African Pentecostals in Catholic Europe

“Excellent and highly readable… The different sides have surprising commonalities, and it is in this area that the book makes its greatest contribution to the literature on migrant religion.”—Philip Jenkins, Books & Culture

“Butticci’s African Pentecostals in Catholic Europe: The Politics of Presence in the Twenty-First Century is a fascinating exploration of the at-times endearing and at others deeply troubling encounter of contemporary practitioners of divergent faiths, one hosting newcomer migrants and creating in that bond of hospitality a kind of bridge to European society.”—Donald Carter, EuropeNow

“In an era of intensified mobility, when the spiritual landscape in Europe seems beset by a friction of faiths, Butticci’s scintillating, innovative book reveals a less-noted dynamic: the expansion of contact zones, in which seemingly different denominations rub up against one another, to discover unexpected resonances—including the surprisingly similar ways in which Catholics and Pentecostals in Italy work to make real the presence of divine power in the lives of believers. The result is a study of unusual insight, humanity, and imagination.”—Jean Comaroff, Harvard University

“This is a marvelous ethnography of the contact zone in which African Pentecostals engage with Italian Catholics. Offering deep insight into both Pentecostal and Catholic aesthetic regimes, Annalisa Butticci magisterially unpacks their clashes and unexpected convergences with regard to relics, images, and religious sensations. The result is a thoroughly grounded, highly innovative theoretical intervention that spotlights the power of a political-aesthetic approach in capturing the evocation of ‘real presence’ via competing registers.”—Birgit Meyer, Utrecht University