Technologization of discourse is generally conceptualized as a process of
influencing people’s way of thinking through the use of certain linguistic strategies.
In this process, power is exercised through the use of linguistic strategies that
shape the construction of identity as well as socio-religious vision. This study
analyzes the ways in which certain linguistic strategies and religious discourses
used in Facebook posts, reviews and comments on a religion-based Facebook page
create and shape the narratives of religious authority, religious identity and
religious community. Using the Facebook page of a popular prophetic Christian
church in Botswana, Gospel of God’s Grace (3G Ministries), as a case study, this
study examines the following questions: in what ways can an active religion-based
Facebook page reconfigure and provide a platform for religious practice? To what
extent does the use of various linguistic strategies inform and shape religious
discourses found in various Facebook postings and comments? And how does a
religious Facebook page provide a venue for the discursive interpretation of
religious authority, the negotiation of religious identity and the development of
socio-religious vision?