Paper short abstract:

In this paper I describe the temporal politics of a Pentecostal movement in North Malaita, Solomon Islands which focuses on prophesy and theocracy-building. I show that the movement’s alternative temporality allows for a great degree of religious and political authority on the part of the prophet.

Paper long abstract:

The politics of contemporary Pentecostal movements are closely associated with shifting temporalities, and followers' radical 'break with the past' has often been observed as one of the key political characteristics of these spiritualities. In this paper I depart from this common analysis by describing the temporal politics of the All Peoples' Prayer Assembly (APPA), a popular Pentecostal movement focused on prophesy and theocracy-building in North Malaita, Solomon Islands. The political theology of APPA does not invoke a break with the past but rather positions Malaitans as a covenanted people within a providential historiography in which there is a direct continuity between 'pre-conversion' and contemporary religious practices. While remaining receptive to the revelations received by their leading prophet, followers depart from dominant temporalities of (under-)development through their ordained role of hastening the coming of the Kingdom of God, in particular through nation-state building at local and larger scales. Where scholars have shown that in many cases the Pentecostal urge toward theocratic sovereignty persistently undermines itself due to the particular temporal configurations which commonly accompany it (Marshall 2010), I argue that this is not the case for APPA's distinctive theology. While there is a strong sense of the imminent coming of the Messiah, the movement also has a clear orientation toward prophesy and the future. This allows for a great degree of religious and political authority on the part of the prophet, in contrast to Pentecostalism's usual heavy emphasis on the self's direct relationship with God.