Social Engagement of Pentecostal Churches: An International Comparative Survey

Abstract Pentecostal churches have long been interpreted by researchers as seeing themselves as politically and socially disengaged, even while their theologies are recognized to carry strong implications for sociopolitical engagement. This article contributes to a growing body of research contesting that thesis. The article highlights that the language used to categorize social engagement and social development can affect researchers’ abilities to recognize or fail to recognize Pentecostal social engagements. The article begins with a summary of past and current scholarly discussions regarding the relationship between religion and development in general and Pentecostalism and social service in particular. This is followed by a comparative survey of forms of social interventions of Pentecostal churches in international contexts. However, up to this point in the argument, it remains valid to wonder whether Pentecostal social service in society is found only in contexts where state and other civil society infrastructure services break down or whether forms of service are found in Pentecostal churches also in societies with strong civil and state diaconic institutions. In its third section, the article focuses on the particular engagement of the RCCG in Germany as a way of addressing this question.