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God's Delivery State

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Kauppinen, Anna-Riikka 

Abstract

jats:pMiddle-class Christians in Ghana’s capital Accra voice ambivalence about paying taxes: some claim that the government wastes their hard-earned money, while others consider taxes a Christian duty enshrined in the scripture. By contrast, most Christians in Accra esteem tithes to churches as contributions that yield infrastructural ‘development’ and divine favor. Drawing on the explicit comparisons that Ghanaian Christians make between the benefits of paying taxes vis-à-vis paying tithes, this article argues that taxes exist as part of a wider conceptual universe of monetary transfers. The efficacy of such transfers is evaluated in relation to what I call a ‘rightful return’. The unveiling of tithes as the counterpoint to taxes ultimately elicits an emergent Ghanaian conception of the public good between the state and God’s Kingdom.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

4404 Development Studies, 44 Human Society

Journal Title

Social Analysis

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0155-977X
1558-5727

Volume Title

64

Publisher

Berghahn Books
Sponsorship
Isaac Newton Trust (Minute 16.23(f)iii)
Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (unknown)
London School of Economics PhD Scholarship, Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change