The Early Missionary Groups and the Contest for Igboland: A Reappraisal of Their Evangelization Strategies

Abstract

The religious configuration of Nigeria has shown that Igboland has the highest concentration of the mainline churches, particularly Catholic and Anglican Churches. This has been attributed to the evangelization strategies, employed, largely, by early missionaries. Unfortunately, these strategies also engendered rivalry and competition among the two groups, robbing them of the real focus and commitment needed to penetrate the traditional religious beliefs and practices of the people. Consequently, routinization has become a common attitude within the Christian population, which calls for a new method of evangelization.

3 - The Return of the Gods? Trends and Implications of the Rising Popularity of Fetish Rituals and Occult Practices Among Nigerian Youth

“…By the second half of the twentieth century, magnificent church edifices, luxurious liturgical celebrations, and most importantly, teeming populations of Christians of various denominations were apparently some of the markers of its growing success. (Nwaka 2011(Nwaka , 2012Kalu 1993Kalu , 2007. The success of the evangelising mission was anchored on denigrating African traditional religious practices by pejoratively describing these as 'pagan' religion infested with fetish practices (Njoku 2007).…”