Competing Temporalities in a Fijian Pentecostal Church

This chapter examines competing conceptions of history in an independent Fijian Pentecostal church, the Harvest Ministry. The chapter argue that different temporalities are invoked for different purposes, although a general theme they express is the need to submit to greater authority, whether that of God or pastors. First of all, Harvest Ministry narratives portray conversion as an act of radical discontinuity and individual agency, implying that God is a transcendent figure and individuals can shape their destiny by choosing to follow Him. Secondly, established church members learn to see God as immanent in the world, the “alpha and omega” whose plan for each individual was laid in place long ago, thus rendering individual agency illusory. A third and mediating form of historiopraxy prompts individuals to see their lives as replaying those of Old Testament figures such as Abraham, suggesting that the future was set in the past but that individuals can shape human society and history through replicating these paradigmatic acts in new contexts. Pastors manipulate these various conceptions of temporality to suggest that individual believers should subordinate themselves to church leaders to build the communal agency necessary for Fijians to prosper and take on strong roles in a world community.