Theology on the ground

This chapter provides an ethnographic exploration of theology on the ground, focusing on Pentecostal Christians on the Zambian Copperbelt. For Copperbelt Pentecostals, theology means drawing analogies between their experience and the stories recorded in the Bible. Through these analogies, believers insert themselves into the narrative of Scripture in an effort to change their personal circumstances. This analogical work has visible social effects because it positions people on different sides of the biblical narrative. While interpreting these effects simply in political terms would be easy, the chapter argues that Pentecostal theology is more than just a struggle for power because the theological efforts of its informants represent conduits for divine action. The ethnographic study of Pentecostal theology, therefore, addresses one of the most vexing problems in the anthropology of religion—namely, how to write God into our analysis.