Abstract
Nigeria is simultaneously one of the most Pentecostal and one of the most politically dysfunctional nations on earth. This paper examines what this paradox means for holistic mission. Drawing on three decades of practitioner-scholar engagement with Nigerian Pentecostal institutions, it argues that Nigerian Pentecostalism has developed a political theology that is simultaneously anti-political and deeply political. Three mechanisms are identified: the prosperity-sovereignty nexus (the conflation of divine blessing with political authority), the propheticpatronage circuit (the exchange of spiritual legitimacy and material resources between pastors and politicians), and the eschatological bypass (the tendency to defer governance reform to divine intervention). The paper concludes that meaningful democratic reform requires a reformed political theology that takes seriously both Pentecostal spiritual convictions and institutional governance. The analysis carries implications for mission theology across the Majority World, where the relationship between church growth and societal transformation remains unresolved.
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