The West African Revival

In a remarkably timely work, Adam Mohr recasts the early twentieth-century history of African religious revivals with a compelling narration of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation. Global pandemics and religious fervor have regularly progressed hand-in-glove. In his masterly The West African Revival, Mohr transforms our understanding of a regional, transatlantic, and transnational phenomenon, exploring faith healing, disease, modernist reform, witchcraft, and counter-colonial socio-political upheaval. Scholars of religion, health, tradition, and colonialism will relish the author’s provocative and authoritative perspective, subtly shaped by the experience of COVID19.

~Benjamin N. Lawrance, Professor of African History, University of Arizona

Adam Mohr very brilliantly fills an existing gap between Pentecostalism in West Africa and the important healing movement called the Faith Tabernacle Church. This is no ordinary tome of the roots of African Pentecostalism, but a well-researched critical piece which, historically speaking, simply had to be written.

~J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Baëta-Grau Professor of Contemporary African Christianity & Pentecostal Theology, Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Ghana

West African Christianity today is powerful, public and, often, pentecostal. Mohr explains why in this fascinating account of a revival prompted by the flu pandemic of 1918–19. With verve and insight, he shows how transnational connections, economic strain, divine healing, and moral matters formed the Faith Tabernacle, the predecessor of many Pentecostal churches. His careful research reveals networks and connections that have previously been overlooked.

~Emma Wild-Wood, Professor of African Religions and World Christianity, University of Edinburgh