'You don't have to pray to somebody in special English': style, narration, and salvation in urban Kenya

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Periodical article

Title:	'You don't have to pray to somebody in special English': style, narration, and salvation in urban Kenya
Author:	Brummel, Elizabeth J.
Year:	2014
Periodical:	Journal of Religion in Africa (ISSN 0022-4200)
Volume:	44
Issue:	2
Pages:	251-281
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Christianity Pentecostalism religious conversion language usage
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340006
Abstract:	In this article the author argues that salvation narratives are part of a transnational speech genre that is both produced by and produces the imaginary of a global Christian ecumene. Each token of the genre, however, takes on local accents - especially in terms of the nature of sin and salvation - that illuminate anxieties particular to the socio-historical context in which they are told. The author analyzes one young Kenyan man's narrative to suggest that mobilizing the genre appropriately and effectively is a key part of the process of Christian salvation. The article shows how a close linguistic analysis of narrative with attention to its form as well as its content offers unique insight into the ways born-again Christians make themselves recognizable as such as well as the ways they manage the ever-present tensions between continuity and rupture in Christian spiritual rebirth. App., bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]