ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the uncritical inculturation of traditional concepts of authority/power within neo-Pentecostalism is a critical factor in shaping local contextual forces such as social, relational, gender, sexuality, economic, political, and cultural. The need for decolonial kenotic theology of authority arises out of the understanding that neo-Pentecostalism has uncritically inculturated a patriarchal reading of the concepts of traditional authority into its religious system. In contemporary African neo-Pentecostalism, these African religious imaginations function in the interstices between continuity and discontinuity in terms of their notions of authority. The need for decolonial kenotic theology of authority arises out of the understanding that neo-Pentecostalism has uncritically inculturated a patriarchal reading of the concepts of traditional authority into its religious system. The mystical source of authority forms the foundation of religious imaginations for the majority of African people, an element which has found a safe modern haven within African neo-Pentecostalism.
