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PNEUMA 37 (2015) 7–20
Pentecostal Theologies of Healing, hiv/aids, and Women’s Agency in South Africa
Katherine Attanasi*
Christian Brothers University, Memphis, Tennessee
k.attanasi@gmail.com
Abstract
This article examines the gendered implications of healing theologies in black South African pentecostal churches dealing with the hiv/aids crisis. Lived theologies of healing enhance women’s flourishing by providing or encouraging medical, social, and psychological support. However, pentecostal theologies of healing can impede women’s flourishing by creating a burdensome sense of responsibility in which women blame themselves for not being healed. More disturbingly, many women consider prayer as the most faithful or most feasible strategy for hiv prevention. This article identifies women’s constrained choices as a theological imperative for Pentecostalism to address gender inequality.
Keywords
gender – inequality – global Christianity – prayer – medicine
Introduction
This article provides a thick description of women’s agency within global Pen- tecostalism. I focus particularly on the implications of healing theologies for the hiv/aids crisis in black South African pentecostal churches. This con- textual case study takes up two related questions:1 In what ways does global
* Many thanks to the two anonymous reviewers, James Barker, Alyson Dickson, and Leah Payne
for their helpful comments.
1 I describe the rationale for these questions and the need for contextual case studies in
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-03701024
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Pentecostalism enhance and impede women’s flourishing?2 And how does Pentecostalism contribute to and constrain women’s freedom?3 Before turning to these questions, I describe the contexts of hiv/aids in South Africa and the prominence of pentecostal/charismatic Christianity in South Africa. Here my main concern is pentecostal theologies of healing, specifically the question of whether trusting God is compatible with accessing professional medical services.
My findings are based on Institutional Review Board-approved fieldwork, which I conducted in two South African communities during the summer of 2008.4 I stayed in one village called Bethel (located in the North West Province), where I met participants in a single pentecostal church. My other research site was a township outside of Pretoria called Dhumaylong, where I met partic- ipants in several connected pentecostal churches. Overall I conducted more than fifty initial, individual interviews as well as follow-up interviews with twelve women. I also held eight focus groups with larger groups of women
my essay, “Constructing Gender within Global Pentecostalism: Contrasting Case Studies in
Colombia and South Africa,” in Donald E. Miller, Kimon H. Sargeant, and Richard Flory, eds.,
Spirit and Power: The Growth and Global Impact of Pentecostalism (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2013), 242–256.
2 In biblical terms, this idea of flourishing may be understood as the abundant life Jesus
promises: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). I understand
flourishing broadly to include women’s spiritual, emotional, physical, and material well-
being. Such an understanding draws on the capabilities approach as articulated by Martha
Nussbaum (Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach [Cambridge, uk:
Cambridge University Press, 2000]) and Amartya Sen (Development as Freedom [New York:
Knopf, 1999]).
3 In biblical terms, Jesus announces, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”
(John 8:36). Following Nancy J. Hirschmann (The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory
of Freedom [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003]), I understand freedom in terms
of agency. Hirschmann describes freedom as essentially about choice, which involves a
complicated interaction among internal and external factors: what people prefer when given
the choice (internal), whether people are given the choice (external), and whether they
are then able to choose (both internal and external). Enhancing freedom thus requires
removing barriers that are internal, external, real, and imagined, so that new possibilities
can be created. Pentecostalism contributes to women’s freedom by removing barriers to
choices and by cultivating individuals’ capability to choose among competing goods. For
a philosophical discussion of agency, see Margaret S. Archer, Being Human: The Problem of
Agency(Cambridge, uk: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
4 Institutional Review Board approval #050395, approved annually from 2005 to 2008, Insti-
tutional Review Board at Vanderbilt University; in accordance with irb protocols, I have
changed the names of all participants and locations to ensure anonymity.
