The use of anointed products during Covid-19 lockdown: An African Pentecostal spirituality experience

Abstract

The use of anointed products such as anointing oil and anointing water within the broader Pentecostal movement in world Christianity has been documented in previous studies. Traditionally, the demand for these products is based on the quest to receive healing and deliverance from sicknesses, barrenness, witchcraft, and so forth. The products are also used to access job placement, promotion, a house, a car, and other material possessions. This paper worked within African Pentecostal spirituality of experience to explore the use of anointed products during Covid-19 lockdown. Regardless of many perceptions and misconceptions about the anointed products, they were used as a point of contact during the Covid-19 lockdown. The paper used Apostle Mohlala Ministries in Cape Town, South Africa as a case study to explore the use of these products during Covid-19 lockdown. The argument in this paper is that these products were used as a substitute for spiritual service during the Covid-19 lockdown. In other words, anointed products became a point of contact when members of these ministries could not meet physically during the Covid-19 lockdown. This changes how Pentecostal scholars study anointed products within the broader Pentecostal movement. Despite their challenges such as commercialization and other abuses, anointed products become a point of contact in Pentecostal spirituality of experience. For the believers that could not attend church during the Covid-19 lockdown, anointed products became a medium to connect spiritually.