Where Christianity is ancient. Pentecostalism, evil in the world and the break with the past in Ethiopia

Pentecostal and Protestant churches have had a dramatical spread in Ethiopia in the last decades, especially after the civil war and the establishment of religious freedom in the countries. During the emperor Haile Selassie time and, later, the communist dictatorship, both Pentecostal and Protestant fellows have been persecuted. Starting from this common destiny the two streams are very linked in the country. The paper will focus on the specificity of the Pentecostal movements. By highlighting the most relevant figures and discussing the history of its development, the author wants to understand how those churches situate themselves in a country where Christianity is very old, being introduced during the IV century A.D.. Christianity, then, it is not a legacy of colonialism, differently from other African countries. Which are the contents of the Pentecostal preaching in such a context? The paper try to answer to this question by exploring the development of the movement and the discourses and practices through which it tries to find a room in the religious field. The demonization of the past, characterized by the persecution, is one of the investigated field. On the other hand the paper examines the fight against the Coptic Orthodox Church which is the hegemonic religion in the country. The Pentecostal churches demonize it and its practices, i. e. the use of the holy water sources, as in the other African countries they do with the traditional religions.