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(usually between five and ten) to generate dialogue and ensure a collaborative approach. In both of my research sites, I used a snowball sampling technique and strove for variation with regard to age, marital status, employment, and level of education. Due to the stigma associated with hiv, I did not ask women to disclose their status; nevertheless, two women did confide that they were hiv positive. All of my participants believed that God was willing and able to heal someone of any disease, including hiv/aids.
Medical and Theological Contexts
hiv/aids is the largest public health crisis in the world today.5 Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly affected in terms of infections and deaths. According to unaids, the region is home to 69 percent of people who are hiv positive (23.5 million), 71 percent of new infections, and 70 percent of aids-related deaths.6 According to South Africa’s Global aids Response Progress Report of 2012, for the past four years the country’s hiv epidemic has stabilized at an antenatal prevalence rate of approximately 30 percent.7 Despite this progress in curbing new infections, millions of people remain infected and affected.8 South Africa has faced several distinct challenges in its response to hiv/aids. South Africa is a young democracy with a recent history of instability and unrest. The country’s unique political history has created vulnerabilities,9 and
5 In 2011, an estimated 34 million people were living with hiv/aids around the globe; also in
2011, approximately 2.5 million people became infected with hiv, and 1.7 million people died
of aids-related causes. This is 0.8 percent of adults between the ages of 15 and 49 worldwide
[unaids, Global aids Report: unaids Report on the Global aids Epidemic (Geneva: Joint
United Nations Programme on hiv/aids, 2012), 8].
6 unaids,Global aids Report 2012, 12.
7 Republic of South Africa,Global aids Response Progress Report of 2012(South Africa: Republic
of South Africa, 2012), 12. In addition to a stabilized infection rate, the 2012 unaids report
indicates that the incidence rate among South African adults ages 15–49 has decreased
between 2001 and 2011 (unaids 2012, 11). The rate has decreased between 26 and 49 percent
Moreover, in South Africa between 2009 and 2011, the number of newly infected children ages
0–14 declined by 40–59 percent (unaids 2012, 42). In 2011, between 75 and 100 percent of
pregnant women in South Africa received antiretroviral treatment to prevent mother-to-child
transmission (unaids,Global aids Report 2012, 45).
8 unaids,Global aids Report 2012, 40.
9 For example, after the fall of apartheid, freedom fighters who had been exiled to countries
that had high infection rates returned home and spread hiv. Furthermore, gender inequality,
a system of migratory labor that supported all-male hostels, and reduced access to health
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in comparison with other sub-Saharan countries South Africa has been late to provide antiretroviral (arv) treatment to its population.10
Women disproportionately bear the burdens of hiv. Women make up nearly 60 percent of hiv infections worldwide and 70 percent of adult infections in South Africa.11 Biologically, the virus is more easily transmitted from male to female. Economically, South African women have more limited educational and employment opportunities, thereby increasing their financial dependence on men and diminishing women’s capacity to negotiate sexual relationships. Culturally and interpersonally, it is seen as inappropriate—if not taboo—for women to refuse sex, suggest condom use, or ask men about other sexual partners.12
care and education have made South Africa a prime location for the spread of hiv; see
Kyle D. Kauffman, “Why Is South Africa the hiv Capital of the World? An Institutional
Analysis of the Spread of a Virus,” in aids and South Africa: The Social Expression of a
Pandemic, ed. Kyle D. Kauffman and David L. Lindauer (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2004), 28–29. Moreover, the government has sometimes sent ambiguous and irresponsible
messages regarding the disease; most notably, former president Thabo Mbeki publicly
questioned the link between hiv and aids (Sabin Russell, “Mbeki’s hiv Stand Angers
Delegates, Hundreds Walk Out on His Speech,”San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 2000), but
the former president has since recanted these views (Craig Timberg, “In South Africa a
Dramatic Shift on aids,”Washington Post, October 26, 2006).
