Prayer 24/7: The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Prayer City and Urban Invigoration in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT The idea of a modern city is hardly construed from the prism of religion, even though the Tower of Babel has been discursively engaged as an agenda of building a megacity with an interplanetary goal. During the development and expansion of Christianity, cathedrals, with their elaborate architectural aesthetics and frequently as the only spectacular buildings in the provinces, became sites of ecclesiastical and political power. In Nigeria, although the mainline churches followed the cathedralization pattern of Western Christianity, the Pentecostal churches preferred the establishment or construction of prayer camps as the earliest mode of development and sacralization of space. However, there is a transition from prayer camps to prayer cities, with the latter conceived as a deliberate urbanization policy that embraces modern facilities. Using ethnographic and analytical methods, I study the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries’ Prayer City near Lagos, Nigeria, a “city” built on and sustained by prayer culture, and a “city” that invigorates urban life.