Problem of Presence

The Masowe apostolics of Zimbabwe refer to themselves as "the Christians who don't read the Bible." They claim they receive the Word of God "live and direct" from the Holy Spirit. In this ethnography, Matthew Engelke documents how the apostolics' rejection of scripture speaks to long-standing concerns within Christianity about mediation and authority. Situating the Masowe case within a broad comparative framework, Engelke shows how the apostolics' rejection of textual authority poses a problem of presence - which is to say, how the religious subject defines, and claims to construct, a relationship with the spiritual world through the semiotic potentials of language, actions, and objects.