The Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement and Civic Engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) is a movement within the Roman Catholic Church that has grown dramatically in many parts of the world over the past three decades, including Sub-Saharan Africa. Since it stresses divine intervention (e.g., miracles and healing), some observers suspect that the CCR deemphasizes the importance of human initiative and depresses civic engagement. In this article, we report the results of an original mass survey and in-depth interviews conducted in Nigeria and Kenya that suggest that the CCR does not necessarily depress civic engagement and that, depending on the types of individuals involved, the movement may encourage certain types of civic engagement. While we found little evidence that mere membership in the CCR was affecting civic engagement, we did find that the time commitment involved in being an active part of the CCR did negatively affect civic engagement, especially in Kenya. However, we also found evidence that involvement in the CCR was having a positive effect on civic engagement among women in Kenya. The results indicate that the CCR is not a religious movement that is inherently quietist, always and everywhere discouraging participation in public life, and that context matters.