The explosion of Christianity in twentieth-century Africa is a radical development that is transforming the world's largest religion. This calls for a reorientation of the hegemonic view that sees Christianity as a product of imperialist expansion and Africans as passive recipients of the ecclesiastical construct of the enlightened Western mind. Instead, the vitality of Christianity on the continent represents a demonstration model of African creativity with its peculiar character, shape, and form. This paper examines the principal contributing factors of the massive growth of the church on the continent and sees African creativity as a vigorous attempt to contextualize Christianity to local aspirations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AkinsanyaGbolahan Olukayode2000‘“You Shall Receive Power’: The Establishment of the Pentecostal Movement in the Nigerian Context.” Ph.D. dissertation, Drew University, Madison, NJ.
2.
ApterAndrew1999“IBB = 419: Nigerian Democracy and the Politics of Illusion.” In Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa. ComaroffJohn L.ComaroffJean, eds. Pp. 267–307. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3.
AyandeleE. A.1978“The Aladura among the Yoruba: A Challenge to the ‘Orthodox’ Churches.” In Christianity in West Africa: The Nigerian Story. KaluOgbu, ed. Pp. 384–390. Ibadan: Daystar Press.
4.
BrouwerSteveGiffordPaulRoseSusan D.1996Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism. New York: Routledge.
5.
FalolaToyin1998Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
6.
FalolaToyin1999The History of Nigeria. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
7.
GrenzStanley J.FrankeJohn R.2000Theology for the Community of God. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.
8.
HackettRosalind I. J.1998“Charismatic/Pentecostal Appropriation of Media Technologies in Nigeria and Ghana.”Journal of Religion in Africa28(3):258–277.
9.
IsaacsonAlan1990Deeper Life: The Extraordinary Growth of the Deeper Life Bible Church. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
10.
KaluOgbu1998“The Third Response: Pentecostalism and the Reconstruction of Christian Experience in Africa, 1970–1995.”Journal of African Christian Thought1(2):3–16.
11.
KaluOgbu2000Power, Poverty and Prayer: The Challenges of Poverty and Pluralism in African Christianity, 1960–1996. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
12.
KaluOgbu2002“Pentecostal and Charismatic Reshaping of the African Religious Landscape in the 1990s.” Paper presented at a Round Table Discussion, held at Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California, February 15, 2002, Los Angeles, CA.
13.
KumuyiWilliam F.1975Have Compassion on Them. Lagos, Nigeria: Zoe Publishing and Printing.
14.
KumuyiWilliam F.1983Holiness Made Easy. Lagos, Nigeria: Zoe Publishing and Printing.
15.
KumuyiWilliam F.1989Deeper Life (monthly magazine) October: 5–45.
16.
KumuyiWilliam F.1998“Deeper Christian Life Ministry.” In The New Apostolic Churches. WagnerC. Peter, ed. Pp. 243–255. Ventura, CA: Regal Books.
17.
KumuyiWilliam F. n.d. “The Good Old Days.”Lagos, Nigeria: Zoe Publishing and Printing.
18.
MarshallRuth1993‘“Power in the Name of Jesus’: Social Transformation and Pentecostalism in Western Nigeria ‘Revisited.’” In Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth-Century Africa. RangerTerenceVaughanOlufemi, eds. Pp. 213–246. London: The Macmillan Press Limited.
19.
MarshallRuth1995‘“God Is Not a Democrat’: Pentecostalism and Democratization in Nigeria.” In The Christian Churches and the Democratization of Africa. GiffordPaul, ed. Pp. 239–60. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
20.
Marshall-FrataniRuth1998“Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism.”Journal of Religion in Africa28(3):278–315.
21.
Marshall-FrataniRuth2001“Mediating the Global and the Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism.” In Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America. CortenAndréMarshall-FrataniRuth, eds. Pp. 80–105. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
22.
OjoMatthews1988“Deeper Christian Life Ministry: A Case Study of the Charismatic Movements in Western Nigeria.”Journal of Religion in Africa18(2):141–162.
23.
OjoMatthews1996“Charismatic Movements in Africa.” In Christianity in Africa in the 1990s. WallsA. F.FyfeChristopher, eds. Pp. 92–110. Edinburgh, Scotland: Center of African Studies, University of Edinburgh.
24.
OjoMatthews1998“The Church in the African State: The Charismatic/Pentecostal Experience in Nigeria.”Journal of African Christian Thought1(2):25–32.
25.
OkorochaCyril1987The Means of Religious Conversion in Africa: The Case of the Igbo of Nigeria. Aldershot: Gower.
26.
OlagunjuT.JinaduA.OyovbaireS.1993Transition to Democracy in Nigeria, 1985–1993. Ibadan, Nigeria: Safari and Spectrum.
27.
OmoyajowoJ. Akinyele1982Cherubim and Seraphim: The History of an African Independent Church. New York: NOK Publishers.
28.
OnonyemuLugard1993“Stop the Delphic Games! Another Demonic Invasion Looms on Nigeria.”True Light1(1):40–41.
29.
OsaghaeEghosa1998Crippled Giant: Nigeria Since Independence. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
30.
PeelJ. D. Y.1968Aladura: A Religious Movement Among the Yoruba. London: Oxford University Press.
31.
RoelofsGerard1994“Charismatic Christian Thought: Experience, Metonymy, and Routinization.” In Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture. PoeweKarla, ed. Pp. 217–233. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
32.
ShaullRichardCesarWaldo2000Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
33.
ShenkWilbert R.1996“Toward a Global Church History.”IBMR20(2):50–57.
34.
ShenkWilbert R.2001“Recasting Theology of Mission: Impulses from the Non-Western World.”IBMR25(3):98–107.
35.
SchultzeQuentin J.1991Televangelism and American Culture: The Business of Popular Religion. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
36.
TasieG. O. M.1982“The Prophetic Calling: Garrick Sokari Braide of Bakana.” In Varieties of Christian Experience in Nigeria. IsicheiElizabeth, ed. Pp. 99–115. London, Macmillan.
37.
TurnerHarold W.1967History of an Independent African Church: The Church of the Lord (Aladura). 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press.
38.
WallsAndrew F.2002The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.
