In the concluding chapter, Power Must Change Hands: COVID 19, Power, and the Imperative of Knowledge, I note that the COVID 19 pandemic broke while this book was being completed and, therefore, I offer my reflection on the pandemic and Pentecostal power. In my description of how the Pentecostal establishment responded to the pandemic, I argued that what that apocalyptic event revealed was that the forms of power which they have invested in and acquired over the years did not anticipate the world-changing event of COVID-19. As a result, foremost figures showed they had no immediate answer for the situation other than to resort to conspiracy theories and myths of their embattlement that did not quite stand up to the demands of the historical event.

The chapter analyzes how frequent- and infrequent-churchgoing youth understand their citizenship identities and obligations at the local and national levels. Both frequent and infrequent churchgoers highlight communal aspects of citizenship, but frequent churchgoers stress citizenship as faith-inspired actions such as prayer and reciprocal ties in church communities. Frequent churchgoers view citizenship as acts that build the nation, though this citizen goal often has a distinctly Christian tenor. Frequent churchgoers use more legalistic language than infrequent churchgoers and display more political efficacy. Afrobarometer findings confirm that more religious involvement relates to higher political activism, but our respondents illustrate that youth agents at times contest religious leaders’ political messaging and question those leaders’ integrity. Case studies from a renewalist church in Ghana and a mainline Protestant South African leadership program illustrate how youth adapt political messaging as they craft their own citizen identities.

In the concluding chapter, Power Must Change Hands: COVID 19, Power, and the Imperative of Knowledge, I note that the COVID 19 pandemic broke while this book was being completed and, therefore, I offer my reflection on the pandemic and Pentecostal power. In my description of how the Pentecostal establishment responded to the pandemic, I argued that what that apocalyptic event revealed was that the forms of power which they have invested in and acquired over the years did not anticipate the world-changing event of COVID-19. As a result, foremost figures showed they had no immediate answer for the situation other than to resort to conspiracy theories and myths of their embattlement that did not quite stand up to the demands of the historical event.

Religious life in late medieval Latin Christendom was intense. A turn toward pastoral theology and increasing lay literacy and activism led to criticism of and rising expectations for clergy (more preaching, better morals), multiplication of devotions (e.g., prayer books promising indulgences, elaborate church decoration, new saints’ shrines, and pilgrimages), and anxieties about means of salvation and good works (e.g., chantries and Mass foundations, practices of charity in face of the “undeserving poor”). Among the responses were reformulations of the understanding and practice of worship and the roles and characters of ministries.