10 Graham Pembrey, “aids in South Africa: Treatment, Transmission and the Government.”
Cited May 3, 2009; accessed at http://avert.org/aids-south-africa.htm. Wealthy coun-
tries such as the United States had arv treatment available in 1996; Uganda, Nigeria,
Zambia, and Botswana began their public treatment in 2003. In 2011, between 60 and 79
percent of eligible people received antiretroviral therapy in South Africa (unaids,Global
aids Report 2012, 57). In countries including Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zambia
more than 80 percent received treatment.
11 In 2008, South African women comprised 3.2 million of South Africa’s 4.6 million infected
adults. unaids, Report on the Global aids Epidemic (Geneva: Joint United Nations Pro-
gramme on hiv/aids, 2008), 32.
12 Musa W. Dube delineates further the challenges women face in their experiences of
hiv/aids. Particularly helpful are “Reducing Women’s Vulnerability and Combating
Stigma,”Church and Society94, no. 2 (2003): 64–72 and Musa W. Dube, “Theological Chal-
lenges: Proclaiming the Fullness of Life in the hiv/aids & Global Economic Era,”Inter-
national Review of Mission 91, no. 363 (2002): 535–549. For more on religious rationaliza-
tions of gender violence, see Beverley Haddad, “Gender Violence and hiv/aids: A Deadly
Silence in the Church,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa114 (2002): 93–106. For a his-
torical analysis of women, patriarchy, and South Africa, see Belinda Bozzoli, “Marxism,
Feminism, and South African Studies,” Journal of Southern African Studies 9, no. 2 (1983):
138–171.
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Regarding religious affiliation, 80 percent of South Africans are Christians, andmorethanathirdofSouthAfricansidentifyaspentecostalorcharismatic.13 I draw on the Pew Forum’sSpirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals for these statistics; the study defines “pentecostal” as Christians belonging to “classical” pentecostal denominations (such as the Assemblies of God and Apostolic Faith Mission) and “charismatic” as Christians who “speak in tongues at least several times a year” or who self-identify as “charismatic” or “pente- costal” without belonging to a pentecostal denomination.14 The churches I studied had historical connections to the Apostolic Faith Mission (afm), a clas- sical pentecostal denomination that was founded in South Africa by u.s.–based missionaries in 1908.15 The people I interviewed were not familiar with the term pentecostal, and they referred to themselves as “born again.” Since the begin- ning of modern Pentecostalism, which is most commonly traced to the 1906 Azusa Street revival, practices such as glossolalia, ecstatic worship, and prayers for healing have been characteristic. Early on, the afm (whose two founders had visited the Azusa Street Mission) also emphasized divine healing and the full gospel experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit. The most prevalent of these pentecostal characteristics, particularly in a global context, is healing. Allan Anderson writes that “prayer for divine healing is perhaps the most universal characteristic of the many varieties of Pentecostalism and perhaps the main reason for its growth in the developing world.”16 Similarly, according to Ogbu
13 Pew Forum on Public Life,Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals(Washing-
ton, dc: Pew Research Center, October 2006), 3–4; see also 89–90.
14 Ibid., 3. The Pew study also cites South Africa’s 2001 census data, according to which 7.6
percent of South Africans are pentecostal and 31.8 percent belong to African Indepen-
dent Churches (SpiritandPower, 87). The terminological distinctions within South African
Christianity are imprecise: African Independent Churches or aics (churches founded
by Africans) are often pentecostal or charismatic in practice, and some scholars debate
whether to include them as part of the African pentecostal/charismatic movement (Ogbu
Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction [New York: Oxford University Press, 2008]:
66). I encountered contestation around the term as well: one pastor considered his (for-
merly afm) church to be an African Independent Church, despite its continued similarity
to afm beliefs and practices. This was somewhat confusing because the church was not
affiliated with the major aics in South Africa, such as the Zion Christian Church or the
Ethiopian churches, and in fact it did not consider members of these aics churches to be
“born again.” Likewise, Kalu notes “the demonization of the aics in Pentecostal rhetoric
as unadulterated cults” (Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 66).
