In his 2015 book Christianity, Development, and Modernity in Africa, Paul Gifford argues that Christianity in Africa is bifurcated into an ‘enchanted’ and a ‘disenchanted’ form. He presents the conundrum that the enchanted form is pervasive yet incompatible with modernity and consistently ignored by scholars. In this review article I draw on Gifford’s conundrum as a springboard to propose a new angle from which to analyse religion and politics in postcolonial Africa: one that moves beyond received dichotomies between tradition and modernity, public and private life, or this-worldly and otherworldly concerns. The work of Michael Schatzberg, Peter Geschiere, Ogbu Kalu, and Emmanuel Katongole moves in various ways past the oppositions that undermine Gifford’s work. In dialogue with these scholars, I articulate a plea to scholars of religion and politics in Africa to develop an appreciation for the powerful role of the religious imagination in African and global arenas of power.

在他的2015年著作《非洲的基督教，发展与现代》中保罗·吉福德（Paul Gifford）认为，非洲的基督教分为“迷惑”和“迷惑”两种形式。他提出了这样一个难题，即这种附魔形式无处不在，却与现代性格格不入，并被学者们一贯忽略。在这篇评论文章中，我以吉福德的难题为跳板，提出了一个新的角度来分析后殖民非洲的宗教和政治：超越了传统与现代，公共和私人生活之间，或超脱与超脱之间的二分法。关注。Michael Schatzberg，Peter Geschiere，Ogbu Kalu和Emmanuel Katongole的作品以各种方式超越了破坏Gifford作品的反对派。在与这些学者的对话中，