Deeper Christian Life Ministry: a Case Study of the Charismatic Movements in Western Nigeria

Abstract

One of the most profound changes that have taken place in Nigerian Christianity, especially in Western Nigeria, since the Aladura Movements in the first part of the century, is the emergence of the Charismatic Movements in the 1970s. The Charismatic Movements took their origin from the entry of American and British pentecostalism into Nigeria's institutions of higher education. Although the pentecostal movement had been introduced into Nigeria in the 1920s and 1930s through The Apostolic Church, Faith Tabernacle and Assemblies of God, yet it did not have such a great impact until the seventies. This was due partly to the fact that higher education began in Nigeria in 1932, and it was only in the sixties that the number of students in the higher institutions rose beyond a thousand. Rapid developments in independent Nigeria also led to the establishment of four new universities in 1960 and 1962, in addition to the University of Ibadan which was established in 1948 as a college of the University of London.2 Secondly, many American pentecostal evangelists intensified their activities in Nigeria from the sixties, this time using literature, radio and television to reach an audience fluent in the English language. Therefore it was the entry of the pentecostal movement into the higher educational institutions in the early seventies, which drastically affected the existing evangelical Christianity, and resulted in the emergence of the Charismatic Movements. A rising tide of evangelistic activities characterized the Charismatic Movements in the 1970s. Doctrinal emphasis was inititially placed on baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and out of this eventually grew the whole Charismatic Movement which became thoroughly trans-denominational in