15 Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 55.
16 Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 30. Candy Gunther Brown (“Introduction: Pen-
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Kalu, in Africa “[h]ealing is the heartbeat of the liturgy and the entire religious life.”17 Pentecostals connect healing to the atoning work of Christ on the cross. As noted by Miroslav Volf, Pentecostalism is thus characterized by a material view of salvation, such that “salvation is not merely a spiritual reality touching only an individual person’s inner being but also has to do with bodily human existence.”18
The materiality of salvation has profound implications for pentecostal the- ologies of healing. Pentecostals have held different views concerning the rela- tionship between the church and the hospital, that is, whether people who pray for healing should also seek medical care. Kimberly Ervin Alexander says that historically Pentecostals have often agreed not to go to doctors or to take medicine, either of which would indicate a lack of faith.19 According to this view, medical care was acceptable for nonbelievers but not for believers. Cur- rent studies reveal that some Pentecostals avoid trips to the doctor as a “marker of spiritual honor.”20 At the same time, other studies show that pentecostal
tecostalism and the Globalization of Illness and Healing,” in Global Pentecostalism and
Charismatic Healing, ed. Candy Gunther Brown [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011],
3–26, at 3) argues that divine healing “is the single most important category—more sig-
nificant than glossolalia or prosperity—for understanding the global expansion of pente-
costal Christianity.” Brown’s edited volume contains a host of case studies that associate
conversion and church membership with divine healing. For example, Michael Bergun-
der’s study of South Indian Pentecostals (“Miracle Healing and Exorcism in South Indian
Pentecostalism,” inGlobal Pentecostalism and Charismatic Healing, 287–306) showed that
church members primarily connected with the church by way of healings or exorcisms.
R. Andrew Chesnut (“Exorcising the Demons of Deprivation: Divine Healing and Con-
version in Brazilian Pentecostalism,” in Global Pentecostalism and Charismatic Healing,
169–186) found in fieldwork in Brazil that fewer than half of his participants spoke in
tongues, whereas a large majority said they had experienced divine healing. 17 Quoted by Cephas N. Omenyo, “New Wine in an Old Bottle? Charismatic Healing in the
Mainline Churches in Ghana,” inGlobal Pentecostalism and Charismatic Healing, 231–249,
at 236.
18 Miroslav Volf, “Materiality of Salvation: An Investigation in the Soteriologies of Liberation
and Pentecostal Theologies,”JournalofEcumenicalStudies26, no. 3 (1989): 447–467, at 448,
italics in the original.
19 Kimberly Ervin Alexander, Pentecostal Healing: Models in Theology and Practice, Journal
of Pentecostal Theology Supplement (Dorset, uk: Deo, 2006), 213.
20 For example, in Catherine Bowler’s study of a black pentecostal church in Durham,
nc (“Blessed Bodies: Healing within the African American Faith Movement,” in Global
Pentecostalism and Charismatic Healing, 81–106, at 95), many of the participants worked in
the medical profession but avoided preventative care (such as regular doctor’s visits or flu
shots) as “a marker of spiritual honor”; they preferred “fasting, tithing, prayer, and worship”
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views of healing are entirely compatible with biomedicine; for example, Candy Gunther Brown notes that most Pentecostals do not reject biomedicine as “an illegitimate or even inferior mode of receiving healing from God.”21
The majority of participants in my study affirmed the use of biomedicine.22 Conversely, the women emphasized God’s role as healer. The churches, like other pentecostal congregations, espoused their beliefs about divine healing by means of sermons, Bible studies, prayers, and songs. Extended prayer was an important part of worship services; believers were encouraged to make their requests to God, to pray for one another, and to believe that God would answer them. In the township, women gathered each weekday morning for a six o’clock prayer meeting. In the village, women gathered for a weekly prayer meeting. In short, belief in healing was essential to my participants’ pentecostal faith. The lived realities of these theologies in a context of hiv/aids had both positive and negative effects on women’s agency and flourishing.
