Money Dwells in the Spiritual Pocket! The Gospel of Prosperity and the Empowerment of Women through Talents/'Matarenda among ZAOGA FIF Adherents in Gweru, Zimbabwe1

Abstract

Some religious movements have instilled a creative and innovative spirit among their adherents. This spirit is coupled with hard work and the inculcation of skills towards making a better life for themselves and their families. Referring to the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa - Forward in Faith (ZAOGA FIF), this essay explores how this church organization has instilled hard work, frugality, and penultimate economic empowerment among its followers through Talents/Matarenda. The essay has employed the Empowerment Framework of Longwe and Clarke (1994) as an analytical tool to unpack the church' s approach towards the empowerment of women. It has established positive changes in people' s quality of life amidst conflicts and compromises between the maintenance of religious ethical standards and the primacy of the economic motives in the adherents' quest for material wealth.

Keywords

• Empowerment
• networks
• ethical standards
• gender
• thrift
• Third World mentality
• gospel of prosperity