Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Pentecostal churches have increasingly filled the gaps in Western welfare regimes. However, due to the secular gaze still predominating welfare scholarship, the intricacies behind this phenomenon remain murky. In this paper, therefore, I shed light on the ways in which two pentecostal churches construct their solidarities in interaction with their local Flemish welfare regimes. I do so from a postsecular perspective which focuses on the interplay between secular and religious discourses, practices and ethics. Based on field work, document analysis and in-depth interviews, I propose to view these churches as ‘parallel moral communities of welfare’, i.e. welfare actors that construct the formal welfare system as their constitutive other without engaging in a direct relationship. Yet, while the first church does so by actively encouraging its members to make their own money rather than relying on welfare state facilities, the other treats successful welfare state interventions as divine miracles. This contrasting way of engaging with the welfare state, I argue, must be ascribed to their different application of the prosperity gospel.