How Pentecostal Theologies of Healing Enhance Women’s Flourishing
In the midst of the hiv/aids crisis, the most amazing example of women’s flourishing comes from testimonies of miraculous healing. One of my partici- pants, Lara, actually showed me documentation of testing negative for hiv after having tested positive. In 1994 Lara first tested positive for hiv; she retested multiple times in the following years and always tested positive. In 2001 Lara became a born-again Christian and began attending Victory Temple in Dhu- maylong. The church placed a great emphasis on healing, and so Lara began to pray privately that God would heal her of hiv. In 2003, a pastor from Uganda
to preventative care and saw healthcare intervention as an “unwanted necessity.” Also, in
Bergunder’s study in South Asia, western medicine was seen as a solution for those who
lacked faith: “most informants asserted the compatibility of divine healing and medical
treatment, while suggesting the superiority of the former”; people who had faith did not
need to take medicine—though many of his informants mentioned that they did take
medicine (Bergunder, “Miracle Healing and Exorcism in South Indian Pentecostalism,”
300). For a history of healing in American religious history, particularly the relationship
between faith and medicine, see Joseph W. Williams, Spirit Cure: A History of Pentecostal
Healing(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
21 Brown, “Introduction,” 14.
22 My participants would most closely fit Alexander’s “Finished Work” model (Pentecostal
Healing, 209–215).
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visited the church, and he claimed to have been healed of hiv. At that time, Lara reluctantly disclosed her status in front of the congregation when the pas- tor invited people to come forward and receive prayers for healing of hiv. Two years later, the Ugandan pastor returned and urged Lara to be retested. By this time, many people had joined her in her prayers for healing. In 2005, Lara tested negative for hiv, and since then she has retested multiple times, each one con- firming that she no longer has hiv. Lara’s health improved, and she credits God and her prayers. She now runs her church’s support group for people with hiv, and she says that an additional eight people have gone from testing hiv positive to testing hiv negative.
The secret burden of a woman’s positive status can have a devastating effect on her health. Lara did not disclose her situation to anyone other than her pastor between 1994 and 2003. She says that the secret ate her alive, and she always feared that people were talking about her and that even the birds were laughing at her. Lara did not want to go forward to receive prayer for healing because it would mean disclosing her hiv status. That night in 2003, she was suspicious of the Ugandan preacher who gave his testimony of being healed of hiv. In her words:
The church was packed, but we were looking at him like, “This one, he’s just here to make money.” When he was preaching, though, the Holy Spirit kept on saying to me, “When he asks people to come forward for prayer, you should go.” And I thought, “Not in your wildest dream, Holy Spirit. I’ll do this alone with my God in bed at night, but I’m not going to stand up.”
Despite her apprehensions, Lara went forward to receive prayer. When she did, she said that a weight was lifted and that her life became easier and lighter.
Many women expressed their belief that private prayer may not be enough. Opening up about one’s hiv status would enable more people to pray, and the group’s prayers are considered more effective than the individual’s. These prayer groups provide a form of social support that can only come by disclosing one’s status to others. Violet, who also attended Victory Temple, disclosed her status to her son and to her prayer group. She guarded her secret from those she deemed untrustworthy, but she had gained immense support from those to whom she had disclosed. She told me that sometimes her prayer partner would call her just to encourage her and that together they thank God for the expectant healing.
