One of the most productive lines of inquiry in the anthropology of Christianity has explored how Christian adherence structures time. The organizing idea here has been rupture, whether the break with the pagan past at conversion or the expected break of the apocalyptic future. In contrast to this “punctuated” view of time, this article examines a Christian temporality focused not on a past or future break, but rather on an expansive present. For Pentecostals on the Zambian Copperbelt, this expansive present is structured by the narrative of the past in the form of scripture, which is perpetually relived. The Pentecostal future is also brought near to the present by the expectations of the prosperity gospel. By expanding the present along these lines, believers reject the logic of submission that structures many forms of both Christian and capitalist time. An analysis of the expansive present therefore moves us beyond the language of rupture that has been central to the anthropology of Christianity. It also speaks to concerns beyond the study of religion by exploring the experience of—and critical engagement with—capitalist time.

中文翻译：

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膨胀的礼物

基督教人类学中最富有成效的研究方向之一是探索基督教信仰如何构建时间。这里的组织理念已经破裂，无论是在皈依时与异教过去的决裂，还是世界末日的预期决裂。与这种“间断”的时间观相反，这篇文章考察了基督徒的时间性，其重点不是过去或未来的中断，而是一个广阔的现在。对于赞比亚铜带上的五旬节派教徒来说，这个广阔的礼物是由过去以圣经形式的叙述构成的，并且永远被重温。五旬节的未来也因成功福音的期望而接近现在。通过沿着这些路线扩展现在，信徒拒绝顺服的逻辑，这种逻辑构成了基督教和资本主义时代的多种形式。因此，对广阔现在的分析使我们超越了基督教人类学核心的断裂语言。它还通过探索资本主义时代的经验和批判性参与来解决宗教研究之外的问题。