Abstract
In this chapter, Adeboye interrogates the supposed growth and acceptability of the Pentecostal movement in Africa. While the chapter explores various indices and strategies of growth, it argues that perennial turbulent splintering—a major shortcoming of African Pentecostalism—has often been misinterpreted as numerical growth. Adeboye notes that while the question of legitimacy was a big issue during the colonial period, it has mostly been resolved in the postcolonial context, both within formal secular state structures and within Christian ecumenical bodies. She concludes by probing Pentecostal engagement within larger Christian spaces and noting the reluctance of some Pentecostals to engage in interfaith dialogue and global ecumenism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “‘Born of Water and the Spirit’: Pentecostal? Charismatic Christianity in Africa,” in Ogbu U. Kalu (ed.), African Christianity: An African Story (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007), 340.
- 2.
Graham Duncan and Ogbu U. Kalu, “Bakuzufu: Revival Movement and Indigenous Appropriation in African Christianity,” in Ogbu U. Kalu (ed.), African Christianity: An African Story (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2007), 248.
- 3.
Ogbu U. Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 24.
- 4.
Ogbu U. Kalu, Power, Poverty and Pluralism in African Christianity, 1960–1996 (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2006), 135.
- 5.
Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 67.
- 6.
Ogbu U. Kalu, “Preserving a Worldview: Pentecostalism in the African Maps of the Universe,” Pneuma: Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, 24:2 (Fall 2002), 110–137.
- 7.
Opoku Onyinah, “African Christianity in the Twenty-First Century,” Word and World, 27:3 (2007), 310.
- 8.
Austen Ukachi, The Best Is Yet To Come: Pentecostal and Charismatic Revivals in Nigeria, 1914–1990s (Lagos: Summit Press, 2013), 64–65.
- 9.
E. Kingsley Larbi, Pentecostalism: The Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity (Accra: Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies, 2001), 106; Matthews A. Ojo, The End-Time Army: Charismatic Movements in Modern Nigeria (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2006), 34–35.
- 10.
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “Born of Water and the Spirit,” 345.
- 11.
Larbi, Pentecostalism, 86–87.
- 12.
RCCG, Sunday School Manual (Lagos: Directorate of Christian Education, 2016), 1.
- 13.
Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 5.
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Ogbu U. Kalu, “Preserving a Worldview,” 127–128.
- 16.
Ibid., 128.
- 17.
Asonzeh F.K. Ukah, “Those who Trade with God Never Lose’: The Economics of Pentecostal Activism in Nigeria,” in Toyin Falola (ed.), Christianity and Social Change in Africa: Essays in Honour of J.D.Y Peel (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2005), 254–255.
- 18.
Paul Gifford, Christianity and Politics in Doe’s Liberia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 314–315.
- 19.
Emmanuel Kingsley Larbi, “The Nature of Continuity and Discontinuity of Ghanaian Pentecostal Concept of Salvation in African Cosmology,” Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies (AJPS), 5:1 (2002), 87–106.
- 20.
Onyinah, “African Christianity,” 308.
- 21.
Ogbu U. Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 170, 178.
- 22.
David Maxwell, “Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty? Pentecostalism, Prosperity and Modernity in Zimbabwe,” Journal of Religion in Africa, XXVIII:3 (1998), 354.
- 23.
Ibid., 350.
- 24.
Damaris Seleina Parsitau and Philomena Njeri Mwaura, “God in the City: Pentecostalism as an Urban Phenomenon in Kenya,” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 36:2 (October 2010), 95–112.
- 25.
Olufunke Adeboye, “Pentecostal Challenges in Africa and Latin America: A Comparative Focus on Nigeria and Brazil,” Afrika Zamani, 11 & 12 (2003/2004), 136–159.
- 26.
See Parsitau and Mwaura, “God in the City,” for a discussion of how the Deliverance Church of Kenya has been able to navigate this terrain.
- 27.
Ukachi, The Best is yet to Come, 141–158; Cephas N. Omenyo, Pentecost Outside Pentecostalism: A Study of the Development of Charismatic Renewal in the Mainline Church in Ghana (Zoetemeer: Boekencentrum, 2006).
- 28.
Kalu, “Preserving a Worldview,” 125.
- 29.
Kalu, African Pentecostalism, 98.
- 30.
Kalu, “Preserving a Worldview,” 125–126; See also R. van Djik, “Young Born Again Preachers in Post-Independence Malawi,” in Paul Gifford (ed.), New Dimensions in African Christianity (Nairobi: AACC, 1992), 66–92.
- 31.
Matthews A. Ojo, The End-Time Army: Charismatic Movements in Modern Nigeria (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2006), 7, 31.
- 32.
Ukachi, The Best is yet to Come, 40.
- 33.
The largest number reported in the Babalola revival in 1930 was 4000 people. See Moses O. Idowu, The Great Revival of 1930 (Lagos: Divine Artillery Publications, 2007).
- 34.
David O. Olayiwola, “Joseph Ayo Babalola 1904–1959,” in J.A. Omoyajowo (ed.), Makers of the Church of Nigeria (Lagos: CSS Books, 1995), 137–149.
- 35.
Ojo, The End-Time Army, 33.
- 36.
Ukachi, The Best is Yet to Come, 53.
- 37.
Ojo, The End-Time Army, 34.
- 38.
Ibid., 35.
- 39.
Paul Gifford, African Christianity: Its Public Role (London: Hurst & Company, 1998), 154–168.
- 40.
For more details, see the webpage of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council at www.gpccghana.org.
- 41.
A case in point is the continuous exclusion of the Synagogue Church of All Nations from its membership. This ostracism also affects any church (such as Christ Embassy) that associates with the Synagogue. See Sam Eyoboka and John Ighodaro, “Nigeria: Okotie, Oyakhilome Rift: PFN Disowns T.B. Joshua,” Vanguard, 15 November 2001.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adeboye, O. (2018). Explaining the Growth and Legitimation of the Pentecostal Movement in Africa. In: Afolayan, A., Yacob-Haliso, O., Falola, T. (eds) Pentecostalism and Politics in Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74911-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74911-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74910-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74911-2
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)