These stories demonstrate a belief that honest and open disclosure may be considered prerequisite to healing, and disclosure can enhance women’s flourishing by giving them access to social support. Stigma remains a serious
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concern, and so disclosure is usually a carefully calculated risk. Nevertheless, with their emphasis on confession and confidentiality, prayer groups can create safe places to disclose. When disclosure is well received, the individual not only accesses more efficacious prayers but also accrues the related benefits of relational intimacy and stress relief.23
Another benefit of pentecostal healing theologies is an affirmation of bio- medicine that can encourage women to access medical care. Most of my par- ticipants saw no conflict between praying for healing and seeking medical attention. Indeed, many South African Pentecostals vocally respect the medical profession, especially insofar as the “proof” of healing is a negative hiv test that has been confirmed by medical professionals. One of my participants, Pastor Linda, believes that God gave wisdom to the people who discovered medica- tion, and thus medicine comes from God—not from the devil. For Pastor Linda, safetywasalsoaconcern.Shesaidthatpeopleshouldremainontheirantiretro- viral medication while they are praying for healing until their hiv test comes back negative because “the church must not be blamed.” This kind of practi- cality showed Pastor Linda’s awareness that people are not always healed and that problems can arise when pastors or evangelists wrongly claim that some- one has been healed.
Participants in a Bethel focus group espoused their support of the medi- cal profession by saying that churches could help people living with aids by encouraging them to take their medicines regularly and by building hospices. Similarly, a Dhumaylong focus group suggested that churches could help peo- ple with hiv by starting support groups and—combining physical care with evangelistic concerns—by opening hospices that could lead people to Christ. These women also said that they could show people love by bathing the sick, providing food and medication, sharing positive words, and regularly visiting hospices and hospitals. This range of suggestions shows the ways in which women see prayers for healing and medical practices to be working in tan- dem.
Lara’s pastor has recruited medical doctors, psychologists, and nutrition- ists to consult with the support group free of charge. As many as 250 people have attended the hiv support group meetings over the past several years; the
23 See Seth C. Kalichman et al., “Stress, Social Support, and hiv-Status Disclosure to Family
and Friends among hiv-Positive Men and Women,”JournalofBehavioralMedicine26, no. 4
(2003): 315–332; Kalichman et al. show that the social support disclosure can bring “is an
important aspect of psychological adjustment for many people living with hiv infection,”
as it can make stress more manageable and promote emotional wellbeing (315).
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average weekly attendance is twenty.24 The group members, most of whom are women, manifest varying symptoms because they are in various stages of the disease. The doctors give informal consultations and can recommend courses of treatment. For example, in South Africa not everyone who is hiv positive takes arvs; a person’s cd4 count has to decline to a certain limit.25 Some of the group members are already on arvs while others need to be, and the doctors are able to make recommendations based on what they see. Since arv treatment can be very stressful on the body, doctors can also offer sug- gestions for reducing side effects. Nutritionists provide information on how to boost one’s immune system with a proper diet, drinking enough water, and so forth. Weight gain is taken as an important marker of health: Lara spoke proudly of group members who had been very sick but were now nice and fat—fatter than she is, she said. Psychologists attend group meetings and provide free counseling. Lara’s pastor underscores the importance of the psy- chologists’ role; he says that, because of the stigma associated with aids, some people learn that they are hiv positive and die within months—not from the effects of the disease, but from depression. To counteract depres- sion and anxiety, the support group counsels hiv positive people that their diagnosis is “not the end of the road.” In this regard, the support group man- ual highlights an individual who has lived over twenty years while hiv posi- tive.
Prayers for healing definitely enhance women’s flourishing and freedom when the women experience miraculous healing or, at least, improved health. Yet, even if women do not test negative for hiv, the lived theologies of heal- ing can improve women’s health and well-being. My pentecostal participants espoused theologies of healing that promote social, medical, nutritional, and psychological support for individuals who disclose their hiv positive status.
24 The group meets on Saturday afternoons; some are part of the same church while others
come from the wider community, yet all group members maintain strict confidentiality.
The pastor says that by meeting at the church, support group members can simply say
that they are going to church without explaining their reasons.
25 cd4 cells or t-cells activate the body’s immune system. A low cd4 count renders an
hiv-positive person vulnerable to opportunistic infection.
