Adam Mohr 
Enchanted Calvinism 
Labor Migration, Afflicting Spirits, and Christian Therapy in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana

Enchanted Calvinism’s surprising central proposition is that Ghanaian Presbyterian communities have become more enchanted — i.e., attuned to spiritual explanations of and remedies for suffering — as they have become moreintegrated into capitalist modes of production.


Enchanted Calvinism’s central proposition is that Ghanaian Presbyterian communities, both past and present, have become more enchanted — more attuned to spiritual explanations of and remedies for suffering — as they havebecome integrated into capitalist modes of production. The author draws on a Weberian concept of religious enchantment to analyze the phenomena of spiritual affliction and spiritual healing within the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, particularly under the conditions of labor migration: first, in the early twentieth century during the cocoa boom in Ghana and, second, at the turn of the twenty-first century in their migration from Ghana to North America.

Relying on extensive archival research, oral interviews, and participant-observation conducted in North America, Europe, and West Africa, this study demonstrates that the more these Ghanaian Calvinists became dependent on capitalist modes of production, the more enchanted their lives and, subsequently, their church became, although in different ways within these two migrations. One striking pattern that has emerged among Ghanaian Presbyterian labor migrants in North America, for example, is a radical shift in gendered healing practices, where women have become prominent healers while a significant number of men have become spirit-possessed.


Adam Mohr is Senior Writing Fellow in Anthropology in the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tabella dei contenuti

Introduction

The Disenchantment of Ghana’s Basel Mission, 1828-1918

Enchanted Competition for the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, 1918-60s

The Enchantment of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, 1960-2010

The School of Deliverance and the Enchantment of the Ghanaian Presbyterian Churches in North America

The Enchantment of the United Ghanaian Community Church, Philadelphia

Gendered Transformations of Enchanted Calvinism in the Ghanaian Presbyterian Diaspora

Conclusion

Appendix: Deliverance Questionnaire

Bibliography

Index