‘A Church in a Cinema Hall?’ Pentecostal Appropriation of Public Space in Nigeria

Abstract

Over the past two decades Nigeria has become a hotbed of Pentecostal activity. It is the view of this study that Pentecostal visibility in Nigeria has been enhanced not just by Pentecostals’ aggressive utilization of media technology for proselytization as claimed by previous scholars, but also by their appropriation of public spaces for worship. This study not only focuses on the church in the cinema hall, but also on churches in nightclubs, hotels, and other such places previously demonized as ‘abode[s] of sin’ by classical Pentecostals. This paper argues that users’ perception of public spaces having rigid meanings and unchanging usage was responsible for much of the tensions experienced. It would be more useful for academic analysts and various ‘publics’ to construe such spaces as dynamic sites, at once reflecting mutations in the public sphere, responsive to local and global socio-economic processes, and amenable to periodic reinventions and negotiations.

Exploring the use of the mass media by youths in Pentecostal churches in Nigeria

“…However, the visibility of the Fellowship declined when Charismatic ministries and churches proliferated from the mid-1990s which was led by the same class of people who attended the Fellowship and later became founders and leaders of the Charismatic ministries and churches. A few of the Christian graduates went on to establish various Pentecostal ministries and churches (Adeboye, 2012) such as Deeper Life Bible Church, Living Faith Church, Rhema Chapel International Ministries, Christ Life Church, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, to name only a few. This explains that the neo-Pentecostal movement is often seen, today, as a 'religion of the youth'.…”

O afrykańskiej historii, znaczeniu teorii oraz edukacji historycznej w Nigerii. Z Olufunke Adeboye rozmawia Ewa Domańska

“…Podam dwa przykłady. Przemyślenia José Casanovy zamieszczone w książce Public Religions in the Modern World 13 oraz idee Sethy M. Lowa pochodzące z Spatializing Culture 14 pomogły mi właściwie określić przestrzeń publiczną w badaniach opisanych w "Pentecostal Appropriation of Public Space in Nigeria" 15 . Innym przykładem mogą być moje rozważania nad reprezentacją kobiecego przywództwa wśród Jorubów, które doprowadziły do publikacji "Framing Female Leadership on Stage and Screen in Yorubaland: Efunsetan Aniwura Revisited" 16 .…”

Safeguarding the colonial era's ecclesiastical heritage: towards a sustainable protection-use model

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