Spirit and Power

Abstract

Contemporary Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity in Africa has adopted new and innovative symbols that fits its theology of prosperity, empowerment, and upward mobility. This article focuses on one of them: the eagle. The features and behavior patterns of the eagle help contemporary Pentecostals to use its symbolic features in articulating a pneumatology of upward mobility, elevation, success and prosperity. The pneumatology of the eagle is a global contemporary Pentecostal phenomenon. In this pneumatology, the eagle, with its powers of vision, longevity, strength, height and renewal, appears in contemporary Pentecostal prosperity discourses as a symbol of aspiration, which appeals very strongly to the sensibilities of upwardly mobile young people who tenaciously embrace the new charismatic fervour.