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How Pentecostal Theologies of Healing Impede Women’s Flourishing
Although pentecostal healing theologies can offer women important support, the same theologies can create a burdensome sense of responsibility for any- one who is not healed. Many women believe that it is their own fault, not God’s, when their prayers do not result in healing. When I asked my partici- pants why God might heal some but not others, the majority explained that the individual probably just did not have enough faith. Similarly, Lara says that an individual’s heart must be ready before she attains the evidence of heal- ing.
The belief that humans exercise control over whether they are healed (for example, by their level of faith or readiness of heart) negatively affects a woman’s well-being. Self-blame can exacerbate the shame that already results from the stigma of hiv/aids. Such self-blame harms physical, spiritual, and mental health. For example, Penelope, who has been living with hiv since 1990, said that prayer does wonders and that she always advises people to keep praying. She qualified, though, that healing depends on one’s level of faith. By implication, then, Penelope herself does not have enough faith since she has not been healed. Penelope even expressed dismay that perhaps her prayers did not reach God.26 This sort of internalized blame not only diminishes the individual’s psychological wellbeing but also obscures the societal factors that affect hiv/aids infection, prevention, and treatment.
Evenmoreproblematicforwomen’sagencyistheextensionofbeliefinGod’s healingof hiv to God’spreventionof hiv. I found that many women saw prayer as the best (in some cases, the only) prevention strategy, particularly for the
26 Penelope’s self-blame runs counter to the tendency of prosperity teachers to “blame
everyone but oneself” when prayers go unanswered, as described by Charles Farah, “A
Critical Analysis: The ‘Roots and Fruits’ of Faith-Formula Theology,”Pneuma3, no. 1 (1981):
3–21, at 20. Prosperity preaching has become popular in South Africa. u.s. prosperity
teachers such as Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen have visited South Africa; their messages
are communicated through large-scale events and via television and radio. Prosperity
messages are also transmitted from within South Africa and from other parts of Africa. For
more information on the prosperity gospel in Africa see Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo, “Africa’s
Poverty and Its Neo-Pentecostal ‘Liberators’: An Ecotheological Assessment of Africa’s
Prosperity Gospellers,”Pneuma35, no. 3 (2013): 366–384; see Katherine Attanasi and Amos
Yong, eds. Pentecostalism and Prosperity: The Socio-Economics of the Global Charismatic
Movement (New York: Palgrave, 2012).
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faithful wives of unfaithful husbands. Felicia, a married forty-eight-year-old pastor, said she would recommend prayer in response to a suspected unfaithful husband:
My answer would be, “You know what, because we cannot judge [your husband]—we didn’t see him playing around, what we can do? We can pray and trust God because you cannot say to him, ‘Wear a condom,’ because he will ask you, ‘Why?’” I teach these women, “You must pray, and at least once in three to five years you must go and check your status.”
Several other women recommended prayer as a prevention strategy. For exam- ple, Masego, age twenty-one and single, stated that women should pray for their husbands to be faithful and that the women should pray for their own safety. She said, “If we trust the Lord and we are faithful to the Lord, he will protect [women with unfaithful husbands] from hiv.” Prayers for prevention constrain women’s freedom by excluding far more practical prevention strategies.
