This paper is an effort at theorizing the neologism godsplaining. The term interrogates the attempt by religious clerics to earn cultural capital by explaining God’s actions and preferences. The paper does so by deconstructing the political rhetoric of two popular Ghanaian prophets, following the outcome of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections. Using deconstruction as an analytical tool, the study analyses a 2-hour interview the clerics granted an Accra-based local radio station on its morning show. The analysis showed that the religious leaders engaged in “godsplaining” by employing five basic rhetorical strategies—appeal to prophetic authority, kategoria versus apologia, erotema, biblical allusion, and anecdote in order to defend why their perceived political party either won or lost the 2020 general elections. The analysis revealed that the deliberative rhetoric of the prophets suggested a biased hermeneutic of God’s will in favor of their preferred political affinity. The study has implications for further research in media studies, religious communication, and the question of divinity in partisan politics.
AbhinkJ. (2014). Religion and politics in Africa: The future of the “secular”. African Spectrum, 3, 88–106.
2.
AdebanwiW. (2010). The clergy, culture, and political conflicts in Nigeria. African Studies Review, 53(3), 121–142.
3.
AnckarC. (2011). Religion and democracy: A worldwide comparison. Routledge.
4.
ArmstrongR. N.HallmarkJ. R.WilliamsonL. K. (2005). Televangelism as institutional apologia: The religious talk show as strategized text. Journal of Media and Religion, 4(2), 67–83.
5.
Asamoah-GyeduJ. K. (2003). “Blowing the cover”: Media projections of religious functionaries/specialists in an African context. Legon Journal of the Humanities, 14, 1–20.
6.
BennettC. G. (1973). Prophetic authority in the teachings of modern prophets. MA Thesis. Bringham Young University.
7.
BertensJ. W. (2001). Literary theory. Routledge.
8.
BridgesJ. (2017). Gendering metapragmatics in online discourse: “Mansplaining man gonna mansplain . . .”Discourse, Context & Media, 20, 94–102.
9.
BurgreesS. M.van Der MaasE. M. (2003). The new international dictionary of pentecostal and charismatic movement. Zondervan.
10.
CampbellH. A. (2017). Surveying theoretical approaches within digital religion studies. New Media & Society, 19(1), 15–2.
11.
CharmazK. (2004). Premises, principles, and practices in qualitative research: Revisiting the foundation. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 976–993.
12.
CowanD. E. (2012). The internet. In: StausbergM.EnglerS. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of research methods in the study of religion. Routledge.
13.
DawkinsR. (2006). The god delusion. Bantam Press.
14.
DerridaJ. (1970). Of grammatology. John Hopkins University Press.
15.
FalolaT. (1998). Violence in Nigeria: The crisis of religious politics and secular ideologies. University of Rochester Press.
16.
FamilusiO. O. (2018). Prophets as social and political activists: The Nigerian example. In DadaA. O.AyantayoJ. K.AkinbamijoO. B.AdekoyaJ. S.FamilusiO. O.OlaleyeS. K. (Eds.), Prophecy, politics, and power in ancient Israel and the Nigerian context. Zenith Books.
17.
FoxJ. (2015). Political secularism, religion, and the state: A time series analysis of worldwide data. Cambridge University Press.
18.
FoxJ. (2018). An introduction to religion and politics: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). Routledge.
GuneA.GuneK. (2008). A brief description of Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction and hermeneutics. Social Sciences, Western Languages, and Literatures, 3(2), 219–225.
21.
HendricksG. P. (2016). Deconstruction, the end of writing: Everything is a text, there is nothing outside context. Verbum et Ecclesia, 37(1), 1–9.
22.
HenneP. S. (2019). Government interference in religious institutions and terrorism. Religion, State & Society, 47(1), 67–86.
23.
HijarvardS. (2011). The mediatization of religion: Theorizing religion, media, and social change. Culture & Religion, 12(2), 119–135.
24.
HooverS. (2006). Religion in the media age. Routledge.
25.
HosseiniS. H. (2008). Religion and media, religious media, or media religion: Theoretical studies. Journal of Media & Religion, 7(1/2), 56–69.
26.
JohnsonC. R. (2020). Mansplaining and illocutionary force. Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, 6(4), 1–21.
27.
LongakerM. G.WalkerJ. (2011). Rhetorical analysis: A brief guide for writers. Longman.
28.
LutzkyU.LawsonR. (2019). Gender politics and discourses of #mansplaining, #manspreadingm and #manterruption on Twitter. Social Media + Society, 5, 1–12.
29.
MbitiJ. (1970). African religions and philosophies. Doubleday and Company.
30.
OnapajoH. (2012). Politics for God: Religion, politics, and conflict in democratic Nigeria. Journal of Pan African Studies, 4(9), 42–66.
PerraultH. G. (2015). Teaching religion and media: Syllabi and pedagogy. Journal of Media and Religion, 14(3), 128–144.
33.
PetersJ. D. (1999). Speaking into the air: A history of the idea of communication. University of Chicago Press.
34.
Quayesi-AmakyeJ. (2015). Prophetic practices in contemporary Pentecostalism in Ghana. Canadian Journal of Pentecost-Charismatic Christianity, 6, 43–69.
35.
RodriguezF.RhodesR. E.MillerK. F.ShahP. (2016). Examining the influence of anecdotal stories and the interplay of individual differences on reasoning. Thinking & Reasoning, 22(3), 274–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2016.1139506
36.
RollinsB. (2020). The ethics of persuasion: Derrida’s rhetorical legacies. The Ohio State University Press.
37.
RyanH. R. (1982). Kategoria and apologia: On their rhetorical criticism as a speech set. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 68, 254–261.
38.
SaldaňaJ. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
39.
Sarfo-KantankahK. S. (2019). Apologia, image repair, and rhetoric in the defense of electoral defeat. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 10(3), 1–10.
