Moral Development in a Developing Economy in Moral Crisis : Evangelical Youth Culture in Contemporary South Africa
Moral Development in a Developing Economy in Moral Crisis : Evangelical Youth Culture in Contemporary South Africa

Summary/Abstract: Adopting ethnographic research into contemporary Evangelical youth culture in South Africa, this paper critically analyses approaches to the development of moral subjects in Evangelical youth ministry. After introducing the moral landscape of South Africa twenty years after the formal end of the racist apartheid system, the paper then introduces the notion of “moral capital”, making use of the work of Sharlene Swartz amongst impoverished youth in Cape Town. Arguing that the nature of contemporary South African society prevents too instrumental a view of the accumulation of moral capital amongst young people, the paper analyses three broad approaches to the development of moral subjects in Evangelical youth culture and ministry. Approaches focusing on piety seek to separate material poverty from spiritual practice; approaches focusing on prosperity seek miraculous gifts of wealth as rewards for personal piety; and approaches focusing on resilience seek to develop religious subjectivities capable of withstanding the inequities of contemporary South Africa without withdrawing from material reality.

• Details
• Contents