The choice to submit

Freedom, gender, and the figure of God in Pentecostal Nigeria

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8133158
AutoresNaomi Richman (0000-0003-4463-0306, University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia)
Año2026
Volumen32
Número3
Páginas852-868
Fecha de publicación2026-03-12
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9655.70081
OpenAlexW7135046384
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas38

Why do some women choose to submit to their husbands in marriage? In anthropology, the paradox of ‘chosen submission’ has famously been explored by Saba Mahmood. Her work amongst Egyptian women donning the veil in the Islamic da'wa movement spotlights the notion of ‘piety’ to explore how devotion to God can act as a powerful motivator of human behaviour. This article pushes this line of argument further by seeking to make God a more central figure in anthropological analysis, following recent efforts in the field to create both ‘ethnographies of God’, as well as anthropologies that are ‘theologically engaged’. Drawing on ethnographic research amongst Nigerian Pentecostal women, this article illustrates the ways that marital submission is understood by these Christians as a spiritual state that connects them to God – a theological relation , in other words – as well as a social relation between them and their husbands. By analysing their theologies of freedom and submission, this article shows how theological thinking more generally can shape how power is conceived and wielded by religious subjects

Argument (complex analysis · Ethnography · Field (mathematics · Islam · Power (physics · Relation (database · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Islamic Studies and History · Religion, Society, and Development