Abstract
In this article, I analyze the theopolitics of the testimony in a Pentecostal seminary based in Ghana. My ethnographic focus is a testimony of the founder of Lighthouse Chapel International, which narrates how he received his gift to teach through a mediatic impartation (transmission of charisma). In his denomination’s seminary, such unusual epiphany becomes a true impartation method: “soaking in tapes”. How can a charismatic experience, usually deemed ineffable, acquire the replicability of methods and techniques? I show how the problem of authentication is tackled by this seminary’s pedagogy through two discursive operations: the metapragmatic framing of apprenticeship relations through biblical figuration and an emic notion of transmission that articulates mimesis, repetition, and charisma non-contradictorily. I conclude by addressing the power that flows to and through this charismatic leader, both in his testimony and the method modeled after it.
Keywords
testimony; anthropology of Christianity; Pentecostalism; Africa; theopolitics