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Critical Interventions
Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture
Volume 2, 2008 - Issue 1-2: Visual Publics, Guest Editor: Peter Probst
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Articles

Roadside Pentecostalism

Religious Advertising in Nigeria and the Marketing of Charisma

Pages 125-141 | Published online: 10 Jan 2014

Notes

  • Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 4.
  • Chris Lehmann, “The Medium is the Messiah,” http://www.therevealer.org/archives/timeless_000039. php accessed 26 March 2008.
  • The image economy of Pentecostalism is here understood in line with Meyer's articulation as the total production, reproduction, dissemination, and consumption of images ranging from films to staged performances on television, pictures on posters, banners, and billboards as well as magazines and similar mass-produced visual representations. See Birgit Meyer, “Impossible Representations: Pentecostalism, Vision, and Video Technology in Ghana,” in Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere, eds. Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 294.
  • Martin Percy, “The Church in the Market Place: Advertising and Religion in a Secular Age,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 15, 1 (2000): 97.
  • Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995). George Berna, A Step-by-Step Guide to Church Marketing (Ventura: Regal Books, 1992).
  • See, for example, Dr. Francis Bola Akin John, “Why Many Churches' Growth Declines After 10 Years,” Sunday Sun (Lagos), 1 October 2006, 46.
  • Richard Bartholomew, “Publishing, Celebrity, and the Globalisation of Conservative Protestantism,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 21, 1 (2006): 1–13.
  • Hamish Pringle and Les Binet, “How Marketers Can Use Celebrities to Sell More Effectively,” Journal of Consumer Behaviour 4, 3 (2005): 201–214.
  • Meyer, “Impossible Representations,” 295.
  • See Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism, 5; and Asonzeh F.-K. Ukah, “The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Nigeria. Local Identities and Global Processes in African Pentecostalism,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Bayreuth, Germany, 2003).
  • Ifi Amadiume, Daughters of the Goddess, Daughters of Imperialism: African Women Struggle for Culture, Power and Democracy (London: Zed Books, 2000), 240–257.
  • Anthonia Maurice Essien, Religion and Reproductive Health in Nigeria (Lagos: Heritage Publications, 2005), 35.
  • Ukah, “The Redeemed Christian Church of God,” 120–122.
  • Living Faith Church Worldwide, Inc., The Commission: Administrative Handbook (March 2003), 21.
  • Stephen Ellis and Gerrie Ter Haar, Worlds of Power: Religious Thought and Political Practice in Africa (London: Hurst and Company, 2004), 137. The ascendance to the leadership of the Church of God Mission by Idahosa's wife caused a schism in the church. Because Bishop Margaret Idahosa cannot fit into the role of the exceptionally charismatic Archbishop Benson Idahosa, she is contemplating resigning. The Board of Trustees of the church recently decided to, “impose Rev. Feb Idahosa, the first son of the late Archbishop, on the ministry,” according to a media report. Some of the pastors of the church are expressing bitter resentment at the prospect; one was reported to have captured the prevailing sentiment thus: “How can we serve father, mother and they say we should serve son again? This is most unfair.” See P.M News (Lagos), http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html (accessed 31 May 2006).
  • Marianne Bertrand and Antoinette Schoar, “The Role of Family in Family Firms,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, 2 (2006): 73–96.
  • See “Nigeria: Want in the Midst of Plenty,” International Crisis Group, Africa Report No. 113, 19 July 2006.
  • Nigerian National Planning Commission, Meeting Everyone's Needs: National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (Abuja: NNPC, 2004), ix, xiii–xiv.
