Paper long abstract:

The emergence of Pentecostal and neo-evangelical prayer networks in the last two decades can be understood as a new form of religious transnationalism. Prayer, as a highly intimate ritual form, spreads across many nations, connects individuals from all around the world and with different denominational backgrounds, and acts as a driving force in global Pentecostalism. Further, prayer chains also give rise for new 'sacred' landscapes which become negotiated and narrated in the religious imaginary. In my presentation I will examine certain transnational prayer networks and their impact on representations of the Self within those sacred landscapes. Prayer, I will show, transcends national boundaries and at the same time reinforces national and territorial consciousness. This way, the religious Self becomes negotiated between the local and the global, between 'sacred' and 'profane' landscapes, and between individual prayer and the religious community of a transnational movement.