Abstract
In this article I propose a critique of the concept of mediation, which has dominated recent debates on religion and technology in anthropology and beyond. Inspired by the prayer techniques and technologies mobilized by a Pentecostal prophet based in Accra, Ghana, I highlight the atmospheric quality of pentecostal faith, fruit of a conception of divine agency simultaneously diffuse and intensive, contingent and visceral. I argue that Pentecostals’ ecological relation with divine presence conditions their engagement with technology, which operates less as a form of mediation between “here” and “beyond”, and more as a form of attunement to something that already constitutes them. I propose an alternative set of concepts able to unpack the various operations often homogenized by the concept of mediation, such as virtuality, affordances, and atmospheric attunements.
Keywords:
religion and technology; atmospheres; affordances; Pentecostalism; Ghana
Thumbnail
Thumbnail
