Violent Times Call for Violent Prayers

"Divine Violence" during the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Nigeria

Bibliographic Data

ID3339252
AuthorsBenson Ohihon Igboin (0000-0002-5895-0856, University of South Africa, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume15
Issue4
Pages471
Publication date2024-04-11
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel15040471
OpenAlexW4394735096
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

Interest in studying prayer has significantly increased because of the belief that it helps humanity to cope, particularly in times of crisis. Prayer is not just a communication with God, it is also an instrument of bond and embodied ritual among prayer litigants or people who belong to the same religious community. This article argues that divine violence, a sovereign act of God, was crucially needed by the litigants in order to guarantee human flourishing in the face of existential threat. The article studied how violent prayer-a genre of prayer that is targeted at the spirits underlying physical manifestation of suffering, pain, or crisis-was utilised by the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries (MFMM) in Nigeria to cope with the fear and uncertainties occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article is part of an ongoing ethnographic research on "The Politics and Poetics of Violent Prayer in the Nigerian Pentecostal Churches", which began in 2021. I utilised ethnographic engagement, particularly interviews and participant observation, to attempt to understand what these prayer litigants are doing when they pray violently

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Criminology · Geography · Outbreak · Pandemic · Violent crime · Medicine · Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · Internal Medicine · Virology

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