2 (2000): 85–110; McClintock-Fulkerson, Changing the Subject 296–297.
- 34.
This opens the door for him to participate in promiscuity as other men who subscribe to hegemonic masculinity do.
- 35.
Rekopantswe Mate, “Wombs as God’s Laboratories: Pentecostal Discourses on Femininity in Zimbabwe,” Africa, Journal of the International African Institute 72/4 (2002), 549–568, 566; Situational Analysis of Gender Based Violence in Botswana (Gaborone: Government Printer, 2009); Isaac Schapera, A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom (Hamburg: International African Institute, 1994), 139.
- 36.
Christopher Thomas, “Women Pentecostals and the Bible: An Experiment in Pentecostal Hermeneutics,” JPT 5 (1994): 56.
- 37.
Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 135; “Pastor Criticises Abolition of Marital Power,” Mmegi Monitor 5/9 (March 7, 2005); Joshua Adjabeng, How To Enjoy Your Marriage (Accra: Olive Publications, 1995), 45; Amos Yong, The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global of Theology (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), 191.
- 38.
Kevin Giles, the Trinity and Subordinationism: The Doctrine of God and The Contemporary Gender Debate (Downers Grove: Intervarsity, 2002), 185.
- 39.
Janet Everts Powers, “Pentecostalism 101: Your Daughters Shall Prophesy,” in Phillip’s Daughters: Women in Pentecostal-Charismatic Leadership, edited by Estelday Y. Alexander and Amos Yong, (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2009), 133–151, 147.
- 40.
Joshua Adjabeng, How to Enjoy Your Marriage (Accra: Olive Publications, 1995), 45.
- 41.
Tinyiko Maluleke and Sarojini Nadar, “Breaking the Covenant of Violence against Women,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 114 (2002): 5–17.
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Gabaitse, R.M. (2020). “A New Man in Christ?”: Pentecostalism and the Construction of Masculinities. In: Kaunda, C.J. (eds) Genders, Sexualities, and Spiritualities in African Pentecostalism. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42396-4_5
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