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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Books in heaven: dreams, texts and conspicuous circulation
Author:Hofmeyr, IsabelISNI
Year:2006
Periodical:Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa
Volume:18
Issue:2
Pages:136-149
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:religious literature
dreams
African Independent Churches
Protestant churches
Abstract:This paper examines the phenomenon of miraculous literacy in which the ability to read and write is conferred through divine revelation. In such revelations, it is clear that texts circulate between heaven and earth. The paper considers examples of miraculous literacy drawn both from African Christianity and the Protestant evangelical world more generally. It demonstrates that a magical idea of textuality in which religious texts are circulated unaided by human agency is common across many different spheres and forms a central strand in popular Christian thinking. The paper concludes by examining the broader significance of such circulation and probes the kind of imagined community that is being brought into being through such textual circuits. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]
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