Abstract
In this chapter, Taru discusses ways in which Pentecostal-Charismatics in Zimbabwe creatively incorporating mobile apps into religious processes. Focusing on One God Ministry (OMG), he explores how mobile applications such as WhatsApp and OMG App facilitate the extension of OMG community into transnational communities. The study brings out opportunities mobile applications open for youthful religious entrepreneurs who assume some degree of authority that is otherwise absent in offline interactions and encounters. At the same time, the clergy expand surveillance, charisma and authority and pastoral gaze into online communities by reproducing existing power dynamic present in offline interactions. Taru concludes by noting that mobile applications extend rather than produce new form of religious identities, power dynamics and religious communities. Data presented in this chapter was gathered through an extended ethnographic study conducted between June 2016 and August 2017 in Harare.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Keith Hart for reading earlier versions of this essay. I greatly appreciate Keith’s detailed and insightful comments. This essay was made possible by the generous support of the Human Economy Research Programme and Andrew Mellon Foundation that availed funds for an extended fieldwork.
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Taru, J. (2019). Mobile Apps and Religious Processes Among Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians in Zimbabwe. In: Fewkes, J. (eds) Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26376-8_8
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