This contribution explores the significance of religious practices that put emphasis on encouraging people to hold their position when others question the ideological or dogmatic elements of their faith. Applying the term ‘religious insistence’, it investigates these practices with a view to the ways in which Pentecostals take a position vis-à-vis the challenges they confront in the sociopolitical domain. Contributing to the study of religious activism, we show that practices of insistence are neither fully resistant nor fully acquiescent with regard to the existing situation. We argue that these practices of holding one’s ground, which we subsume under the term ‘insistence’, represent a specific modality of formulating one’s identity in regard to others that is neither about provoking structural change, as a resistance perspective would emphasise, nor about condoning a structural situation as is and remaining fully acquiescent with it. While in Pentecostal contexts insistence does not take up-front political protest as its main focus, it can still be interpreted as a form of religious activism since it often entails some form of critical response toward a given sociopolitical order or process. By drawing attention to how religious insistence manifests itself in and through Pentecostalism, this contribution proposes to enrich the study of religious activism in Africa and opens up a perspective that addresses assertiveness as a register of expression that differs from resistance and acquiescence.

中文翻译：

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五旬节派和坚持的艺术：来自博茨瓦纳的例子

这一贡献探讨了宗教习俗的重要性，这些宗教习俗强调鼓励人们在其他人质疑其信仰的意识形态或教条元素时坚持自己的立场。应用“宗教坚持”一词，它调查了这些实践，以了解五旬节派信徒在面对他们在社会政治领域面临的挑战时所采取的立场。通过对宗教激进主义的研究，我们表明坚持的做法既不完全抵制也不完全默许现有情况。我们认为，这些坚守阵地的做法，我们将其归入“坚持”一词，代表了一种特定的方式来表达一个人对他人的身份认同，而不是像抵抗观点所强调的那样引发结构性变化，也不会纵容现有的结构性情况并保持完全默许。虽然在五旬节的背景下，坚持并不以预先的政治抗议为主要焦点，但它仍然可以被解释为一种宗教激进主义形式，因为它通常需要对特定的社会政治秩序或过程做出某种形式的批判性回应。通过提请注意宗教坚持如何在五旬节派中和通过五旬节派表现出来，这一贡献提议丰富对非洲宗教激进主义的研究，并开辟了一个视角，将自信作为一种不同于抵抗和默许的表达方式。它仍然可以被解释为一种宗教激进主义形式，因为它通常需要对特定的社会政治秩序或过程进行某种形式的批判性回应。通过提请注意宗教坚持如何在五旬节派中和通过五旬节派表现出来，这一贡献提议丰富对非洲宗教激进主义的研究，并开辟了一个视角，将自信作为一种不同于抵抗和默许的表达方式。它仍然可以被解释为一种宗教激进主义形式，因为它通常需要对特定的社会政治秩序或过程进行某种形式的批判性回应。通过提请注意宗教坚持如何在五旬节派中和通过五旬节派表现出来，这一贡献提议丰富对非洲宗教激进主义的研究，并开辟了一个视角，将自信作为一种不同于抵抗和默许的表达方式。