List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Notes on Language
Introduction
PART I: HISTORIES AND ETHNOGRAPHIES
Chapter 1. Colonial Literacies
Chapter 2. Passages, Configurations, Traces
Chapter 3. Schooled Literacy, Schooled Religion
PART II: LITERATE RELIGION
Chapter 4. Literate Cultures in a Material World
Chapter 5. Indices to the Scriptural
Chapter 6. The Fringes of Christianity
Chapter 7. Thoughts about ‘Religions of the Book’
PART III: WAYS OF READING
Chapter 8. Texts, Readers, Spirit
Chapter 9. Evanescence and the Necessity of Intermediation
Chapter 10. Setting Texts in Motion
Chapter 11. Missions in Writing
Chapter 12. Enablements to Literacy
PART IV: BUREAUCRACY IN THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC MODE
Chapter 13. Offices and the Dispersion of Charisma
Chapter 14. Positions of Writers, Positions in Writings
Chapter 15. Outlines for the Future, Documents of the Immediate
Chapter 16. Bureaucracy In-Between
Chapter 17. Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Thomas G. Kirsch is professor for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Konstanz. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) in 2002 and taught at the Department of Anthropology and Philosophy in Halle (Saale) and at the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, before coming to the University of Konstanz in 2009. Between 1993 and 2001, he conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Zambia. He has published a book on African Christianity in Zambia and articles in some of the major refereed journals for anthropology and sociology in Germany. Other articles were published in the journals American Anthropologist (2004), Visual Anthropology (2006) and American Ethnologist (2007). Since 2003, he has also conducted fieldwork and published on issues of human safety, security and crime prevention in South Africa.
“Kirsch is impressively well read in the history and anthropology of Christianity and the study of literacy, and uses a range of insightful comparative examples to draw out the significance of his research…As well as providing an important and fascinating account of reading practices within and beyond African Christianity, Kirsch’s study also alerts us to how religious print moves across the globe via religious organizations and networks to create and reinforce religious identities.” · Africa “This book has opened the internal communication system of so-called Spirit-filled churches for academic scrutiny. We can now begin to ask how and why are the Holy Spirit and internal communication becoming the principal tools for control, domination, or democracy in them.” · Pneuma “For those interested in the social life of the bible and other written materials, this book is sure to surprise…The surprise value of Kirsch’s work lies in the broad sweep from fine-grained descriptions of individuals’ bibles to far-reaching theoretical critiques of the anthropology of literary practices and bureaucracy.” · Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale “From relative obscurity, the study of Christianity has grown into a major academic field, to which this book makes an important and timely contribution. It is the first book-length study of literacy practices among African Christians.” · JRAI "Developing new theoretical perspectives out of sensitive historical and ethnographic research on practices of reading and writing in the Spirit Apostolic Church, this well written and accessible study offers anthropology at its best. Cautioning against simplistic understandings of literacy and textuality that still underpin much work on Christianity, his work offers a substantial intervention into broader debates about religion, media and materiality." · Birgit Meyer, Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit "the primary aim of the author lies...in challenging the presuppositions made in the study of African religion - and in this he has admirably succeeded" · H-Net Reviews “…Kirsch…provides an excellent introduction, contextualizing his material and his aim of explaining the relationship between ‘charisma’ and ‘institution’ in the Spirit Apostolic Church.” · Choice "The examination of literacy practices presented in this book enables – and hopefully will engender – much thought in a variety of ethnographic domains." · Ethos “[The author] demonstrates in this book an extraordinary command of several scholarly literatures and takes up questions that have vexed the social sciences since at least the time of Max Weber. In particular, Kirsch wishes to understand how something as fundamental to the ‘religions of the Book’ as literacy could be so often overlooked in current anthropological discussions of Christianity in favor of electronic and other media.. Kirsch has produced an impressive monograph here, one that ought to be read by Africanist anthropologists, religious studies scholars and by others interested in understanding the meaningful qualities of literacy for all ‘peoples of the Book’.” · Journal of Religion in Africa
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