  • J. D. Y. Peel, Aladura: A Religious Movement among the Yoruba (London: International African Institute, 1968); R. C. Mitchell, “Religious Change and Modernization: The Aladura Churches among the Yoruba in Southwestern Nigeria,” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1970.); Lamin Sanneh, West African Christianity: The Religious Impact (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1983): 168–209; D. O. Ogungbile, “Meeting Point of Culture and Health: The Case of the Aladura Churches in Nigeria,” Nordic Journal of African Studies 6, 1 (1997): 98–111.
  • M. L. Bastian, “Vulture Men, Campus Cultists and Teenage Witches,” in Magical Interpretations, Material Realities, eds. Henrietta L. Moore and Todd Sanders (London: Routledge, 1998), 71–96.
  • David Oyedepo, Understanding Financial Prosperity (Lagos: Dominion Publishing, 1997), 285.
  • Ibid., 291.
  • E. A. Adeboye, Sixty-Five Keys to Prosperity and Wealth, (Lagos: Church Media Services Limited, 2003), 11.
  • E. M. Okwori, Godliness for Gain: An Evaluation of the Nigerian Version of the Prosperity Gospel (Jos: CAPRO Media Services, 1995); Rosalind I. J. Hackett, “The Prosperity Gospel in West Africa,” in Religion and the Transformation of Capitalism, ed. R. Roberts (London: Routledge, 1995), 199–214; Deji Ayegboyin, “A Rethinking of Prosperity Teaching in the New Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria,” Black Theology 4, 1 (2006): 70–86; Stephen Hunt, “Dramatising the ‘Health and Wealth Gospel’: Belief and Practice of a neo-Pentecostal ‘Faith’ Ministry,” Journal of Beliefs & Values 21, 1 (2000): 73–86.
  • E. A. Adeboye, Turning your Austerity to Prosperity (Lagos: CRM Press, 1989), 3.
  • Asonzeh F.-K. Ukah, “Pentecostalism, Religious Expansion and the City: Lesson from the Nigerian Bible Belt,” in Between Resistance and Expansion: Explorations of Local Vitality in Africa, ed. Peter Probst and Gerd Spittler (Münster, Rochester: Lit & Transaction Publishers, 2004), 437.
  • Deji Ayegboyin, “‘But Deliver Us from Evil…’ The Riposte of the MFM and its Implications for the ‘Reverse in Mission,’” Orita: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies 37, 1/2 (2007): 33–64.
  • Money is a central preaching theme in Nigerian Pentecostalism. On how these churches mobilize and account for money, see A. Ukah, “Piety and Profit: Accounting for Money in West African Pentecostalism, Part 1,” Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif Deel 48, 3 & 4 (2007): 621–632; “Piety and Profit: Accounting for Money in West African Pentecostalism, Part 2,” Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif Deel 48, 3 & 4 (2007): 633–648.
  • Allan Anderson, “Exorcism and Conversion to African Pentecostalism,” Exchange 35, 1 (2006): 116–133.
  • Helen Ukpabio, Stepping Out of Demonic Contamination, 3rd ed. (Calabar: Liberty Press, 1999); The Seat of Satan Exposed, 3rd ed. (Calabar: Liberty Press, 1999); Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft, 3rd ed., (Calabar: Liberty Press, 2003); Alive Again (Calabar: Liberty Press; 2003).
  • Nigeria was under military rule from 1966 to 1979, and again from 1983 to 1999.
  • Tom Samson, “Interview,” Sunday Sun (Lagos), 25 July 2004, 31.
  • Ayodeji Olukoju, “‘Never Expect Power Always;’ Electricity Consumers' Response to Monopoly, Corruption and Inefficient Services in Nigeria,” African Affairs 103(2004): 51–71.
  • E. A. Adeboye, “What Obasanjo Must do to Succeed,” Redemption Light 6, 5 (2001): 5. Also see Ukah, “The Redeemed Christian Church of God,” 200.
  • O. I. Aina, “Mobilizing Nigerian Women for National Development: The Role of the Female Elites,” African Economic History 21(1993): 1–20; P. E. Okeke-Ihejirika and S. Franceschet, “Democratization and State Feminism: Gender Politics in Africa and Latin America,” Development and Change 33, 3 (2002): 439–466; T. Makinde, “Problems of Policy Implementation in Developing Nations: The Nigerian Experience,” Journal of Social Sciences 11, 1 (2005): 63–69.
  • Tom Samson, “Interview,” The Week (Lagos), 5 July 2004, 12.
  • Meyer, “Impossible Representations.”
  • Asonzeh F.-K. Ukah, “The Local and the Global in the Media and Material Culture of Nigerian Pentecostalism,” in Entreprises Religieuses Transnationales en Afrique de l'Ouest, ed. André Mary, René Otayek, and Laurent Fourchard (Paris: Karthela, 2005), 285–313.
  • Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism, 5.
  • Marshall McLuhan, “The Mechanical Self,” in The Essential McLuhan, ed. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 21.

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