Paper short abstract:

Adopting an existential anthropological lens, this paper explores how Kenyan Pentecostals attempt to live 'good' Christian lives in multi-religious, multi-ethnic East London by drawing inspiration in part from an unlikely source, their Muslim contemporaries.

Paper long abstract:

Many Kenyan Pentecostals live, work, and worship in East London, an area well-known for its tremendous racial, ethnic, and religious diversity and as a (contested) site of urban regeneration. As they attempt to 'live as Londoners do' without compromising their devotion to God, Muslims, or rather their imaginings of 'Muslims', shape how they navigate life in the city. 'Muslims' simultaneously - and for many of the same reasons - offer an example to emulate and pose a threat to the United Kingdom as a historically Christian nation. While dynamics between Christians and Muslims in pluralistic societies are often approached in terms of struggles for recognition, I approach them here in terms of a 'spiritual battle' because it is in these terms that Kenyan Pentecostals struggle to live lives as 'good' Christians. I begin by exploring their awareness of and interactions with Muslims, both in Kenya and London, as a way to understand what they believe needs to be done to re-claim London as a city of God. I then consider how the 'prosperity gospel' offers these born-again Christians a productive mode of being that allows them to navigate this multi-religious, multi-ethnic setting. In doing so, I am interested in how this seemingly unlikely source of inspiration for Kenyan Pentecostals might give us new purchase on what it means to arrive in the present. The paper thus suggests that existential anthropology has much to offer the study of religious lives in pluralistic societies.