Development was founded on the belief that religion was not important to development processes. The contributors call this assumption into question and explore the practical impacts of religion by looking at the developmental consequences of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa, and by contrasting Pentecostal and secular models of change.

Scholars have for some time sensed that in many parts of the world development projects and Pentecostal Christianity stand in complex relations of competition and cooperation as programs that similarly promote personal and cultural change. But until now, no single work has sharpened this widespread intuition into a coherent line of argument or a workable research program. This groundbreaking book does both. With a superb introduction that tackles the key issues head on, followed by a group of first-class case studies that cash these issues out empirically, this collection should set the terms of debate about development and religion in Africa and well beyond for a long time to come.' - Joel Robbins, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, USA

The Pentecostal Ethic and the Spirit of Development; D.Freeman PART I: PENTECOSTALISM AND THE NEOLIBERAL TURN Pentecostalism, Populism and the New Politics of Affect; J.Comaroff Prosperity Gospels and Enchanted Worldviews: Two Responses to Socio-Economic Transformations in Tanzanian Pentecostal Christianity; P.Hasu Pentecostalism and Post-Development: Pentecostal Development Ideologies in Ghanaian Migrant Communities; R.van Dijk PART II: CHURCHES AND NGOS: DIFFERENT ROUTES OF SALVATION Pentecostal and Development Imaginaries in West Africa; C.Piot Saving Development: Secular NGOs, the Pentecostal Revolution, and the Search for a Purified Political Space in the Taita Hills, Kenya; J.Smith Development and the Rural Entrepreneur: Pentecostals, NGOs and the Market in the Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia; D.Freeman Pentecostalism, Development NGOs and Meaning in Eastern Uganda; B.Jones Agents of Gendered Change: Empowerment, Salvation and Gendered Transformation in Urban Kenya; D.Parsitau