Bonding in Worship

In Sub-Saharan Africa Christianity is experiencing unprecedented growth
and many people worship on a regular basis. Simultaneously, many parts
of Sub-Saharan Africa experience challenges such as poverty and
inequality. Given this reality and these challenges, a group of
international scholars investigated the ritual practices of one of the
fastest growing traditions, namely African Independent Churches, over a
period of more than four years. The research team set out to explore the
role of religious rituals in social capital formation and social
development at community level in an African Independent Church in South
Africa. This book is the final, comprehensive and synthesising product
in which the international and interdisciplinary team of scholars from
theology, religion and development present their findings.



The book is structured into three parts that reflects its theoretical,
empirical and evaluative dimensions. In part I, theoretical perspectives
are offered on the main conceptual apparatus of the book and the
authors’ own understanding of the nexus between the different concepts.
In part II, the theoretical arguments of the book are further worked out
by means of eight explorations comprising of qualitative field work
research in the religious milieus of African Independent worshippers in
KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, South Africa. In part III, a final
set of chapters, by reflecting on the case studies in part II, offer
wider appreciations and applications of the role religious ritual in
social capital formation. This includes reflections on the African
notion of ubuntu and the challenges that the ritual lens offers
to policy makers in South African society, but also African society and
the global South more generally speaking when seeking answers to the
problem of development.