Prayers for prevention are directly connected to gender inequality. Despite the threat of hiv/aids infection, my participants said that a woman who sus- pects her husband of unfaithfulness cannot ask him to use a condom because he will refuse. Furthermore, she cannot deny her husband sex because of cul- tural and religious beliefs that her body belongs to her husband. Finally, she may not leave her husband, either because of her own economic insecurity or because of the church’s teachings that she must submit to her husband and that God hates divorce.27 In this all-too-common scenario, a woman’s vulnerabil- ity to hiv infection is directly connected to the gender inequality that renders her unable to negotiate for condom use, to deny her husband sex, or to leave her husband or file for divorce. In this disempowered context, a woman’s only option seems to be prayer.28
27 My participants’ beliefs about wifely submission correspond with their reading of the
Bible and with more patriarchal elements of culture. For a description of the former,
see also Sarojini Nadar, “‘The Bible Says!’ Feminism, Hermeneutics, and Neo-Pentecostal
Challenges,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 134 (July 2009): 131–146, especially
135. For a study of the perpetuation of and problems with Christian messages about
wifely submission in South Africa, see Sarojini Nadar and Cheryl Potgieter, “Living It Out:
Liberated through Submission?” jfsr26, no. 2 (2010): 141–151.
28 For the advocacy of condom use and the defense of biblically permissible divorce as means
of expanding pentecostal women’s hiv prevention strategies, see Katherine Attanasi,
“Biblical Ethics, hiv, and South African Pentecostal Women: Constructing an a-b-c-d
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healing, hiv/aids, women’s agency
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Conclusion
This article has shown how lived pentecostal theologies of healing both enhance and impede South African women’s flourishing, particularly as it per- tains to the hiv/aids crisis. Women benefit immensely from healing and improved health as a result of prayer. Women also benefit from medical, psy- chological, and social support, which churches provide and encourage. Esteem for the medical profession proves to be a significant finding, given the com- plicated relationship between faith and medicine throughout the history of Pentecostalism.
Pentecostal theologies of healing also have negative consequences in South Africa. Women suffer from a burdensome sense of responsibility in which they blame themselves when prayers for healing seem to go unanswered. Moreover, belief in an omnipotent and immanent God unfortunately constrains women’s choices when women see prayer as the most faithful or feasible strategy for hiv prevention. Prayers for prevention differ markedly from prayers for heal- ing. Even if an individual never tests negative for hiv, the individual accrues positive benefits as she accesses various support structures. Such benefits sim- ply do not accompany prayers for prevention.
By way of conclusion, I put my findings concerning South African pente- costal women in conversation with Lisa Stephenson’s historical and theological account of pentecostal women in the u.s.29 Stephenson shows that the beliefs and practices of Pentecostalism provide the foundation for women’s empower- ment and equality: “If women are equally created in the image of God, equally redeemed into the image of Christ, and equally transformed by the image of the Spirit, then there is no justification for continuing to prohibit women from certain activities within … churches.”30 Nevertheless, Stephenson shows that such ideals of equality do not match women’s realities because major u.s. pen-
Prevention Strategy,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 33, no. 1 (2013): 105–117. I
am arguing that women resort to what is familiar to them—prayer—when faced with
disempowering cultural and religious options. Beverley Haddad discusses how church
leaders in KwaZulu-Natal resort to familiar teachings on morality when faced with “a
complex mix of cultural censure and theological confusion” in her article “‘We Pray but We
Cannot Heal’: Theological Challenges Posed by the hiv/aids Crisis,” Journal of Theology
for Southern Africa125 (July 2006): 80–90.
29 Lisa P. Stephenson,Dismantling the Dualisms for American Pentecostal Women in Ministry:
A Feminist-Pneumatological Approach (Leiden: Brill, 2012), winner of the 2013 Pneuma
Book Award.
30 Ibid., 192.
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attanasi
tecostal denominations historically and presently limit women’s opportunities, despite these denominations’ affirmations of egalitarian principles.
Similarly, South African Pentecostalism constrains women’s choices. The most notable example is a healing theology whereby women resort to prayer as an hiv prevention strategy. These women rightly lay claim to Jesus’ promises of freedom (John 8:36) and flourishing (John 10:10). Yet, for these ideals to become reality in the here and now, Pentecostals must begin to acknowledge that their theologies are experienced by gendered bodies within patriarchal societal and ecclesial structures. In the end, the church’s success in addressing the global hiv/aids crisis may very well be proportionate to the church’s success in addressing gender inequality.
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