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Title: | Privatizing the Millennium. New Protestant Ethics and the Spirits of Capitalism in Africa, and Elsewhere |
Authors: | Comaroff, Jean Comaroff, John |
Year: | 2000 |
Periodical: | Afrika Spectrum |
Volume: | 35 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 293-312 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | ethics Protestant churches global economy Religion and Witchcraft Development and Technology Economics and Trade |
Abstract: | Following Max Weber, this paper examines the new religious spirit that seems to accompany the rise of global capitalism. The paradox of simultaneous homogenization and differentiation, the increase in both wealth and poverty, and the rise of new forms of chauvinism and exclusion amidst a discourse of laissez-faire are some widely discussed features of this 'new world order'. Less often noted is the exuberant spread, at a time of hyper-rationalization, of prosperity gospels and fee-for-service religions, of occult practices and so-called pyramid schemes; i.e. of the enchantments of a distinctly neoliberal economy. This paper explores the causes of these new phenomena and their characteristics. Focusing on examples from postcolonial Africa, it examines the distinctive ways in which neo-Protestant movements seek to reanimate an age-old messianic spirit with the specific symbols and values of neoliberal enterprise. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English, French and German. |