Concretizing the Christian Nation

Abstract In October 2015 the Zambian president broke ground on a new National House of Prayer, building project meant to reaffirm country's status as Africa's only self-proclaimed “Christian nation.” Over next four years architects produced three separate sets plans for images which were circulated among Christians, primarily church leaders. Each set has provoked conversations about what Prayer should look like. This article shows how discussions building's aesthetic features connected theological-political possibilities Christian nationalism, crystalizing around two competing models go making Zambia (more) nation. By tracing tension between these through architectural and debates, this link imagination. It therefore builds anthropological analyses other parts world that have emphasized political power aesthetics more than representations already existing ideas—that is, an ideologically politically productive force in its own right.