Modern African Pentecostal discourse: a textual analysis of prayer texts of a Word of Life Church senior pastor

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Periodical article

Title:	Modern African Pentecostal discourse: a textual analysis of prayer texts of a Word of Life Church senior pastor
Author:	Manyawu, Andrew Tichaenzana
Year:	2008
Periodical:	Review of Southern African Studies (ISSN 1024-4190)
Volume:	12
Issue:	1-2
Period:	December
Pages:	1-29
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Lesotho Zimbabwe Southern Africa
Subjects:	Pentecostalism prayer religion Pentecostal churches Prayers Intertextuality
Abstract:	As the rampant forces of global capitalism turn the world into a global village where the socioeconomically weak are marginalized, southern Africa experiences a return to spiritualism as a strategy to ensure a sense of security and prosperity despite a gloomy material prognosis. Modern African Pentecostalism flourishes in Lesotho thanks to a discourse that seeks to portray the spirit world as real, tangible and controllable by the 'anointed' human being. This paper looks at the prayer text of a senior pastor and co-founder of the Word of Life Church, a Zimbabwean Pentecostal movement that is currently spreading its wings regionally, from a perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. The paper finds that the text depends heavily on contextualization through the use of indexical meanings to 'naturalize' modern African Pentecostal discourse. Bibliogr., ref., sum. [Journal abstract]