ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how African Pentecostals used prosperity practices to cultivate a sense of agency, autonomy, and progression amid profound socio-economic and legal uncertainties in Britain. Through trust-making with God, believers developed a sense of progression and control during periods of prolonged waiting, while also being inspired to take action at critical moments by, for example, hiring a lawyer, initiating a court case, or applying for a job. In contrast to the inner-focused self-work that characterised periods of waiting, Pentecostals framed these moments as opportunities to demonstrate their faith in God through outward action: they were, in the truest sense of the word, ‘leaps of faith’ that could involve great risk. It was in these ways that the prosperity gospel worked to create new political subjects who actively demanded and pursued formal rights, sometimes to great effect. However, the chapter also elaborates on a key tension in prosperity practice whereby believers held that the quality of their inner faith and moral progression could be measured by changes in their social and material worlds – a belief that ultimately could produce moral doubts as well as a sense of social shame.
