"Putting Old Wine in New Wine Skins" : The Place of African Indigenous Churches in the Nigerian Pentecostals

Abstract

The phenomenon of Pentecostalism has been exhaustively discussed as a contemporary and topical issue. Thus, Pentecostalization of African Christianity has become a new phenomenon that has engaged the attention of many scholars since the mid-1960s. African, perhaps, Nigerian Pentecostalism, has constituted the fastest growing Christianity in the world. A handful of scholars have attributed this growth to the fact that they are distinct from the influence of the African Charismatic movements. In addition, some opine that Nigerian Pentecostals have no resemblance with African Instituted Churches. Despite the fact that some claim independence from the Pentecostals of Kenneth Haggin, Seymour, Topeka and Osborne, others subscribe to the fact that the above-named televangelists influenced the popularity of African perhaps Nigerian Pentecostalism. Out of these several submissions, the emphasis has to be placed on historical fact. Pentecostalism as a religious movement that started in the...